Waterways provide multiple benefits to the environment and to people.

Healthy river ecosystems, including river channels and their riparian zones, floodplains and wetlands are vital for maintenance of both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. They provide essential resources for people such as water for amenity value, drinking, irrigation, stock, domestic and industrial use and food production and are also used for stormwater conveyance and wastewater disposal. Waterways that flow through urban areas are often one of the few remaining refuges for native plants and animals and they can provide corridors through the urban landscape for wildlife movement.

The urban waterways of Bathurst have been considerably altered since European settlement and continue to experience impacts from a range of urban and rural land uses. Bathurst Regional Council in conjunction with the Central West Catchment Management Authority (CWCMA) has identified the need to develop an Urban Waterways Management Plan (UWMP). A Draft Urban Waterways Management Plan has been prepared by CenWest Environmental Services. The Plan provides an assessment of the present condition of the six main urban tributaries of the Macquarie River: namely Raglan, Hawthornden, Jordan, Sawpit, Saltram and Queen Charlotte's Vale Creeks and outlines objectives, strategies and actions to better manage these natural assets and guide their future development, rehabilitation and/or restoration.

The Draft Urban Waterways Management Plan is currently on public exhibition. Any person may make a submission to Council in relation to the Plan. Submissions will be received up until 4.45 pm on Monday, 23 November 2009.

Please note that any submission that you make on the Plan may be included without alteration (including names and addresses) in reports that are available to the public and in Council business papers.