Yapunyah waterhole

Yapunyah Waterhole
The waterhole in 2011
Location	South West Queensland
Coordinates	25°29′08″S 144°18′43″E / 25.48556°S 144.31194°E / -25.48556; 144.31194Coordinates: 25°29′08″S 144°18′43″E / 25.48556°S 144.31194°E / -25.48556; 144.31194
Lake type	Permanent waterhole
Primary inflows	Nutting Creek
Catchment area	Barcoo River
Basin countries	Lake Eyre Basin, Australia
Max. length	2 km (1.2 mi)
Surface area	22 ha (54 acres)

Yapunyah Waterhole lies in the Mulga Lands bioregion of western Queensland. The waterhole is about two kilometres long and covers approximately 22 hectares when full. It is defined as a permanent waterhole in a region where permanent waterholes are extremely rare and therefore provide important refuges for aquatic plants and animals. These rare waterholes were also vital for Aboriginal people and provided both spiritual and physical nourishment.

The waterhole is on a cattle-grazing property where efforts are being made to preserve the biodiversity and associated cultural heritage. The property owners are working with the local natural resource management group, Desert Channels Queensland.

The Yapunyah Waterhole is a permanent waterhole in the Cooper Creek catchment and the Lake Eyre Basin. It lies in the Grey Range between Adavale and Yaraka in South West Queensland. The waterhole is fed by Nutting Creek, which starts at an elevation of 347 metres and drops around 85.5  metres over its 72 kilometre length before merging with Powell Creek. Powell Creek in turn flows through Hell Hole Gorge National Park to the south-west and eventually into the Barcoo River. The waterhole is surrounded by mulga Acacia aneura woodland. Rainfall averages 390 millimetres per year and is exceeded by evaporation of three to four metres per year.

Permanent waterholes are extremely rare in the arid and semi-arid landscapes of the Lake Eyre Basin. These rare, often isolated waterholes are of vital importance as biological refugia and underpin the health and vitality of the aquatic animals. Permanent waterholes have been defined as those that have not gone dry since European settlement and are generally about four metres deep when they cease to flow. They mostly occur on main rivers and creeks where they receive regular inundation. Rivers in the Lake Eyre Basin exist mostly as a series of ephemeral, semi-permanent and permanent waterholes and flow only seasonally in response to summer monsoonal rainfall in the upper catchments.