What is a wild river declaration?
A wild river declaration is a statutory document under the Wild Rivers Act, which aims to provide a high level of protection from new development activities that have the potential to degrade the wild river’s natural values. A declaration sets out: • the extent of the wild river area and its various management areas • any caps on resources that can be taken in the wild river area (e.g. water) • any rules or limits that must be complied with when undertaking new development activities (such as quarrying, agriculture and mining) in the wild river area • any development assessment codes that must be applied. A wild river is a stream that has all, or almost all, of its natural values intact. This means the riverine processes of the stream have not been significantly altered from their natural state. Specified special features (on- or off-stream elements of the river network that play a significant role in maintaining the natural values of the system) may also be identified. A wild river de
