Regional profile

The North West Local Land Services region extends from Moree Plains Shire Council in the north to Liverpool Plains Shire Council in the south, Walgett Shire Council in the west and Gwydir Shire Council in the east.

It is bounded by the Great Dividing Range in the east, the Liverpool Ranges and the Warrumbungle Ranges in the south and the Nandewar Ranges in the north. Major tributaries are the Namoi, Peel, Cockburn, Manilla and McDonald rivers in the Namoi Catchment and the Macintyre, Gwydir, Severn and Barwon rivers in the Gwydir Catchment.

The North West Local Land Services region is made up of the council areas of Gunnedah, Gwydir, Liverpool Plains, Moree Plains, Narrabri, Tamworth and Walgett. The region has an area of approximately 82,000 km², a distance of over 440 kilometres.

Population

It is home to around 113,000 people who live mainly along the rivers and their tributaries with major regional centres of Moree, Narrabri, Gunnedah and Tamworth. Around 7,500 people are employed directly in agricultural industries.

Cultural heritage

The Kamilaroi people inhabited the region prior to colonisation and today, there are 14 local land councils representing some 13,000 people living in the area.

Industry

The North West region is a productive agricultural area with summer dominant rainfall and a climate allowing for crop and pasture growth across most of the year. There are significant groundwater resources, together with surface water allocations, to enable the irrigation industries to contribute approximately 48% of the gross value of agricultural production to the region’s economy.

Landuse

The construction of Keepit Dam in the 1960s, enable areas of land suitable for irrigation to be developed and used for intensive cropping.

Intensive cropping and irrigation supported the growth of a range of industries associated with more intensive land use, of farm input services and the transporting, processing and marketing of farm products.