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Annual mean precipitation is moderate.
Areas receiving high rainfall are located along the coast. Rainfall erosivity decreases with increasing distance from the coast.
Seasonality in temperature is pronounced in the south of the province, and not pronounced in coastal areas.
Cold to moderate annual mean temperatures.
Most rainfall in the province is lost as evaporation.
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The geology of the province is quite diverse, volcanic and sandstone sediments occur frequently. In general the soils of the province have a low fertility.
The Central FBP has, on average, a low relief ratio, with a mean for the province of 0.02. Areas with a high relief ratio are present throughout the province and dominate in coastal regions.
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On average approximately 9% of flow is base flow and the other 91% is related directly to flood flow from rainfall events.
Modelled pre-development data from 52 gauges within the Central FBP were used for these analyses. Key features of typical hydrographs over multiple temporal scales were used to characterise the following aspects.
Magnitude of spates averaged 0.4 to 0.6 Ml km2 day-1, but much larger and smaller average values occur within the province at particular sites.
Flow can generally be considered to be intermittent in the province And no flow spells are an important feature of the hydrology.
For both the mean rate and greatest rate variables, the rate of rise is approximately double the rate of fall.
The wet season is January to April and the dry season May to December.
Seasonal patterns are relatively consistent and predictable: wet and dry periods follow long term trends.
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Turbidity within the province is generally low (mean 12, median 4).
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Bank slope tends to be variable, mostly ranging from flat to steep. Bank shape is dominated by concave and convex classes, though the stepped class also occurs a relatively high proportion of the time.
The riparian zone is primarily dominated by grasses and medium/small trees. Tree ferns and mosses are typically absent. Riparian zone is generally wide with sparse vegetation cover. Riparian shading is generally not significant as channels are wide.
The number of substrate classes recorded from sites in the Central province is high with respect to most other provinces in Queensland. Edge habitats are dominated by silt/clay and sand; pool beds are dominated by sand but in both habitats hard substrates are also typically present. Riffles are dominated by cobble.
Large Woody Debris (LWD) and snags are conspicuous components of many rivers in the province, with both average density and cover approximately twice that recorded in the Wet Tropics and Murray-Darling provinces.
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— Department of Environment and Resource Management
