State of the Environment (SoE) Reporting is a tool for environmental management, education and accountability. All local Councils in New South Wales are required, by the Local Government Act 1993, to produce a SoE Report each year. An SoE Report provides a summary of the attributes of the local environment and the human impacts on that environment.
Bourke Shire Council has prepared an annual SoE Report for each financial year (1st July to 30th June), since July 2000.
Bourke’s SoE Reports begin with an Introduction which discusses Council’s commitment to environmental management and ecologically sustainable development within Bourke. Subsequent chapters cover specific environmental sectors under the main headings of Land, Air, Water, Biodiversity, Waste, Noise, Aboriginal Heritage, Non-Aboriginal Heritage, Environmental Management Plans, Environmental Impact of Council Activities and Special Projects. The final chapter in the Report, Towards Sustainability reports on Council’s progress towards ecologically sustainable development.
Each chapter of Bourke’s SoE Report provides a brief description of the environmental sector, identifies new environmental impacts since the previous reporting period, updates trends in environmental indicators and outlines Council’s responses to environmental issues. Key environmental indicators are used to measure and determine environmental performance.
There are two different types of SoE Reports, Comprehensive Reports (written every full Council election year) and Supplementary Reports (written during every non-election year). These supplementary SoE Reports should be read in conjunction with the comprehensive SoE Report 2000 in order to gain a full picture of the condition of the environment of Bourke in its local and regional context.
The SoE Report is not subject to copyright provisions. Schools, other educational organisations and community environment groups are encouraged to use the information provided in the Report for environmental studies and general information.
The current SOE can be downloaded in .pdf format below:
| State of the Environment Snapshot Bourke 2016-2021 | [3.8Mb] |