Southland region

There are several small to medium sized streams that contribute flow into the Mataura River in the Mid Mataura surface water zone. The Nokomai River flows into the Mataura as it flows through the gorge downstream of Parawa. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, large scale gold mining occurred in the Nokomai catchment. Several streams, the Nokomai in particular, were intercepted by water races that were used to divert water to the goldfield further down the catchment. The Waimea Stream contributes flow to the Mataura River near Mandeville. The Waimea has had significant amounts of straightening to improve drainage of the system and this has resulted in many kilometres of river length being lost. A number of significant spring-fed systems appear in this zone in the Riversdale-Mandeville areas.The largest and best known of these springs is the Meadow Burn. The well oxygenated water, low water temperatures and lack of flooding contribute to the Meadow Burn spring being an important brown trout spawning tributary. Within the Mid Mataura surface water zone, Environment Southland has several permanent water level and automatic rainfall recording sites. The Mid Mataura surface water zone has high levels of surface water allocation occurring from it. Much of the allocated surface water is for municipal and industrial purposes. Large areas of land are now being irrigated in the Riversdale area and many of these groundwater takes are resulting in stream depletion effects of surface waterways. The Mataura and Waikaia Rivers are protected by the Mataura River Conservation Order which acts to limit the amount of water able to be extracted and protect their outstanding fisheries.