Covering more than one-tenth of Queensland's land area and straddling the Tropic of Capricorn, the Fitzroy region is defined by the Fitzroy River Basin, the adjacent coastal catchments, the Calliope and Boyne catchments and the Upper Belyando catchment to the west. The region experiences highly variable rainfall, high evaporation rates and prolonged dry periods followed by floods.
Grazing is the predominant land use, covering about 119,320 square kilometres. There are also significant areas of cultivation (7065 square kilometres) including 240 square kilometres of irrigated land and has a population of approximately 185 000.
The Fitzroy Basin grows an average of 20 700 hectares of cotton annually contributing 174 500 bales to the Australian cotton industry.
