The Warrah Creek catchment area consists of about 1,500 square kilometres within the Upper Mooki River catchment. The study area comprises the designated floodplain areas of less than 2% slope, totalling approximately 570 square kilometres. This includes land along the major water courses within the catchment including Yarramanbah, Pump Station, McDonalds, Millers, Big Jacks, Warrah and Borambil Creeks.

The State Government's Flood Prone Land Policy provides for the development of sustainable strategies for managing the occupation and use of floodplains from a risk management hierarchy perspective. The policy has the primary objective "to reduce the impact of flooding and flood liability on individual owners and occupiers of flood prone property and to reduce private and public losses resulting from floods, utilising ecologically positive methods wherever possible." NSW Government (2001).