Catchment Detox is an online game challenging the player to manage a virtual catchment, from the hinterland to the coast. Not only do you have to keep the environment healthy, but keep the economy going as well. Where better to get some tips for the game than the people who perform a similar juggling act in real life?

Dean Power is project manager with the Burnett Catchment Care Association, which looks after 32,500 square kilometres from the Kalpowar State Forestry Area near Monto to the Bunya Mountains. Mr Power says the game, which relies on balancing the various needs of the economy and the environment, is quite a good parallel for his own group's work.

"The challenge of planning and implementing activities on a catchment scale is a very complex issue, and the game to a large degree picks that up. The wonderful thing about the game is that there's instant feedback about the impact of industries and the cost of removing or changing land uses. In reality it's not so simple.

"In catchment management we'd all love to have clear data about precisely what's happening in the catchment and the impact of land use and land use changes, but biophysical systems change slowly, and they're complex, and getting that clear picture is difficult.

"The Burnett Catchment Care Association prioritises activities which have both a productivity and a catchment benefit. They're the easiest ones to implement, so if we start with those, they begin to have a catchment benefit and it's great for the prosperity of the catchment as well.

"I ended up with a fair focus on forestry when I played the game, and that's probably about right for the Burnett. We have about 30 per cent of the state's Spotted Gum forests, which have excellent forestry potential, so I think optimising our forestry both in Catchment Detox and here in the Burnett catchment is a good option."

Dean's suggestions for doing well in the game, and in real-life catchment management as well, are to keep that need to balance industry and ecology in mind, and to move industries away from the edges of watercourses.

With that in mind, I start the game for the virtual catchment of Wide Bay Basin by replanting riparian vegetation along the watercourses in the hilly areas of the catchment. Unfortunately, I overspend and don't have enough money left to do anything about the primary industries in salinity-stricken areas further downstream.

As the first few years of my custodianship of the virtual catchment tick by, I continue with the riparian work and try with little success to clear up the salinity, but I'm also very conscious that the is very little money coming into the catchment. While Catchment Detox offers various options for establishing industries and agriculture, I don't have enough cash to invest in most of them. I settle for building a recreation area near the state forest in the highlands, and rows of tiny animated tents begin to dot the landscape.

About halfway into the game, the environment has been flourishing. But now the water levels are dropping and, while there is plenty of money coming in, the catchment is no longer producing enough food for the growing population. I don't know whether I can afford to invest in environmental work, in the hope that I can increase the production of my existing farms in the future, or whether to knock down some of the remnant vegetation and expand the area under farming and hopefully see returns sooner.

Lynton Hayman from the Baffle Catchment Community Resource Panel, warns me against the latter choice.

"The first concern should always be the environment, and then we develop from there," Mr Hayman advises. "Every choice has its pitfalls and advantages."

The Australian Natural Resource Atlas identifies Baffle Creek as one of the few watercourses in Queensland to not host a major dam or other water impoundment, and describes it as "pristine". However, Mr Hayman says it's unrealistic to expect the entire Baffle to be, and remain, untouched.

"There are areas that are pristine, and need to be preserved, but the Baffle's an agricultural area and there are areas where other stakeholders like dairy farmers and horticulturists already had a toe hold, and they should be protected too. It's a worthwhile goal, to have the environment first and to maintain it at all costs, but then we need to look at the other aspects of the community, and the community's needs."

I take Lynton's advice, and by the 49th virtual year I have turned most of the riparian areas and a large chunk of the hilly areas at the top of the catchment into a National Park. The midsection of the catchment still has a lot of agriculture, but the biodynamic beef and vegetables are very different from the wool and cotton that was growing at the start of the game. I have nothing against wool or cotton, but I managed to fumble my water supplies badly in the middle of the game and wipe out both industries. I'm very thankful it's only a handful of pixels that died as I attempted to keep the Wide Bay Basin afloat, and it's not me responsible for the fate of our real catchments.