Shellfish reefs in Moreton Bay play an essential role in maintaining coastal ecosystem health and hold cultural significance in Australia. For thousands of years, Traditional Owners have sustainably harvested shellfish, leaving behind oyster middens that still shape the coastal landscape. European colonists later exploited these oyster reefs for lime production, leading to overharvesting and ecosystem collapse. Today, only 1-4% of Australia’s original shellfish reefs remain, victims of dredging, disease, sedimentation, and degraded water quality.

This new Queensland study published in Ecological Engineering is already transforming sand mine rehabilitation practices across South East Queensland. Led by Christopher Johnson (Griffith University PhD candidate and Senior Environmental Officer at Southern Pacific Sands) with some helpful guidance from Healthy Land & Water’s Portfolio Manager Mark Waud. The research showed that direct seeding can outperform traditional tubestock planting in both cost-effectiveness and ecological recovery when proper site conditions are met.

This innovative Queensland case study provides mining operators with a proven alternative that delivers superior environmental outcomes while significantly reducing rehabilitation costs, a win-win approach that could reshape restoration strategies across the region.

Read more about the encouraging results.

Last month, the River Basin Management Society Flood Community of Practice group and the Healthy Land & Water team visited multiple sites around Ipswich and Tarome for a flood resilience field day. The visit explored revegetation successes, community engagement challenges, and hydrology considerations across diverse project sites ranging from early-stage plans to years-old restoration projects, including both council-led public land initiatives and landholder-driven private efforts.

By shifting focus from who led each project to how the measures shaped the landscape, the day highlighted common issues for discussion and the broader ecological impacts of collaborative stewardship.

Read on for some of the key takeaways from the field day.

At this year’s International Congress of Conservation Biology (ICCB) held in Brisbane, Healthy Land & Water’s Dr Diana Virkki, co-presented alongside Githabul (Waringh Waringh) People, Melissa Chalmers and Nathan Charles to share insights from their collaborative fire management project.

Together, they presented on their project, Promoting culturally and ecologically significant species through fire management on Githabul Country. This vital work helped inform a broader project on a First Nations-led landscape-scale fire management strategy – a framework originally designed by the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation to protect both cultural heritage and ecological values.

As bushfire season approaches, we’re rolling out a series of free property mapping workshops across regional Queensland this September, offering vital support to primary producers and rural landholders in preparing for fire threats.

Delivered in collaboration with the Department of Primary Industries and Healthy Land & Water’s Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium, the workshops will deliver hands-on fire management planning tailored to individual properties.