Laidley Creek Restoration Master Plan
Overarching multi-year collaborative restoration plan to make Laidley Creek more resilient to flooding, protecting farming, assets, and waterway health.
Restoring and reinforcing riverbanks to decrease erosion and sediment impacts on water quality, protect high-value agricultural land, and improve food security.The Laidley Creek Restoration Plan provides a blueprint for long-term, catchment-scale restoration efforts in Laidley Creek, unlocking more coordinated investment from multiple collaborators towards a common restoration goal.
The masterplan used modelling and field investigation techniques to determine the key reasons for the widespread instability and erosion along Laidley Creek. It provided a geomorphic assessment of 16km of Laidley Creek, and detailed designs for stabilisation works in the first 5km.
The first masterplan for Laidley Creek was produced following the devastating 2013 floods in the valley. The masterplan was produced by Alluvium Consulting with support from Healthy Land & Water and funding partners.
Since then, stabilisation works throughout the first 5km have been completed through 8 projects with multiple funding partners, including the Port of Brisbane, Urban Utilities, and the Queensland Government. Healthy Land & Water has coordinated and delivered the on-ground works for each of these projects. The masterplan has allowed multiple projects and partners to contribute to consistent and coordinated restoration efforts over 10 years.
In 2023, the masterplan had been updated to provide more detailed assessments and designs for the next 10km of Laidley Creek, providing the same blueprint for coordinated restoration efforts over the next 10 years. New Lidar information and an updated field survey of 10km of creek bed were used to assess changes since the original plan, including landscape changes due to 2019 bushfires and 2022 flooding. Alluvium Consulting again provided the geomorphic assessment, masterplan development, and detailed design for restoration works.
The first projects delivered under the new masterplan will be funded by the Port of Brisbane and the Disaster Resilience Funding Arrangement and delivered by Healthy Land & Water in 2024.
The project focuses on:
- Protecting high-value agricultural land from erosion threats.
- Retaining sediment in upper catchments to prevent sediment pollution in Moreton Bay.
- Restoring Laidley Creek through innovative mixes of stone works and replanting.
- Decreasing topsoil loss in upper catchments from fast-flowing water.
- Increasing sediment depositing in upper catchments to prevent sediment pollution in Moreton Bay.
What we are doing
Decreasing sediment load in the waters of Laidley Creek through riverbank stabilisation.
This project aims at offsetting the nutrients discharged in the waterways and building resilience.
It involves:
- Decreasing the sediment load in the waters of Laidley Creek through riverbank stabilization.
- Improving the water quality in Laidley Creek and ultimately Brisbane River and Moreton Bay to decrease demand pressures for potable water.
Measuring success
Maintain and monitor restoration sites, especially after extreme weather events, through:
- Targeted replanting.
- Drone monitoring onsite.
- Reassessment of plant species suitability to each location.
Improve collaboration on restoration works between private and government partners:
- Compiling works that can serve as packages that allow private funding partners and government funding partners to contribute to a greater goal.
Why this project is important
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In the 2013 floods, the banks of Laidley Creek were heavily eroded, and much work had to be done in the area. In the recovery efforts, a master plan covering 16km of Laidley Creek was created to identify the issues and potential projects covering the area. This plan had 3 sections known as reaches. Throughout the past 10 years, funding and initiatives from the Port of Brisbane, Urban Utilities, and the Australian Government have completed works in Reach 1, spanning 5km of riparian zones. In 2023, with the help of private, State, and Federal Government funding, we are commencing the detailed planning and on-ground works in Reach 2. This plan addresses the need for landscape-wide planning of restoration works to maximise beneficial impacts. |
Project snapshot
| Project name: | Laidley Creek Restoration Master Plan |
| Project manager: | Mark Waud, Margie Dickson & Vanessa Durand, Healthy Land & Water |
| Project team: | Margie Dickson, Vanessa Durand, Hannah Sherlock |
| Catchment: | Laidley Creek |
| Timing: | 2013 – Ongoing |
| Budget: | |
| Partnerships: |
This project is supported by Healthy Land & Water, through funding from Urban Utilities, Port of Brisbane, Queensland Government, and Australian Government. |
| Related Articles: |
Project collaborators
This project is supported by Healthy Land & Water, through funding from Urban Utilities, Port of Brisbane, Queensland Government, and Australian Government.
