Mid Brisbane Partnerships Program
Restoring water quality and building resilience into the Brisbane River.
Delivering a range of projects to ensure flood resilience and to reduce erosion and sediment flow into the Mid Brisbane River.Healthy Land & Water’s Mid Brisbane Partnerships Program is restoring and protecting water quality and building resilience in the Mid Brisbane catchment area.
The program works closely with landholders to deliver a range of projects that involve revegetating riverbanks, installing fencing, removing weeds, and stabilising gullies.
These projects ensure gullies and riverbanks are more resilient to high flow events, reducing erosion and the flow of sediment into the Mid Brisbane River and eventually Moreton Bay.
The project focuses on:
- Working with landholders to deliver on-ground works.
- Stabilising eroding gullies and riverbanks.
- Revegetating riparian areas to build resilience to high-flow events.
- Fencing to balance grazing for weed management with maintaining healthy riparian vegetation cover.
- Improving water quality for Brisbane drinking water supply at the Mount Crosby Water Treatment Plant.
- Reducing sediment entering Moreton Bay.
What we are doing
Increasing water quality at the Mount Crosby Treatment Plant by reducing erosion, increasing vegetation cover, and managing grazing livestock.
The three-year program focused on ensuring gullies and riverbanks are more resilient to high-flow events, is run in partnership with Seqwater.
The process involves:
- Working with the community to identify priority areas and deliver on-ground projects with landholders to protect and improve the condition of river banks and gully systems.
- Delivering projects along the Brisbane River and areas within five kilometres of the river such as Banks Creek, Black Snake Creek, and Spring Creek.
- Increasing water quality at the Mount Crosby Water Treatment Plant by reducing erosion, increasing vegetation cover, and managing grazing by livestock.
- Providing a forum with the Mid Brisbane Catchment Partnerships Committee to bring stakeholders together to collaborate, consult, and advise on potential investment in drinking water source protection projects.
Measuring success
As a result of the program, landholders know how to protect their land while increasing environmental resilience and reducing- water treatment costs.
This stage of the project (2020-2023) will deliver projects and increase resilience in areas of higher risk due to slope, soil type, vegetation cover, and proximity to the Mount Crosby and Lowood Water Treatment Plants.
The program saw a very successful stage 1 (2017-2019) which involved 24 projects controlling active erosion over 1.2 kilometres of gully systems and riverbanks through the construction of 13 erosion control structures including log jams, pile fields, rock chutes, and leaky weirs. The resilience of riverbanks and gully systems has been increased through the establishment of over 16,000 plants.
Why this project is important
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Approximately 40% of the drinking water supply for South East Queensland is either sourced from or travels through, the Mid Brisbane catchment before being treated at the Mount Crosby Water Treatment Plant. The Mid-Brisbane River catchment is an important water source for residents and industry, providing value for drinking water, irrigation, recreation, and amenity. It is also an important source of water for the community and industry below the Mt Crosby weir, influencing a range of values in the lower Brisbane River and Moreton Bay. |
Project snapshot
| Project name: | Mid Brisbane Partnership Program |
| Project manager: | Mark Waud and Samille Loch-Wilkinson, Healthy Land & Water |
| Catchment: | Mid-Brisbane |
| Timing: |
2020 – 2023 (Completed) Project continued: 2023 - 2028 |
| Budget: |
$1.2 million Project continued |
| Partnerships: | This restoration and water protection program is delivered in partnership with Seqwater and in collaboration with landholders in the identified critical areas. |
| Related Articles: |
What's next
The project is continued in a second phase in collaboration with Seqwater.
Read about the new phase here.
Project collaborators
This restoration and water protection program is delivered in partnership with Seqwater.
