Council
20 January, 2024
Waterways in good shape after rains
While heavy rains of the past weeks have caused some chaos, Moreton Bay’s waterways have shown resilience according to a new report.
Healthy Land & Water’s annual report card showed the Pumicestone, Caboolture, and Stanley catchments, as well as the Central Bay and Eastern Bay, maintain their ecosystem score while Pine, Lower Brisbane and Western Bay have improved theirs.
Mayor Peter Flannery said he was heartened to see such strong results following the recent floods.
“Our waterways are the lifeblood of our city. Flooding and large rainfall events can cause an abundance of sediment to leave catchments and enter waterways around Moreton Bay. This impacts not only on water quality but has a flow on effect with key habitats including seagrass meadows,” he said.
“Seeing them bounce back or maintain their strong results from last year is a testament to the work our officers are doing to build resilience in these fragile, yet important, ecosystems.”
The efforts to maintain and improve this quality of water is part of Council’s Environment and Sustainability Strategy but the work is far from over.
A Biodiversity Plan is currently also being developed to manage and protect habitats, along with $31.3 million of the City of Moreton Bay’s 2023-2024 budget being allocated towards maintenance and improvement of waterways and coastal areas.
Healthy Land & Water (HL&W) is part of the Ecosystem Health Monitoring Program; one of the most comprehensive catchment health monitoring and modelling programs in Australia.
HL&W CEO Julie McLellan encouraged residents to view the results of the report and scale up eff orts to protect their waterways before it’s too late.
