Funding boost to help waterways

Above: An aerial view of the Caboolture River

More than $4.8 million funding has been secured to restore and revitalise key waterways in the Moreton Bay region.

City of Moreton Bay’s share, from the $30 million Resilient Rivers SEQ program, will help restore the Caboolture and Pine Rivers catchments.

That includes the Caboolture River (Weir to Bruce Highway) Riparian Rehabilitation and Caboolture Arboretum Riparian Rehabilitation projects.

They will restore vegetation and protect from invasive weeds and enhance endemic biodiversity of species such as the platypus and koala.

Also, stabilise areas of bank erosion which will ultimately improve the quality of water that reaches Moreton Bay.

“This funding will enable us to deliver projects to support the health of our waterways, which are vital to sustaining native plants and animals,” Mayor Peter Flannery said.

“These projects will shore up Council’s efforts to ‘Go Green as we Grow’, which is all about safeguarding our environment amid a booming population, while also improving water quality in Moreton Bay.”

City of Moreton Bay will also have the first regional platypus monitoring program for South East Queensland.

It will use eDNA water sampling to learn more about platypus, freshwater turtles and the endangered Australian Lungfish, which dates back more than100 million years.

Funding also includes reconnecting 60kms of fish passage across Beerburrum and Six Mile Creek to help movement for native fish.

Planting 30,000 new plants around Cabbage Tree Creek to improve water quality, reduce erosion and boost habitat for such as reptiles, woodland birds, koala and platypus.

And water quality, biodiversity and flood resilience will also be improved with more than 3000 new plants at Freshwater Reserve, Kallangur.

The Resilient Rivers SEQ program includes $21.3m from the SEQ City Deal, a partnership of Federal and State Governments with the Council of Mayors (SEQ) and $8.7m from such as SEQ councils and Seqwater.