Seeing Resilient Rivers in Action
Updated: 1 day ago
The health of Moreton Bay begins far beyond its shoreline.
Last week, representatives from The Moreton Bay Foundation joined a Resilient Rivers South East Queensland field day across the greater Moreton Bay catchment, visiting projects in the Upper Bremer, Lockyer and Brisbane River catchments.
TMBF Founder John, Board Member Meta Goodman and CEO Katie joined council officers from across the region, Council of Mayors representatives and project delivery partners to see how practical restoration work is helping keep soil on the land, strengthen waterways and reduce sediment entering Moreton Bay.
Restoring waterways on working properties
In the Upper Bremer River catchment, the group visited a rural partnership project being delivered with local landholders.
The project combines revegetation with engineered bank-stabilisation measures, including a log wall, rock protection, reshaped banks and hedging. Stock-exclusion fencing and off-stream watering points allow vegetation to recover while helping landholders continue to manage productive farmland.
These measures address erosion at its source. By stabilising vulnerable riverbanks and keeping soil on the land, they help reduce the amount of sediment carried downstream during rainfall and flood events.
The field day also visited Black Snake Creek, where revegetation and stock exclusion are being expanded across private properties. The work is helping establish a connected riparian corridor, improve water quality and reduce erosion and salinity entering the Brisbane River system.
Rebuilding resilience after floods
Other projects demonstrated how public infrastructure and waterway restoration can be designed together.
At Mount Sylvia, repeated flooding has damaged roads, farmland and riverbanks. The Tenthill Catchment project has installed rock groynes, reshaped banks and created structures that dissipate the energy of flowing water. More than 5,000 native plants have also been used to help establish long-term protection.
The project aims to reduce erosion while protecting Mount Sylvia Road and nearby productive land during future flood events.
At Gatton Racecourse, strategic revegetation is helping restore sections of Lockyer Creek affected by major floods. These floods stripped away riparian vegetation, destabilised banks and contributed large volumes of sediment to the waterway.
Replanting priority reaches can help hold riverbanks together, protect permanent waterholes, improve habitat connectivity and reduce further land loss.
Connecting catchment action with the future of the Bay
The field day was about more than inspecting individual projects. It provided an opportunity to connect the people planning, funding and delivering restoration work across South East Queensland. These relationships matter because Moreton Bay is shaped by what happens throughout its vast catchment.
Sediment eroded from riverbanks, gullies, roads and farmland travels through connected waterways, eventually reaching the Bay. Once there, it reduces water clarity and places added burdens on seagrass, coral and other habitats.
Reducing those impacts requires coordinated action from the upper reaches of rivers through to the coast. Protecting Moreton Bay cannot begin at the shoreline. It requires sustained investment in the rivers, creeks, floodplains and communities connected to it.
These projects show what is possible when councils, landholders, technical experts and delivery partners work together—keeping soil on the land, building resilience and reducing the sediment loads reaching the Bay.
The future of Moreton Bay depends on action across its entire catchment. What we restore upstream today will shape the health of the Bay for generations to come.
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