NEWS / BLOG

Fitzroy Partnership: towards a better water future Improved water quality monitoring Fitzroy Partnership for River Health is proud of the work of our partners, being the change that is needed for Fitzroy’s Basin water future. While Fitzroy Partnership’s scope remains primarily in water assessment and monitoring, we are also driving change as part of an Australian-first water monitoring project, the Regional Receiving Environment Monitoring Program. The program due to be launched during 2021 aims to create a more comprehensive water monitoring program than the one which exists under current operators’ Environmental Authority conditions. This will in turn support better assessment and reporting on the health of the waterways of the Fitzroy Basin. Further research into water quality and ecosystem health Fitzroy Partnership continues to offer the HeART of the Basin Scholarship which is open to research students at CQUniversity studying Honours, Masters by Research or PhD to progress their learnings in a research topic relating to improving waterway health in the Fitzroy Basin. Previous scholarship recipients have developed a toolbox for fish health assessment in aquatic ecosystems association with coal and gas industries in Central Queensland, researched off stream watering points as a method of riparian restoration and measured the levels and impacts of microplastics on the environment [...]

FBA, Australian and Queensland Governments: Streambank stabilisation project reduces sediment The Fitzroy region has experienced a number of major climate events in recent years: including annual summer wet season flooding, Cyclone Marcia in 2015 and Cyclone Debbie in April 2017 which caused wide-spread devastation. During Cyclone Debbie, a stretch of riverbank along the Fitzroy River retreated approximately 20 metres mobilising 266,000 tonnes of sediment into the waterway. The 1.2km stretch of damaged riverbank located north of Rockhampton became the subject of an Australian first streambank stabilisation project. The $1.8 million project, delivered by FBA and jointly funded by the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA), was completed in 2019. For six months, the project created 12 full-time jobs in the region, and extended the capability of local suppliers. It is estimated this project will save *90,000 tonnes of sediment from entering the river system annually with long-term benefits to not only the local waterways but also to the health of the Great Barrier Reef. Project outcomes also included protection of nesting habitat for the critically endangered White-throated Snapping Turtle and Fitzroy River Turtle, water and feed availability for cattle to retreat to in the event of a high flood [...]

Fitzroy Basin Association: Drain Buddies, guardians of the reef Humans are responsible for 100 per cent of marine debris. To tackle this problem, three of central Queensland’s largest towns (Rockhampton, Yeppoon and Gladstone) installed ‘Drain Buddies’ at key locations to capture debris before it could enter local waterways and created source reduction solutions. Drain Buddies are heavy-duty baskets installed at litter hotspot locations that only allow water to pass through, collecting all other matter including litter, organic debris and sediment. Matter collected is emptied quarterly, then sorted, analysed and recorded in the Australian Marine Debris Initiative database administered by Tangaroa Blue. The project, which commenced in June 2019 concluded its sixth servicing and audit cycle in November 2020. Since this time, the Drain Buddies have discovered some significant results: 40,079 pieces of litter were stopped from entering the Great Barrier Reef across 27 drains with a total weight of 1,002 kilograms (over 1 metric tonne). To date, the project has implemented four source reduction strategies based on the data collected from the Drain Buddies audits. The data collected from the Drain Buddies has provided unrivalled insight into what was getting thrown away, where it came from and what types of source reduction campaigns provide [...]

Origin Energy & Hewitt Cattle Company: partnership delivers beneficial use of water As the upstream operator of Australia Pacific LNG, Origin understands how important water resources are to the communities where it operates. That is why Origin seeks to protect water resources in the natural environment, responsibly manages water consumption and makes water available for other users near its coal seam gas (CSG) operations in Queensland’s Surat and Bowen basins. To produce natural gas, Origin extracts water and gas from underground coal seams. The gas is bonded to the coal seams by water pressure, so a well is drilled to extract enough water to reduce the pressure and allow the gas to flow. This gas is supplied to Australian customers and also converted to LNG for export. At home, Australia Pacific LNG continues to be a significant contributor to the Australian east coast gas market, supplying approximately 30 per cent of annual demand. The Coal Seam Gas Water Management Policy 2012 sets out the Queensland Government’s framework for the management of CSG water. The objective of the policy is “To encourage the beneficial use of CSG water in a way that protects the environment and maximises its productive use as a valuable resource” (Queensland [...]