BMA: Healing Country with modern gully remediation techniques and traditional custodianship On Gaangalu Country near the small community of Woorabinda, Greening Australia and BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) worked with Traditional Owners, the Woorabinda Rangers and the community throughout 2022 to rebuild and stabilise an eroding gully in Lily Creek. Every year, millions of tonnes of fine sediment flow from eroding land onto the Great Barrier Reef, choking fish, seagrass and coral, and reducing the Reef’s ability to recover from the impacts of climate change. Eroding creeks and gullies can also have a negative impact inland, reducing habitat for native animals and culturally important species, worsening the overall health of Country, and undermining infrastructure such as roads and tracks. Repairing Lily Creek was identified by the Woorabinda Project Reference Group and the Woorabinda Shire Council as a priority activity for the Queensland Indigenous Land and Conservation Project (QILCP). QILCP is an innovative five-year collaboration between Traditional Owners and First Nations Communities, Greening Australia and BMA. The Lily Creek project included a Cultural Heritage survey of the site delivered by Gaangalu Traditional Owners; hydrological [...]

Rockhampton Regional Council: Investing in renewables and continuous improvement at Fitzroy River Water Rockhampton Regional Council’s Sustainability Strategy (Towards 2030) recognises the need to create a sustainable future for the Rockhampton Region and to strengthen our community, environmental and economic resilience. As we move towards 2030, Council is working together with our residents, communities, businesses, industries and other levels of government to lead a variety of strategic actions via four pathways. The Strategy focuses on the need to prioritise a healthy natural environment, transition towards net zero emissions, create a climate resilient region and build a low-carbon circular economy. Council is nearing completion of a major renewables project that will help to accelerate Council’s transition towards net zero emissions, whilst reducing reliance on the electricity grid. The installation of a 1,375 kW solar system at Council’s largest energy consuming site, Glenmore Water Treatment Plant (GWTP), is expected to reduce grid energy usage by around 2,500,000 kWh per annum and save up to 2,200 tCO2e per year. This initiative is a key action outlined in Council’s Corporate Emissions Reduction Plan and emissions reduction [...]

Fitzroy Partnership for River Health: Fitzroy Waterwatch - Part of the solution to a better water future Waterwatch is a network of citizen scientists monitoring waterways in the Fitzroy Basin. Fitzroy Partnership for River Health reinvigorated the Fitzroy Waterwatch program this year as an initiative to help us monitor and sustainably manage our most precious natural asset – fresh water. We’re part of a nation-wide effort to understand and care for waterway ecosystems. Waterwatch programs support communities to monitor the health of waterways, learn through hands on environmental experience, and to participate in natural resource management. Being a citizen scientist allows individuals to actively contribute to the advancement of knowledge as well as practice stewardship over their local waterways. Fitzroy Waterwatch is made up of individuals, community groups, and school groups who monitor the chemistry, biology and ecology of their local waterways. Using a new and improved online platform it is easy and accessible to record and use the information they collect. Making the data accessible and transparent for citizen scientists and the community is an important aspect of the Fitzroy Waterwatch [...]