The transformation of Six Mile Creek
Through an ever-changing timelapse of photographs, Six Mile Creek transforms before your eyes. It didn’t happen all at once, but month by month and year by year. What started as an eroding bank with towering, steep and crumbling walls in 2023 has evolved into a landscape that has weathered the storms and remained a rehabilitation success.
The site sits within the Fitzroy catchment, about 15 kilometres south-west of Raglan. Over roughly 440 metres of streambank, the bank has been carefully reshaped, its most vulnerable edges stabilised where erosion once carved steadily inward.
This site was not chosen at random. Six Mile had up to a hundred metres of bank lost between 1999 and 2019. And beyond the site there is a chain of connection: downstream waterways carry the sediment that eventually reached the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon.
The numbers tell the ‘why’ behind the project – an estimated 1,368 tonnes of fine sediment kept from washing downstream each year. But the timelapse shows the results.
Photos from the middle of the project’s timeline show the once heavily eroded banks battered back to a gentler 3:1 slope. Pile fields appear like ribs along the edge with rock benches in place along the bottom. These structures anchor the creek where it once slipped away and absorb the force of high flows, redirecting the current’s insistence to erode when heavy rains cause the creek to flow.
Then came the quieter gestures. Lines of native seedlings, now grown into waist-high plants that will only keep growing thanks to irrigation systems threading water back to them in their most fragile days. Fencing is part of this too – it’s a simple but deliberate method to keep stock at a distance so the banks can continue healing without interruption.
Over time, these small acts accumulated. Roots took hold. Soil stopped crumbling away. The creek edge, once uncertain, began to steady itself.
To wrap up the end of this project, nature decided to provide the site with a flooding test in early 2026. The structures did their job, holding the site steady through the currents.
As the water rose, muddy and forceful, it pressed against the banks with the same old intent. But this time when it receded, the banks were unharmed and standing strong. Some of the surface was roughened, plants bent or buried. Nature provided the test and the bank is still there.
Which, in the end, is the point of projects like this one.
The Streambank Remediation project is funded through the Queensland Government’s Queensland Reef Water Quality Program.
Delivering lasting change
At Six Mile Creek, FBA worked side by side with the property’s land managers to deliver lasting, on-ground change that enhances productivity and profitability for the property while safeguarding the Great Barrier Reef.
- Approximately 440 metres of streambank restored
- 1,368 tonnes of fine sediment saved from entering the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon per year
- Reduced loss of productive agricultural land, by slowing bank retreat
Images: 1) Six Mile Creek before work commenced 2023; 2) Six Mile Creek site plan; 3) Banks being battered and pile fields installed 2023; 4) Pile fields installed 2023; 5) Revegetation work taking hold 2025; 6 and 7) Revegetation work established 2026; 8) Site entrance after 2026 flooding. Header image: site fully complete and standing strong after 2026 flooding.