2,450 dump truck loads of sediment stopped from entering the Reef

In the Bowen Broken Bogie (BBB) sub catchments south of Townsville, both grazing and non-grazing land managers are contributing to landscape-wide change for improved water quality. Through the accelerated Grazing Support in the BBB project, management changes have been made to increase groundcover, reduce soil losses and restore landscapes.  

Graziers contributed over $900,000 of their own money alongside the $650,000 of incentives that were invested into 33 on-ground projects. Over 79,000 hectares of grazing land are now under improved grazing land management practices.   

This, combined with the remediation of strategically targeted high yielding gully networks on Havilah Station, and support provided to non-grazing stakeholder groups to adopt management practices has contributed to the reduction of overall sediment loads lost from the BBB.   

The project has achieved an enduring end-of-catchment reduction of 48,200 tonnes (the equivalent to 2,450 dump truck loads) in fine sediment from entering the Great Barrier Reef with funding through the partnership between the Australian Government's Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. 

Non-grazing land managers Worley Power Services (WPS) collaborated with regional Natural Resource Management body NQ Dry Tropics who delivered the project. Support was provided to upskill and mentor WPS staff in a range of erosion mitigation techniques, including low-cost interventions for small-scale erosion. 

Ten erosion sites along a 200 km stretch of natural gas pipeline between Newlands, near Collinsville and Woodstock, near Townsville were identified. Site-specific remediation plans were developed by soil conservation and erosion control expert John Day. 

WPS Project Supervisor Anatol Stremouchiw said on-going learning played an integral part in ensuring best practice erosion mitigation. 

“Every effort is made to ensure drainage, erosion controls and sediment containment structures are well maintained and functioning correctly.  

“Having a remediation plan, produced by John Day with NQ Dry Tropics’ help, is part of that. 

“Access to expert and technical knowledge, and science, leads to recommendations to ensure minimal impact to the environment. 

“The priority is to monitor and maintain the integrity of the pipeline, to reduce the risk of erosion when carrying out maintenance and mitigation works, cost effectively.  

“This includes upskilling people to ensure a set of standards is established for common erosion mitigation techniques”. said Anatol. 

North Queensland Gas Pipeline (NQGP) operates, maintains and carries out minor construction activities on the pipeline through a field services agreement with WPS. The pipeline runs from Moranbah to the Townsville and traverses three catchments, the most significant being the BBB catchment.  

Pipeline Operator Cameron Jackson said spending a week in the field with John Day had produced an invaluable educational spin-off, “I learned a lot about erosion prevention and the different solutions used to fix gully, streambank and road erosion to improve the condition of the land and reduce fine sediment flowing into waterways and out to the Great Barrier Reef. 

“It was also good to learn more about how to improve ground cover to reduce runoff, and to target weeds and not harm groundcover. 

Cameron said having access to specialist knowledge made him realise we could do better. “To be able to examine principles for preventing erosion and discuss practical ways to repair and mitigate erosion has led to some changes being made to maintenance methods on some sites.