West Coolum Wetland to be Protected

West Coolum Wetland

The West Coolum Wetland on Queensland's Sunshine Coast is to be protected and managed as a nature reserve in a significant win for the environment. The decision by the Sunshine Coast Council at its February meeting to protect the 90-hectare site means more than 700 hectares of contiguous wetland and coastal woodland in the heart of the Sunshine Coast will be preserved.

The West Coolum Wetland is on land formerly used for sugar cane production. The area was inundated by tidal flows from Coolum Creek following the collapse of canal floodgates after the council acquired the site in 2011, allowing a thriving wetland to be created in the same way that the nearby Yandina Creek Wetland came to be.

Broken floodgates at West Coolum Wetland

The 190-hectare Yandina Creek Wetland was drained and earmarked for development before it was acquired by Unitywater in 2016 as part of the corporation's nutrient offsets program following a lengthy campaign to save the wetland. The site has been restored as a flourishing wetland and the numerous birds that had called it home are returning. Prior to Unitywater's intervention, the Sunshine Coast Council came under fire for rejecting proposals to purchase the land and restore the wetland.

The council has since demonstrated an encouraging change of heart. Last year it launched its Blue Heart Sunshine Coast Project, aiming to sustainably manage 5,000 hectares of the Maroochy River floodplain in partnership with Unitywater and the Queensland Department of Environment and Science. The project's objectives include the securing and protection and management of the floodplain's most environmentally critical areas.

The council will play a role in the future management of the Yandina Creek Wetland as part of its Blue Heart commitment. The move to protect the West Coolum Wetland, which had partly been designated for “open space sport development”, is another important step. Yandina Creek Wetland, the Coolum Creek Reserve and West Coolum Wetland are now joined in a large protected area.

West Coolum Wetland - looking towards Mt Coolum

I stumbled upon the West Coolum Wetland while kayaking along Coolum Creek in 2016. I was immediately impressed with its potential as a reserve and wrote to the council requesting that it be protected as a wetland. Among nice bird records there were one of only two sightings of Australian Spotted Crake from the Sunshine Coast region, and the scarce Eastern Grass Owl and Australian Little Bittern. The council undertook environmental consultancy studies which indeed underscored the site's environmental values.

Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson said the wetland would be managed for conservation and added to council’s environment reserve network. “The lands, located west of the Sunshine Motorway at Coolum Beach, offer an exciting opportunity to establish an estuarine wetland due to the frequent tidal inundation of the site,” the mayor said.

Google Earth image of West Coolum Wetland

Speaking more generally about Blue Heart, Mark Jamieson said: “The project is a fantastic example of how council is taking action now to identify risks, and help our community prepare for the impacts of a changing climate. Working across approximately 5000 hectares on the Maroochy floodplain, the project seeks to deliver effective land and water management to proactively respond to a transitioning landscape through conservation, recreation, flood mitigation and new carbon storage opportunities.”

As with Yandina Creek Wetland, there is no public access to West Coolum Wetland. Unitywater has given repeated undertakings to eventually allow pubic access to Yandina Creek. The council is expected to take the same approach with West Coolum.

West Coolum Wetland site map

One pressing problem facing the Maroochy River floodplain remains, however. As I have written previously, the council has allowed the residential subdivision of sugar cane farms on the floodplain in contravention of state government and council planning guidelines. As a consequence, extensive areas of cane and grassland that are home to an abundance of birdlife are being carved up for homes that must surely be flood-prone.

One of the newly approved residential developments on Maroochy River floodplain