1000 Hectares of Sunshine Coast Wetland Protected

Combined efforts by the Sunshine Coast Council, statutory authority Unitywater and the Queensland Government have led to almost 1000 hectares of wetland and associated woodland being protected as environmental reserve in the centre of Australia’s tenth largest city.

More property acquisitions are expected to be added to reserves as government authorities make good on promises to protect the Sunshine Coast’s so-called “Blue Heart” – 5000 hectares of the environmentally rich and diverse Maroochy River floodplain (protected areas shown in the map above). The designated Blue Heart area is described as an "innovative partnership" including the Sunshine Coast Council, Unitywater and the state Environment Department. Its aim is to "build future economic and environmental resilience, while retaining a focus on flood hazard management and climate change adaptation". However, the good news is tempered by the continuing subdivision of sugarcane farmland in the designated Blue Heart area south of the Maroochy River.

The Sunshine Coast Council recently acquired three parcels of land totalling 38 hectares in the vicinity of River Road, expanding its Coolum Creek Environment Reserve to 433 hectares. The council reserve provides important buffer zone protection for Unitywater’s 191-hectare Yandina Creek Wetland (first image in post, captured this week). Part of the buffer area is pictured above. The protected areas includes extensive areas of grassland and wetland that provide habitat for scarce birds such as King Quail, Eastern Grass-Owl (below) and Lewin’s Rail. Together with the Queensland Government’s 342-hectare Coolum Creek Conservation Park, a total of 966 hectares is now protected in the area surrounding Coolum Creek and Yandina Creek in interconnected reserves.

Included in the council’s Coolum Creek Environment Reserve is the 90-hectare “West Coolum Wetland” (below), a diverse and bird-rich wetland sanctuary east of Coolum Creek that I proposed be protected as a reserve in 2016 (for further information see http://sunshinecoastbirds.blogspot.com/2016/09/newly-discovered-wetland-on-sunshine.html - note that Blogger no longer provides hyperlinks; URLs need to be copied and pasted to search engines).

Another part of the council reserve is a River Road property I first suggested be acquired and protected in a submission to the council in 2012 (see http://sunshinecoastbirds.blogspot.com/2012/12/wetlands-destruction.html). The council rejected the submission at the time, saying the area was not of significant environmental value and was not in a “highly strategic” location. The property adjoins Yandina Creek Wetland. The present owners will be able to continue current land uses for a further five years under a lease agreement.

Later, the council used similar arguments to reject my submission to purchase Yandina Creek Wetland (above) for a reserve. It was ultimately acquired by Unitywater in 2018 - following a concerted campaign backed by BirdLife Australia and others - and has been restored as a wetland (see http://sunshinecoastbirds.blogspot.com/2018/05/yandina-creek-wetland-back-from-brink.html). A 1.7 kilometre walking trail which was opened last year by then Unitywater chairman Jim Soorley (pictured with me below at the trail opening) has proved popular with birders and more broadly the general public.

The council has clearly turned full circle in a substantial and welcome change of heart, having now spent more than what Unitywater paid for Yandina Creek Wetland on conservation property acquisitions in the area. Following the most recent land purchases, mayor Mark Jameson (below) acknowledged that the Blue Heart area had “significant environmental and natural flood plain characteristics”, adding: “It’s an area where responsible land and water management will showcase – and deliver – exemplary environmental, social and economic outcomes.” The acquisitions by the council in the Blue Heart are a substantial contribution to protecting biodiversity and increasingly threatened habitats and wildlife in the Sunshine Coast region.

Across the Maroochy River from River Road, the story is not so rosy. The floodplains adjoining Burtons Road and smaller roads south of the river host a variety of grasslands and woodland habitat that attract vagrant shorebirds such as Pectoral Sandpiper and Wood Sandpiper (below), as well as infrequent avian visitors from the inland like Brown Songlark and Stubble Quail.

A small number of large cane farms in the area have been allowed to subdivide and much of the grassland has been bulldozed and filled for home sites in what is surely a highly flood-prone area. Earlier this year I took these images of some of the subdivided properties (below) following heavy rainfall in the region.

The area is also being used as an unofficial rubbish dump for all manner of debris (below).

These subdivisions are well within the boundaries of the designated Blue Heart conservation hotspot and stand in stark contrast to the positive developments north of the river.