Creek to Coral Community Monitoring

Program start date

Monitoring commenced in each catchment at different times:

• Louisa Creekwatch in 2001
• Ross River Network, and Sachs, Mundy and Bluewater Creekwatch in 2006
• Whites, Stuart and Bohle Creekwatch in early 2007.

Program end date

Ongoing

Objectives of the program

To involve the local community in catchment management activities, such as water quality monitoring, through the Creekwatch initiative. In this way, Creekwatch helps create local ownership of Townsville’s waterways through education and involvement. Creekwatch activities provide environmental benefits to the local environment and social benefits to volunteers, while also providing valuable data that may be used in decision making.

Who is involved?

Lead organisation

Creek to Coral Initiative (Townsville City Council) and Conservation Volunteers Australia

Contact details of lead organisation: enquiries♲townsville.qld.gov.au

Partner organisations

Department of Environment, Science and Innovation, NQ Dry Tropics and community groups including Scouts Australia, Rotary Australia and local schools.

List of indicators monitored

• Dissolved oxygen
• Electrical conductivity
• pH
• Temperature (air and water)
• Turbidity
• Fish (presence)
• Macro-invertebrates (SIGNAL score)
• Presence of other riverine flora and fauna

Scale of program

Local government area

Brief description of sampling locations

Monitoring is conducted at a number of sites associated with Louisa Creek, Ross River, Sachs Creek, Mundy Creek, Bluewater Creek, Whites Creek, Stuart Creek and Bohle River in the Townsville local government area.

Frequency of monitoring

Monitoring is intended to be ongoing at all sites, with monitoring of biological and water quality indicators occurring on a monthly basis.

Where is the program reported?

Data is intended to be embedded on the Creek to Coral website for public access. Open communication lines have historically existed between Townsville City Council officers and Conservation Volunteers Australia for sharing data and observations within catchments. The Creekwatch program will be reviewed during 2011-12 to improve reporting and feedback to community groups and to improve the quality of data collected and recorded.

The mangrove and associated communities within Moreton Bay area, South East Queensland, have been mapped to the same consistent standards and protocols twice over the last forty years (Dowling, 1986 and Dowling and Stephens, 2001).  These studies were based on 1974 aerial photographs and 1997 digital ortho-photographs respectively. The same mapping classification and scale was applied in the above two studies providing a consistent baseline for monitoring the mangrove and associated communities of Moreton Bay.  The floristic classification used in these studies provides an important baseline to assess and quantify changes at a species level within mangrove communities as well as their distribution within the Bay.  The temporal change available from these studies provides the time frames and when and where these changes have occurred.

Last updated: 22 March 2013