Embedded Files
Above: CYWP team (Gary and Brad) survey Wallaby Creek flood impacts after Cyclone Jasper (top); Christina with Juunjuwarra Rangers on recent seagrass survey (middle); Christina monitoring water quality on the Annan (bottom).
Welcome to our winter edition
Welcome to our winter edition
Where has the year gone?
Where has the year gone?
Cape York Water Partnership and our partners have had an incredibly busy year so far, thanks to Cyclone Jasper and on-going work with the Eastern Cape York Water Quality Program (ECYWQP).
Our teams have continued to be involved in the recovery from the Jasper floods in our region, through work to support Cook Shire Council and Department of Environment, Science and Innovation in documenting the environmental impacts and assessing potential recovery activities.
As we draw towards the end of the ECYWQP in June 2025, we are evaluating the past 3 years' work, analysing what we've learnt, how these lessons can enable practice change, and considering future priorities and opportunities for CYWP and our partners. This Legacy Project will help us set the direction for CYWP and guide future water quality improvement programs across the Cape.
In the coming months and into 2025, we will be releasing the results of the ECYWQP together with our partners. Keep an eye on the social media of ECYWQP partners and the new CYWP website: www.capeyorkwaterpartnership.org which we are continuing to build and improve.
This issue of the Stream shares with you some snapshots of the ECYWQP work over the past six months: fire management to reduce sediment run-off, gully remediation, field days for tracks and gullies, the release of Best Management Practice (BMP) road erosion control guidelines, on-going monitoring of water and seagrass, and more.
Thanks for reading!
Dr Christina Howley
Water Quality Program Director
Cape York Water Partnership
christina@capeyorkwaterpartnership.org
The Eastern Cape York Water Quality Program is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.
We acknowledge the Waymburr people on whose Country we at CYWP are based, as well as the many other Cape York Traditional Owners with whom and on whose land we work. We respectfully publish many photos of this land that has been severely impacted by Cyclone Jasper and our thoughts remain with the Wujal Wujal and other local communities as they continue to assess the impacts and rebuild.
Building capacity for managing fire in southern Cape York Peninsula
Building capacity for managing fire in southern Cape York Peninsula
South Cape York Catchments fire project
South Cape York Catchments fire project
The South Cape York Catchments fire project has entered its third year, delivering enhanced fire management outcomes across 65,000 hectares in the Eastern Cape York region. We are beginning to see significant improvements in our project partners' ability to sustain these practices beyond the Eastern Cape York Water Quality Program.
Initially, we identified properties where late dry season fires were most frequent. Unsurprisingly, these properties were managed by landowners with limited capacity for independent fire management. Our findings highlighted a lack of knowledge about fire behaviour and property-based fire planning, as well as insufficient skills and resources to safely conduct early dry season burns.
Working closely with our project partners, we have assisted in developing fire management plans specific to their properties. These plans help landowners recognize where fire management should be implemented and identify the appropriate contacts prior to conducting early dry season burns. Additionally, they provide a quick guide on the annual timing of fire management activities, ensuring that anyone within their working group can efficiently execute a burning operation.
To complement the planning activities, considerable time has been invested in conducting on-ground fire management with project partners. This hands-on approach has been crucial in building the necessary skills and confidence for effective fire management. During this early dry season, we are encouraging our project partners to take a leading role in the on-ground operations to further increase their confidence and demonstrate their preparedness to take full control of fire management activities in the future.
Now armed with skills and knowledge, our project partners face the dilemma of funding fire management into the future. Along with the considerable expense of purchasing vehicles, fire equipment, and tools, there is a need to fund a pool of human resources. Annual fire management costs can increase even more if aerial incendiary burns via aircraft are conducted. Some of our project partners have been fortunate enough to acquire funded ranger programs; however, others will require continued support. Supporting these groups may involve direct in-kind assistance or connecting them with a network of other fire managers.
Whichever direction our project partners choose to take, South Cape York Catchments will continue to provide advice and direction and look for opportunities to support our community.
Photos: Consistent on ground experience is essential to build the skills and knowledge required to improve fire management. Here, the Juunjuwarra Rangers are utilising lessons learnt to implement burns on their traditional homelands.
Prioritising erosion control sites along primitive roads, tracks, fire-breaks and fence-lines in south-east Cape York Peninsula
Prioritising erosion control sites along primitive roads, tracks, fire-breaks and fence-lines in south-east Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Water Partnership tracks project
Cape York Water Partnership tracks project
As part of the Eastern Cape York Water Quality Program, primitive tracks project, Cape York Water Partnership has been building a defect prioritization model to determine what areas of roads and tracks present the highest erosion risk from the viewpoint of fine sediment reaching the Great Barrier Reef (GBR).
In 2022-2024 CYWP partnered with multiple landholders, land managers and groups, and surveyed over 1288 km of unique tracks and fence-lines from the Annan catchment north to the Muck River. A photo was taken every 5 m along these tracks (232,892 data points in total), and erosion features such a rill, gully and road entrenchment were mapped, rated, and paired with factors such as slope, streamline connectivity, regolith (soil type) and presence of off-track gullies, to give an overall site rating. The higher the overall site rating, the higher the potential erosion risk. Gullies were rated the highest erosion risk, followed by rill erosion and entrenchment, and large features were any of these over 100 m3. Sites with slopes greater than 16% incline, with a streamline less than 60 m away, and highly erodible soil/regolith classes were also rated high risk. For example, a gully on highly erodible alluvial soil, in steep terrain, close to a creek has a far higher erosion risk than a ridgeline track with a small degree of rilling, on flat terrain, and stable soils.
Story continues...
Story continues...
Land managers and regional partners can use this Hotspot map and model to prioritise areas for erosion control works, and to guide and lobby for future investment in erosion control in the region. Across this catchment area, there are 61 sites that have been classed as very high priority, 564 sites that are high priority, and 10,259 sites that are medium priority. All up, this equates to roughly 54 km of tracks that, if treated with erosion mitigation practices, would significantly reduce sediment loads to the GBR. This year is the final year for surveys, so if you haven’t already been involved, and would like to, please get in touch.
Thank you again to all those land managers that collaborated on this program with us.
Walker Bay seagrass, March 2023
Walker Bay seagrass, February 2024 after Cyclone Jasper
Seagrass Monitoring Wrap-Up
Seagrass Monitoring Wrap-Up
CYWP water quality and aquatic ecosystems monitoring project
CYWP water quality and aquatic ecosystems monitoring project
Over the 2023-24 wet season, CYWP has undertaken several seagrass mapping boat trips with the Traditional Owners and rangers from Cape Melville, Flinders, Howick Islands Aboriginal Corporation, Juunjuwarra Aboriginal Corp, and Yuku Baja Muliku Indigenous Land & Sea Rangers (YBM). The results from some of these surveys were grim, due to the devastating impacts from cyclone Jasper flood plumes. Other meadows seem to be quite stable over recent decades and were far enough from the main Jasper flooding to have shown no loss of seagrass.
The worst hit of the meadows surveyed was the 6.5 km2 meadow located at Walker Bay near the mouth of the Endeavour. What used to be a healthy and diverse meadow now appears to be completed wiped out, with large chunks of seagrass ripped out and washed up on local beaches. Other areas are completely buried in sand, silt and woody debris. This is a major loss for an area once known for healthy turtle populations. However, after reviewing all the monitoring results conducted by CYWP and YBM over the past 20 years, a longer-term decline became apparent. In 2007 and 2008, Walker Bay had between 26% to 75% seagrass cover across most of the Bay, with 7 different species recorded. By 2023 (the next time these meadows were surveyed), total cover in the areas surveyed ranged from 0 to a maximum of 30% seagrass cover and only three species were recorded. Although parts of the Bay have not been surveyed in recent years, this data suggests that even before Jasper there may have been a decline in seagrass.
There was better news from the Starcke Region, where Juunjuwarra rangers and CYWP surveyed seagrass meadows with CSIRO scientists in January 2024 after TC Jasper. Although the windy, turbid conditions made for difficult surveying using our usual Go-Pro drop-camera, CSIRO’s underwater drone shone light on the seagrass meadows, which appeared to be in similar condition to previous (2022 and 2014) CYWP and Juunjuwarra surveys.
“That would explain why we don’t see many dugongs there anymore.”
YBM ranger Adam Saunders, after reviewing the long term seagrass survey findings
Story continues...
Story continues...
Farther north, the CMFHIAC survey focussed on Ninian Bay to the south of Cape Melville. Seagrass cover in this bay was surprisingly low in February 2024, compared to mapping conducted by the Qld Fisheries Department back in 1984. In 1994, Coles et al. reported finding between 50% to 100% seagrass cover across all of Ninian Bay. Thirty years later, seagrass cover across the Bay generally ranged from 1% to 30%. The seagrass at Ninian Bay was also almost completely covered in silt and algae. To our knowledge there have been no seagrass surveys in this area since the 1980’s so we can’t say when the decline in seagrass cover occurred. However, it is likely that flood plumes from TC Jasper contributed to the poor seagrass condition, as these flood plumes wrapped around Cape Melville and inundated this area for a short time.
Seagrass across Cape York was once considered to be in excellent condition. It provides critical food and habitat for sea turtle and dugong populations, as well as prawns and many other animals. The Starcke region meadows are some of the largest coastal meadows in Eastern Cape York, so it is good news that they appear to be in stable condition. Apparent declines in other areas are a real concern and likely result from major flooding that has occurred in recent years, even before TC Jasper.
Qld Fisheries Department 1994 seagrass cover map showing over 50% cover at Ninian Bay
CYWP & CMFHIAC 2014 seagrass cover map showing mostly less than 30% cover at Ninian Bay
2024 Ninian Bay seagrass survey quadrat showing good seagrass cover, but high epiphyte (algal) growth on seagrass leaves
Track works hold up well under extreme rainfall
Track works hold up well under extreme rainfall
Cape York Water Partnership tracks project
Cape York Water Partnership tracks project
In May, CYWP headed out to the Oaky-Flaggy fire break track on a Cook Shire Council road reserve (Bulganwarra Country) with representatives from Yuku Baja Muliku Land and Sea Rangers, Cape Melville Flinders and Howick Island Aboriginal Corporation, Juunjuwarra Rangers, South Endeavour Trust and South Cape York Catchments to look at erosion control works completed in June 2023.
The track stabilisation work performed extremely well over the wet season, despite 2400mm of rainfall, including Cyclone Jasper. Sediment loads to the Annan River were reduced by 50 tonnes/year (<20 um) thanks to this site work.
The field day was an opportunity to learn about sourcing local rock from small stable borrow pits on ridgelines, and controlling erosion at steep road cuts and creek crossings with rock and frequent whoaboys (water diversion banks). Participants and their organisations gained insight and ideas on how they might want to repair tracks and control erosion on their Country in upcoming projects.
Photos: Cape Melville Flinders and Howick Island Aboriginal Corporation, Juunjuwarra Rangers, Yuku Baja Muliku Land and Sea Rangers, South Endeavour Trust and South Cape York Catchments representatives attended the tracks project site visit.
Above: Cool ground burn on Caloola
Below: Aerial north-south burn on Caloola in the Annan catchment. This burn was part of creating an 18km long firebreak. The fire went out overnight and left a long linear burn between .5km and 1.5km wide.
Perfect conditions for early season burns
Perfect conditions for early season burns
South Endeavour Trust fire project
South Endeavour Trust fire project
On Cape York the perfect day for early dry season protection burns is one with: blue skies, no wind, heavy overnight dew, and cured but not too cured grass. You don’t get them that often but in mid-June we had three in a row. And when the weather is right you just have to go, go, go.
The whole idea of doing early dry season protection burns is to break the country up such that damaging ferocious late dry season fires run into a protection burn and die for lack of fuel. This is the best way to maximise the amount of ground vegetation when the early heavy rains of the wet season hit.
Why maximise ground level vegetation? Well vegetation such as grasses and herbs do several things when it rains. First, they help protect the soil from the impact of big tropical raindrops. Second, they help direct rainfall to soak into the ground along the fissures created by roots, rather than run off. Third, when there is enough water to runoff, ground level vegetation acts to slow its flow. These three factors are critical if we are to reduce erosion and the amount of fine sediment carried by heavy early wet season rains into the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon.
So, if we can use small strategic early dry season burns to prevent large catastrophic late dry season fires, then the expectation is that we can significantly reduce sediment pollution at the Reef.
So back to that wonderful weather for lighting fires. The biggest challenges for getting early dry season burning right are – when the wind is too strong; there are no dews to put fires out overnight and; by the time you can burn, the grass is too cured. It is oh-so-easy to start a burn in less than perfect conditions and have it continue for days and days, burning many times the area planned.
With perfect weather, rather than being restricted by the wind, and only burning in the late afternoon, you can start early - confident that the fire is not going to roar off, and equally confident that heavy overnight dews will put fires out. And rather than end up with patchy firebreaks which are not continuous, the helicopter can do as many runs as needed to get a perfect continuous burn.
In three perfect days for our Great Barrier Reef focused fire program in the Annan and Endeavour catchments we managed to complete over 75% of our total burn program. We burnt everything we wanted to where the grass was dry enough to burn. The only areas now left to burn are those where the grass was still just too green. Sadly, it is almost certain that it will take longer to complete this remaining 25% than the first 75% as the chances of getting that perfect weather again…we’ll let’s just say that they are not that good.
Erosion Control Best Management Practice guidelines for road maintanance
Erosion Control Best Management Practice guidelines for road maintanance
South Cape York Catchments roads project
South Cape York Catchments roads project
South Cape York Catchments (SCYC) has been working in partnership with Cook Shire Council (CSC) since 2022 to quantify erosion from unsealed roads in the Oaky Creek sub-catchment and test Best Management Practices (BMPs) that will reduce erosion rates. Currently, works on unsealed roads often involve grading table drains and batters, stripping the land to bare earth from tree line to tree line. This practice leads to unnecessary erosion, exacerbating sediment pollution.
In collaboration with CSC, SCYC has designed and implemented BMPs for unsealed road erosion control. These practices were evaluated using high-resolution laser scanning to measure changes in erosion before and after each wet season.
The results of the SCYC project indicate that on average, 42 tonnes per hectare or 68 tonnes per kilometre of fine sediment are delivered to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon from stream crossings and approaches. Suspended sediment concentrations in streams were found to be 14 times higher downstream of road crossings compared to upstream. These externalized costs amount to $100,000 per kilometre for sediment abatement, based on the Reef Trust investment cost of $1,500 per tonne to reduce erosion.
Managing roadside vegetation through slashing and selective herbicide use, instead of grading to bare ground, reduced erosion by 22%. Additionally, rock mulching road batters at stream crossings reduced erosion by 45%, and reducing drain connectivity to stream networks led to reductions of up to 65%.
Story continues...
Story continues...
A detailed cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of the project results conducted by Natural Capital Economics shows that changing the existing road management regime would not only reduce sediment pollution, but also benefit the community and reduce ongoing road maintenance costs. This win-win-win scenario can be achieved by minimising annual road batter grading and managing vegetation with slashing and herbicide. Further reductions in sediment pollution can be achieved through better drain management and rock mulching of sensitive areas. The optimal scenario is full road betterment with a bitumen dust seal approaching stream crossings (up to 300 meters), which provides both long-term cost savings, better driveability for community members, and environmental benefits.
The three simplest and most cost-effective measures that road managers could implement are:
Avoiding annual grading of batters and table drains as a general method of reconstruction, which will reduce costs and prevent sediment pollution across 80% of the road length
Ceasing the annual placement of road base in stream crossings, as this material and fine sediment will be washed away to the Great Barrier Reef
Implementing betterments across 20% of the road length, including constructing concrete causeways or culverts, rock mulching steep batters, stabilizing eroding drains and gullies near stream crossings, and applying bitumen dust seals.
Adopting these practices will help road managers to reduce road erosion and sediment supply to the Great Barrier Reef.
Cyclone Jasper floods: environmental investigations
Cyclone Jasper floods: environmental investigations
Cape York Water Partnership DESI environmental investigations project
Cape York Water Partnership DESI environmental investigations project
After TC Jasper decimated our communities in Dec 2023, CYWP have been tirelessly working to investigate the environmental impacts of the event. Initial works assessing the environmental impacts were funded by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF). Many of these results were published in our previous Jasper focused newsletter.
In April, Cape York Water Partnership was contracted to lead environmental investigations into the impacts of TC Jasper in the areas from Bloomfield to Hopevale, on behalf of the Queensland Government, Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DESI). Community consultations are underway with communities within the Bloomfield, Rossville, Cooktown, and Hopevale areas. This work is documenting environmental values that were affected by the flooding, and compiling local priorities for environmental recovery actions under the jointly funded Commonwealth-state Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA). $43 Million of DRFA funding has been approved for environmental recovery and resilience actions for regions affected by Jasper (from Cairns to Hope Vale). CYWP will be compiling a report to advise DESI on community priorities for this environmental recovery funding.
To date, CYWP has held meetings with the Rossville, Cooktown, Ayton, and Degarra communities, plus Cook Shire Council, Hopevale Congress, Jabalbina, Laura, Normanby and Melsonby Rangers, and Endeavour River Traditional Owners.
Out of the community engagement, concerns have been raised about:
the loss of riparian vegetation and habitat
lack of fish in impacted rivers
the ongoing poor water quality of our river systems due to high sediment loads from landslides and loss of riparian vegetation, plus the widening and in-filling of the rivers
decimation of seagrass beds and in-shore reef health
loss of mangrove plant and animal species.
Through our engagement with communities, Traditional Owners, Rangers and Councils, the following environmental priorities have been identified across areas impacted by Jasper:
riparian zone and floodplain revegetation (key sites)
continuation of water monitoring and expansion into areas where no monitoring data is available
eDNA or other surveys to document what fish and other species (such as crocodiles) can be found in local rivers post Jasper
weed mapping and management targeting riparian and accessible areas, and specific weed species that will hinder native regeneration
debris and rubbish cleanup (this is now being funded through Council with separate DRFA funding)
surveys for specific vulnerable or endemic species in the area
aerial seeding of a few landslides as a trial
monitoring of natural recovery of the local environment (landslide revegetation, riparian restoration, floodplain regrowth, water quality, seagrass and coral recovery)
advocacy for better flood warning systems (e.g. at Bloomfield River and China Camp)
determining cause of post Jasper (delayed) tree dieback, and potential preventative methods for saving remaining trees and improving regrowth of native vegetation.
Members of the community are invited to continue contributing their observations and environmental priorities by filling out the online survey here (and below). We are particularly keen to capture priority locations that would be suitable for revegetation efforts, or any other priority recovery actions.
Photos: Damage from landslides and flooding to Gap Creek.Assistance provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth-state Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
Helicopter Survey of Cyclone Jasper’s Record Rainfall and Flood Impacts
Helicopter Survey of Cyclone Jasper’s Record Rainfall and Flood Impacts
Cape York Water Partnership and South Cape York Catchments
Cape York Water Partnership and South Cape York Catchments
The record rainfall and flooding from tropical cyclone Jasper had a devastating impact on many of the creek lines and mountainsides within the Annan catchment, and further south. Thousands of landslides of various sizes are now present on many mountains, with the highest impacts all within 8 km of the coast. Many once small creeks were enlarged and transformed into raging torrents during the event. CYWP and SCYC staff spent two days surveying river and creek damages via Helicopter in February 2024.
Two GoPro cameras were mounted to the underside of the helicopter, with images captured at one sec intervals, as well as video footage. Overall, 518 kms of the landscape were surveyed, covering 183 km of creeks, and 33 km of linear erosion and deposition zones (Landslides: 13 km, Debris flow paths: 14 km, Alluvial fans: 6 km).
A total of 36 individual landslides were flown and mapped, which was a very tiny selection of the landscape scars present. The purpose of this mapping was to focus on the larger erosion features, to give an indication of the damage found across the catchment area, and enable prioritization and planning efforts to begin. Overall, the creek lines that were catastrophically impacted (fundamentally changed) were those in steep terrain on highly weathered bedrock. Creek lines that were less impacted still displayed increased bank erosion, gullying, and landslides. A video showing some of the footage taken during this survey is freely available on the South Cape York Catchments YouTube channel (and below) and Cape York Water Partnerships website.
This work was undertaken with the support of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.
South Cape York Catchments Gully Control Partnership with the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR)
South Cape York Catchments Gully Control Partnership with the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR)
South Cape York Catchments gully project
South Cape York Catchments gully project
South Cape York Catchments (SCYC) partnered with the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) to tackle the major erosion of the gully at Mulligan – Shiptons Flat intersection. This gully exists on the road reserve, formed in highly dispersive soils due to past road drainage and soil management not adequately addressing the elevated erosion risk.
The eroding batters and drains on the northern and southern side of this intersection are estimated to have eroded 125 tonnes per year of fine sediment delivered to the mouth of the Annan River and offshore reefs. These estimates are based on repeated elevation surveys between 2018 and 2023 (LiDAR and Drone DEMs).
Consultation and collaboration
The Helenvale and Rossville communities were consulted at a meeting on site prior to works for input on the potential future use of the space. The area is used by residents as a meeting point, pickup point, and ride sharing rendezvous. Ideas from the community included art installations, information signs and seating/shelter for those who use the site waiting for transport. Ways of funding some of these ideas are being explored, with a seating area the most likely of getting installed along with educational signs.
SCYC and TMR collaboratively developed a cost sharing agreement to remediate this site based on designs developed by SCYC, with rehabilitation works completed at the end of June 2024.
The completion of this joint rehabilitation project is a great example of TMR proactively tackling areas of historical land degradation within the road corridor, while partnering with community groups and gully erosion experts. The project sets a strong foundation that may see other prioritised degraded areas rehabilitated elsewhere on the state-controlled network, including along the Peninsula Developmental Road and others in Great Barrier Reef catchments.
Top left: John Caltabiano (RoadTek), Lee Jonsson (RoadTek), David Klye (SCYC), Charlie Scott (Scott Earthmoving Group), Jeff Shellberg (SCYC/CYWP) at the Mulligan-Shiptons Flat turnoff. MIddle and bottom left: Before and after gully erosion control worksECYWQP project coordination meetings 2024
ECYWQP project coordination meetings 2024
ECYWQP Legacy project workshops, February 2024
ECYWQP fire project coordination meeting, May 2024
The Eastern Cape York Water Quality Program is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse