Our Work
The Eastern Cape York Water Quality Program undertook early interventions in ‘less-disturbed’ Great Barrier Reef catchments by addressing threats to water quality in eastern Cape York including erosion from fire, roads, tracks and gullies. The work took place across eight coastal catchments - Annan, Endeavour, McIvor, Starke, Jeannie, Howick, Wakooka, and Muck, covering 631,000 ha of eastern Cape York. Cape York Water Partnership coordinated the work, in partnership with South Cape York Catchments, South Endeavour Trust and Yuku Baja Muliku, Traditional Owners, Cook Shire Council, conservation groups, local land holders and land managers.
Water quality and aquatic ecosystems monitoring
The Water Quality Monitoring Project is monitoring river and coastal water quality with Traditional Owners from the Annan through to the Muck catchments as well as seagrass and wetland monitoring in some locations.
Track erosion and mapping
The Primitive Roads Project involved collaborating across the project area to identify and map priority areas of ‘primitive road’ erosion, carrying out control works at pilot locations and developing Best Management Practices guidelines. This project worked across all land tenures.
A primitive road is any unmanaged road or track, this can include any unmanaged dirt road, fence lines, tracks.
Program management
As Program Manager of the Eastern Cape York Water Quality Program, CYWP coordinates and supports collaboration between the project teams and Great Barrier Reef Foundation for an integrated catchment management approach and collective program outcomes.
Marine Monitoring Program
Members of the CYWP undertake marine water quality monitoring across 4 Eastern Cape York sub-regions as part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority's Marine Monitoring Programme.