Six regional NRM organisations will deliver projects to improve the quality of water flowing to the Great Barrier Reef, as part of the Australian Government’s $200 million Landscape Repair Program.
Funded projects will help to reduce sediment reaching Reef catchments by restoring eroded gully systems, rehabilitating streambanks, and improving groundcover through grazing land management.
Poor water quality is one of the Reef’s most significant threats. Sediment run-off can block sunlight, smother and kill coral, and contribute to increased algal growth and a build-up of pollutants.
The program is expected to stop more than 130,000 tonnes of sediment entering the Reef.
Six projects are being delivered by the following regional NRM organisations: Fitzroy Basin Association (FBA), Terrain NRM, Reef Catchments, Burnett Mary Regional Group, Cape York NRM, and NQ Dry Tropics.
The Landscape Repair Program is the latest initiative where Queensland’s NRM organisations have partnered with the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. Here are some more Reef NRM projects and their key outcomes:
Fitzroy Water Quality Program – FBA
Completed in June 2024 with nearly $20 million invested through the Reef Trust Partnership, the Fitzroy Water Quality Program had an ambitious goal: to prevent 50,000 tonnes of fine sediment from the Fitzroy River Basin entering the Reef’s waters every year.
A series of projects improved landscape function, remediated degraded land—including gullies and streambanks—and improved land management, particularly of grazing and cropping lands. Find out more about the project.
Watch FBA’s video about a streambank rehabilitation project, near Rockhampton, only 40km from the Reef. This work is preventing 654 tonnes of sediment each year from flowing to the coast.
Mary River Recovery project – Burnett Mary Regional Group
The Mary River Recovery project was a four-year initiative beginning in June 2020. Its primary aim was to significantly reduce fine sediment loads flowing into the Great Barrier Reef.
Actions included stabilising steep eroding banks, installing instream habitat structures such as rootballs and pile fields, and carrying out extensive revegetation.
- Preventing 26,091 tonnes of fine sediment each year from reaching the Great Barrier Reef.
- Planted 100,253 native riparian seedlings across 11 sites.
- 5km of fencing installed to keep livestock off the riparian area.
- 326 landholders engaged.
The Mackay Whitsunday Water Quality Program – Reef Catchments
The Mackay Whitsunday Water Quality Program (MWWQP) was the largest of five sugarcane regional water quality programs under the Reef Trust Partnership. Since 2020, growers under the MWWQP have been implementing on-farm practice change.
This collaboration has produced on-farm benefits to productivity and profitability, while directly contributing to important improvements in water quality flowing through to local creeks and waterways.
- Approx. 300 farming enterprises engaged in 514 projects throughout the program.
- 50,000 hectares engaged in the program.
- 28 tonnes of dissolved inorganic nitrogen reduced annually.
- Over 6 million risk units of pesticides reduced annually.
- Preventing 5000 tonnes of fine sediment each year from reaching the Great Barrier Reef.
Find out about what else Reef Catchments is doing to protect the Great Barrier through their Reef Trust VII project that supported 30 graziers to reduce erosion and improve land condition, and their Reef Trust IV project that reduced sediment flowing into the Reef by more than 10,000 tonnes.
Herding Change Through Grassroots Recovery project – NQ Dry Tropics
Graziers have completed a four-year project implementing land management changes to maintain end-of-dry-season groundcover and reduce erosion and fine sediment run-off on properties across the Burdekin.
The initiative involved 75 sites, and more than 370,000 hectares of grazing management practice change in the Coastal, Upper and East Burdekin regions.
- 63,651 tonnes of fine sediment prevented from reaching the Great Barrier Reef.
- 29 events run, attended by 600 graziers and 310 industry personnel.
- 150 property visits.
- 392km of fencing, and 212km of pipelines.
‘Being involved in the project has improved my understanding about runoff of fine sediment to the reef, through how agricultural land is managed, and impacts of major natural events on ecosystems,’ Grazier Bernadette Easton said. ‘There’s a direct link between how agricultural land is managed, natural events and water quality. I’m confident the grazing industry is taking steps in the right direction.’
In addition, the Lower Burdekin Water Quality Program supported growers to adopt sustainable farming practices to reduce dissolved inorganic nitrogen and pesticides entering the Great Barrier Reef, while maintaining or improving profitability.
Another grazier involved in the Herding Change Through Grassroots Recovery project was Kylie Stretton of Red Hill Station.
Upper Herbert Sediment Reduction project – Terrain NRM
The Herbert River catchment is one of the top three contributors of fine sediment flowing to the Great Barrier Reef.
The Upper Herbert Sediment Reduction project is reducing fine sediment loads in the Reef lagoon by targeting erosion hot spots, constructing engineered solutions, and working with graziers to improve the health of grassland ecosystems and cattle.
- Preventing 3730 tonnes of sediment each year from reaching the Great Barrier Reef.
- Engineered three structures to prevent more erosion.
- 20 landholder workshops on soil health, grazing management practices, hydrology, and business planning.
Catchments to Coral – Cape York NRM
The Catchments to Coral project was designed to improve the health and resilience of coastal habitats within the Great Barrier Reef catchments of eastern Cape York.
Major outcomes achieved during this project included the delivery of a range of threat management actions to protect significant wetlands, floodplains, coastal habitat, sea turtle nesting habitat and the catchments of the Reef.
- Fire management of 110,217 hectares.
- 469,707 hectares of feral animal management.
- Invasive weeds managed across 1995 hectares.
- 1370 hectares of stock access control.
- 40 hectares cleared of marine debris.
Flatback turtle on the Cape York Peninsula