Redland City Councillors yesterday (Wednesday 10 April) saw firsthand how erosion and sediment control help to maintain the region’s pristine waterways during a visit to the national Erosion and Sediment Control Demonstration Facility.

Mayor Cr Karen Williams said the Redlands’ location meant erosion and sediment control was an important topic.

“Being situated among some of the most beautiful and sensitive coastal areas in Queensland, Redland City Council has to remain vigilant of the constant erosion threat to our coastline,” Cr Williams said.

“We are a coastal community with an increasing population, so we have to be mindful of how our actions and the controls we have in place can impact our waterways.”

Councillor Paul Gleeson, Council spokesperson for Environment, Waterways and Foreshores, said the facility offered some great insights into sediment control in the Redlands, which was timely given the recent wet weather.

“After another very wet summer characterised by large volumes of rainfall over lengthy periods the Redlands has been fortunate to fare substantially better than areas such as the Gold and Sunshine Coasts.”

Cr Gleeson said Council regularly undertook a number of erosion and sediment control measures to maintain the health of local waterways.

“As part of our commitment to the health of our waterways Council has a proactive program of erosion and sediment control,” Cr Gleeson said.

“This includes the Waterways Extension Program through which Council works with private landholders to identify erosion concerns on private land and implement effective sediment control so the health of local waterways is maintained.

“These measures are clearly yielding results with Redlands waterways achieving the best result in eight years in the last SEQ Ecosystems Report Card.”

The visit to the facility was organised by Deputy Mayor Alan Beard after he was impressed during a previous visit.

“I think this site is a great education tool for communicating the results of erosion research conducted in the Redlands,” Cr Beard said.

“Natural turf grass has proven itself to be effective to stop erosion from taking place but also to trap sediment and prevent it from moving into our waterways.

Turf also provides a natural ground cover that allows the water to slow down, dissipating the power of the flow, and lets the water infiltrate into the ground and an added bonus is – it’s natural.”

Project Leader Shane Holborn from BioScience Australia said that in addition to Council’s visit; the facility was also used to showcase sediment and erosion control to representatives from other industries.

“The facility has allowed us to conduct live demonstrations of erosion and sediment control concepts to people from the construction and mining industries as well as different levels of government from around Australia,” Mr Holborn said.

“It is fantastic to see these results in action; they could not be conveyed any better in a thousand written reports or factsheets.”

The demonstration facility, based at the old Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry site at Cleveland, is funded by the national turf industry and is designed to illustrate erosion in action by running water down a slope in a controlled manner highlighting the different available measures and their effectiveness.