In June 2021, Redland City Council adopted the Redlands Coast Bay and Creeks Plan 2021-2031 [PDF 4.39MB] and the associated Redlands Coast Bay and Creeks Action Plan 2021-2026 [PDF 1.17MB].
Working together to protect and enhance the resilience of the creeks and Moreton Bay for a sustainable future
The Redlands Coast Bay and Creeks Plan provides strategic intent for protecting, maintaining and enhancing the health of our waterways and the bay. It guides and prioritises management actions and Council operational activities to ensure ongoing resilience of our waterways and the bay over the next ten years.
The Redlands Coast Bay and Creeks Action Plan outlines specific operational management actions that are practical, realistic, targeted and achievable within the next five years.
Together, the Plan and associated Action Plan are based on four key goals:
- Decisions Based on Science
- Protect Creek and Bay Assets
- Restore Degraded Systems
- Community Making a Difference
The development and implementation of Redlands Coast Bay and Creeks Plan reflects an ongoing commitment to sustainable stewardship of our waterways and the bay.
Water quality monitoring
Our water monitoring program cover catchments across the Redlands Coast, including the mainland, Southern Moreton Bay Islands and Coochiemudlo Island.
Redland City Council currently has a number of water quality monitoring programs. The program covers catchments across the city, including the mainland, Southern Moreton Bay Islands and Coochiemudlo Island.
Our main water quality monitoring programs include:
Ambient monitoring
The ambient program currently measures water quality condition at numerous sites across the mainland and Southern Moreton Bay Island catchments. The program runs during the summer months. The local data obtained from this program assists us to identify, prioritise and drive management actions across Redlands Coast.
Rainfall event monitoring
Redland City Council operates two event monitoring stations. The stations collect water samples from Hilliards and Eprapah Creeks during rainfall. The water quality and stream flow data allows Council to determine fluxes of sediment and nutrient pollutants entering our freshwater creeks and Moreton Bay.
Aquatic Habitat Assessment
Aquatic Habitat Assessments, including native fish, pest fish and water bugs (aquatic macroinvertebrates) surveys occur every three to four years. Fish and bugs are biological indicators and give us a measure of overall stream health. The results of this assist management actions.
Community monitoring
Passionate members of our community often assist us with water quality monitoring and undertaking citizen science projects. We are hoping to grow this program to support our wider monitoring programs and target key research question to assist our future direction. We would love to hear from you if you are keen to get involved and support your local waterways. For more information on how to participate in the Community Bushcare Programs 'Creek Crew' contact Redland City Council on (07) 3829 8999.
Understanding water quality
Maintaining habitat, aquatic biodiversity and water quality is critical for ecological economic and social wellbeing. Some of the terms used in our water quality monitoring are provided below. Many of these are used in our annual waterway recovery report.
Environmental indicators
Council's monitoring programs use environmental indicators of waterway health that represent key elements of complex ecosystems and have meaning beyond the measure it represents. Indicators are typically grouped into physico-chemical, biological or socio-economic measures.
Further information on environmental indicators can be found at the Department of Environment and Sciences.
Environmental values
The waterways of Redlands Coast have defined environmental values and water quality guidelines that have been developed by the Queensland State Government. Environmental values are qualities or characteristics of a creek that support healthy ecosystems and the community livelihoods and lifestyles.
For further information please refer to the Department of Environment and Science website:
South East Queensland and Moreton Bay – see the table row ‘Redland creeks’ for documents.
Water quality objectives
Water quality objectives are defined in the Queensland Environmental Protection [Water] Policy 2019 which seeks to achieved the objective idenitified by the Environmental Protection Act 1994 - to protect Queensland's waters by an integrated management program while allowing for development that is ecologically sustainable.
Numerical concentrations of water quality indicators are defined to protect waterway environmental values. These values provide the benchmark that are used to assess the condition of our waterways.