Know Your Creek Oxley Creek Catchment
Catchment characteristics
Oxley Creek is a major tributary of the Brisbane River and is about 70 kilometres long. The Oxley Creek catchment includes Oxley Creek, Blunder Creek and their tributaries that flow through the southern suburbs of Brisbane. With a total area of 260 square kilometres and including all or part of 20 suburbs, Oxley Creek catchment is one of the city’s largest creek catchments. The water from the catchment flows into the Brisbane River at Tennyson/Graceville.
From the Brisbane River, the catchment bends southwest through Logan City and portions of eastern Ipswich City. The headwaters of Oxley Creek rise at the slopes of Mt Perry near Flinders Peak in the Scenic Rim region.
Natural assets
Significant natural assets in the Oxley Creek catchment include:
Graceville Riverside Parklands and Graceville Avenue Park, including Simpson’s Playground and Bert Street Clair Oval. Strickland Terrace Park Oxley Creek Common Spring Mountain Reserve, featuring spring Mountain wetland. Les Atkinson Park C.J. Greenfield Complex Park Blunder Creek Corridor including Pacific Parade Park, Hinchinbrook Circuit Park and Woogaroo Reserve.
Did you know?
The diverse range of vegetation, wetland systems and habitat reserves within the Oxley Creek catchment provide habitat for more than 200 species of birds.
Land Uses
The southern catchment is sparsely populated and much of the land is in a natural or semi- natural state. Native vegetation found in this area has been classified as ‘endangered’ or ‘of concern’ regional ecosystems. The middle catchment has a comparatively low population, although development in this area is increasing. The northern catchment is the area of the Oxley catchment that is within the boundaries of Brisbane. The majority of this catchment has been changed by human activity and uses include general industry, extractive industry, sewage treatment, an airport, golf courses, and low-to-medium density residential areas.
Fauna
The large restricted area of the Greenbank Military Training Area (GMTA) supports a diversity of native mammal species, with numerous vulnerable species including the yellow-bellied glider and the iconic koala. Previously believed to be extinct within the catchment, the spotted quoll (classified as ‘endangered’) has recently been recorded in Camira and sightings have occurred around Greenbank, Forestdale and Spring Mountain Reserve areas.
The catchment is home to 18 species of bats, which are important pollinators of the forests. The mix of open forest and grasslands in the catchment also provides shelter and food for a number of species of macropod, including the red-necked wallaby, whiptail wallaby and swamp wallaby.
The diverse range of vegetation, wetland systems and several habitat reserves within the Oxley Creek catchment provide habitat for more than 200 species of birds including the migratory latham’s snipe. The glossy black cockatoo, spotted within the Spring Mountain Reserve, is listed as an endangered species in Australia and is considered vulnerable in Queensland.
Flora
Most bushland areas of the middle and lower catchment of Oxley Creek have been cleared for development however some small patches of riparian vegetation, including some dry rainforest patches, remain along the creeks. An endangered plant species, the angle-stemmed myrtle (Gossia gonoclada) grows in riparian patches around Corinda.
The major vegetation types occurring in the Oxley Creek catchment include dry eucalypt forests, freshwater wetlands, tidal wetlands and riparian vegetation.
The areas of GMTA, Parkinson Bushland, the Blunder Creek Corridor, Spring Mountain Reserve and southern catchment bushland areas, mostly held in private land, comprise approximately 45% of the total catchment area.
Restoring Oxley Creek
Oxley Creek Catchment Association (OCCA) is a not-for-profit community-based organisation that aims to protect and enhance the natural environment and resources of the catchment of Oxley Creek by advocating, educating and participating in catchment management.
OCCA facilitates exciting projects incorporating industry and community partnerships, delivering water pollution prevention, water quality monitoring, weed mitigation and native waterway rehabilitation. With a strong focus on education, OCCA staff and volunteers regularly visit local schools and groups to deliver informative lessons on the importance of caring for the catchment.
Council’s community conservation partnerships program helps community groups restore natural habitats in parks, remnant bushland and wetlands along waterways. There are currently a number of active bushcare groups tending rehabilitation sites in the Oxley Creek catchment.
The program also supports the community to protect and restore Brisbane’s waterways and bays in partnership with groups, businesses, schools and individual property owners.
For more information on Council’s community conservation partnerships program and environment centres phone Council on (07) 3403 8888.
Websites
Brisbane City Council: www.brisbane.qld.gov.au Oxley Creek Catchment Association: www.oxleycreekcatchment.org.au [email protected] Friends of Oxley Creek Common: www.friendsofoxleycommon.org.au Brisbane Catchment Network: www.brisbanecatchments.net.au Healthy Waterways: www.healthywaterways.org SEQ Catchments: www.seqcatchments.com.au