Johnstone River Innisfail – Queensland Government Will Not Take Real Action to Protect the GBRWHA

Johnstone River Innisfail – Queensland government will not take real action to protect the GBRWHA Photos supplied by Yvonne Cunningham and Russell Constable, Cassowary Coast residents and participants in the Cassowary Coast Alliance (CCA) Johnstone River Innisfail 1885, Goondi wharf, photo from ANL archives on line. The Johnstone River is a high-energy high- volume river in the Wet Tropics of North Queensland, annual rainfall around five metres; most of which falls in the wet season. The river banks are intact (no erosion) and there is no polluted or sedimented ‘run-off’ because the river banks and nearby land is densely vegetated. The waters running into the GBRWHA are clean and clear. Goondi Wharf today. The bank has receded around it. Riverside land all cleared. THE JOHNSTONE RIVER RUNS RED EVERY TIME IT RAINS. 1. Runoff (horticulture and agriculture) 2. Bank erosion. State and Council hide behind complex jurisdictional and tenure matters. Finding out who has jurisdiction and responsibility for riparian land has proved difficult. Yvonne Cunnningham has lived alongside the Johnstone River for forty- two years, where she manages her plant nursery. Here is her story (from an article published with photos in ECOTONE Magazine): I have noticed that the River needs less and less rainfall to cause the river to run red. At the mouth of the Johnstone River the mangrove forest has died, thought to be due to chemical sediments carried by the river, including herbicides. The Australian Institute of Marine Science has reported the Great Barrier Reef has lost half its coral cover over the past 27 years. Much of the blame for the coral loss has been placed on the effects of storms and coral bleaching. However, sediment and nutrient runoff, from agriculture and coastal development, are believed to have a far greater impact on the reef-ecosystem and affect the reef’s ability to naturally regenerate after storm events. For some time there has been conclusive evidence to demonstrate the link between nutrient runoff and escalating crown-of-thorns starfish infestations. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Australian Institute of Marine Science have spent $$ millions on Reef Guardian projects. TERRAIN Natural Resource Managers have been given $$ millions to carry out studies and revegetation projects. Landcare has been given $$ millions to spend on revegetation of riparian areas and rover catchments. River Improvement Trusts have received $$ millions to spend on studies and revegetation projects. In spite of this, the coastal rivers of Queensland seem to be carrying even more sediment now than they were a decade before. I asked Martin Cunningham, a fisherman and my son, what is happening to the coral. Martin told me “The coral along the headlands and around the inshore islands is gone. The fringing reefs are all but completely gone. Reefs 20 miles off shore are also in terrible shape. The near reef shoals such as Gouge Banks, Arthurs Patches and Surprise Shoal have a distinct red stain to the surrounding sediment and the coral cover would be less than ten per cent. The mid shelf reefs are in poor shape.” I asked Victor Cassidy a local aboriginal elder and keen fisherman to take me up the North Johnstone River. We left the town wharf and immediately saw that riparian vegetation had been removed completely in front of some subdivisions along the river. Elsewhere gaps have been made in the vegetation to view the river. There was severe erosion on the riverbank adjacent to these riverside developments. Victor remarked that there were few fish in the river nowadays and he asked me “Where are all the birds?’ The birds you would expect to see along a river were not there: there were no birds and all was quiet save for the sound of the boat’s engine. Victor pointed out how terribly the river has suffered. The ell grass beds in the North Johnstone River are gone and gone with them are the many species of fish and crustacean they supported. This has left a river unable to support even a fraction of the fisherman that once relied on the river for existence and recreation. This is quite ironic as the local Council went to great expense to erect fishing platforms along the river to attract tourists to fish. Once there were dolphins, dugongs and turtles all up the river but with the loss of the sea grass they too have gone. The schools of sauris roaring up the river on the summer king tides are gone. The masses of prawns at Christmas time are gone. The myriad of juvenile fish around the banks of the river are gone. All along the river we saw banana and sugarcane growing all the way to high water mark. The loss of riparian vegetation has changed the hydrological regime of the river. Erosion in the bend of the North Johnstone River near Polly Creek has caused a critical situation which is threatening farm lands and buildings. Where the river normally meandered around a long bend, without the riparian vegetation the speed of the water had increased and is now undermining the river bank. How had this happened, surely I thought it was illegal to remove riparian vegetation and extend cultivation to the river bank? “No” a farmer I asked told me. “I have a Riparian Land Lease and I pay around $500 a year to the Lands Department to lease the riparian land adjacent to my farm”. Yvonne Cunningham. At a recent Commmunity Cabinet in Tully, Yvonne and Margaret Mooorhouse asked for the state government to take real-life action to systematically repair the Johnstone River banks, an action that would have a real and important effect on repairing and protecting the GBRWHA, not a mere paper plan for more voluntary projects. Yvonne and Margaret explained that only the state government has the authority to untangle and deal with the jurisdictional complexities of riverine land tenures. Yvonne and Margaret explained that the now unvegetated banks fall in progressively when the river runs. They pointed out this is a separate problem to runoff; chunks of rich red soil are carried away. They explained that the River Improvement Trust did not seem to have the means of doing anything that would have a real effect stopping the apparently legal clearing to the very edge of the river. The relevant Minister (Andrew Cripps) had declined to hear them. The senior bureaucrats who received their Presentation said ‘case well made’ – but see (below) the written response they later received: back to square one. They have concluded that the State government has no intention of doing anything real to protect the GBRWHA. .

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