Mosaic Map: NRM funded projects
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Stabilising banks at Brumby's Creek
Rocks were used to form groins around eroded section to force the current to reform creek
Riffle construction to slow and pool Brumbys Creek
John standing on a groin construction that will prevent further bank erosion & sediment deposit
There's a fence that hangs 4.6 metres in mid-air near Brumby's Creek, 60 kilometres south east of Launceston in Tasmania. This isn't an error in judgement, but rather the result of extreme erosion where hundreds of tonnes of riverbank has washed away, silting up the Tamar River downstream.
In the past if a farmer stood on land at the edge of Brumby's Creek they'd be precariously close to a sheer drop-off to the riverbed below, where the earth has simply collapsed.
Today the ground stays firmly put during flooding rains thanks to a project run by the Upper Brumby Landcare and NRM North regional groups.
Funding
The team received $150,000 from the Australian Government and support from the State Government for creek-bank stabilisation and willow removal.
Activities
Landowner Bill Scott-Young, who runs 2000 acres of mixed farming, says when it rains it really rains.
"The Western Tiers mountain range runs right on our back boundaries - it's about 1000 metres high with a straight single fall to the catchment and the streams that run down are very fast during rainfall," Bill said.
"There's a history of stock grazing right to the streamside and each year soil was washed away as creeks encroach on valuable pasture land. The main causes of erosion are willows, which choke the waterway, and livestock, which erode the banks. We took it upon ourselves to stabilise these banks."
The core group consists of half-a-dozen farmers - a tight-knit team with each one a trustee of the local church and member of the local fire brigade. They had their work cut out for them with five tributaries running off Brumby's Creek, each one eight kilometres long - that's 40 kilometres of stream bank needing rehabilitation.
Achievements
But now not only has the group addressed a silt problem - one of the biggest issues in Tasmania - it has also improved water quality right through to Launceston. The towns of Cressy and Longford get their water from Brumby's Creek and others in the catchment. Today, aquatic life has returned and more water flows during summer.
"We often see the Damsel fly nymph, water rats and platypus," Bill said. "We've made a difference and the good thing about our group is that it has moved on, we've also got a catchment management group, which is a flow on from the landcare group. We're making headway."
More information
- James McKee, NRM North Operations Manager: (03) 6333 7772 or jmckee@nrmnorth.org.au
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