Riverine Site Maintenance project
(June 2024 – June 2026)
Aims of the project are:
- to ensure continuity of maintenance and monitoring of six riverine disaster recovery sites;
- to provide training in riverine rehabilitation and maintenance;
- to improve resilience at each site through upskilling and partnering with landholders and Traditional Owners;
- to bring landholders, Traditional Owners and other stakeholders together to collaboratively design and deliver projects to better manage risk and increase resilience to natural disaster events;
- to support local jobs and enterprises and create job opportunities where possible;
- to align with mitigation principles in the Disaster Recovery Financial Assistance framework to continually improve maintenance and monitoring to ensure maximum efficacy of treatment solutions;
- to ensure First Nations cultural heritage development and preservation, including facilitating discussion around cultural land management practices;
- to inform methodology for future works including innovations and the efficacy of different landscape remediation techniques; and
- to report on progress (quarterly) and provide final site assessment reports.

Rock walls and a chute installed at Gainsford Station to repair a hole in the Great Basalt Wall that emerged in the 2019 monsoon event.
Program aims to upskill stakeholders to ensure riverine repair work remains effective
A two-year program to shore up the effectiveness of riverine landscape repairs after Cyclone Debbie in 2017 and the Monsoon Trough event in 2019 aims to upskill land managers and other stakeholders to maintain repair work in the future.
The Riverine Site Maintenance Program, overseen by NQ Dry Tropics’ Soil Conservation Officer Bernie Claussen focuses on six sites repaired under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements at Don River, Gainsford Station, Major Creek, Miles Lake, Molongle Creek and Two Mile Creek.
Two of the sites are working well and need no immediate attention, three sites require some weed removal and one site needs additional in-fill, planting and watering to support the establishment of vegetation.
The Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements: Efficiencies to Resilience Funding Program – Riverine Site Maintenance program is administered by the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation on behalf of the Queensland Reconstruction Authority.

NQ Dry Tropics’ Soil Conservation Officer Bernie Claussen, left, and On Country Project Officer Jaeda Lenoy snap a pic of the piles being used at Majors Creek to slow and divert damaging floodwater.
THE SITES
DON RIVER, BOWEN
Cyclone Debbie flood repairs holding up
A 600m stretch of bank on the Don River was badly damaged with large erosion scours after the flood breakouts that followed Tropical Cyclone Debbie in 2017.
Remediation, including bank reshaping with a clay and gravel core, rock armoring and top dressing. The remediation works were managed by the Don River Improvement Trust (DRIT).
Latest site assessment (2024):
There are sand deposits on the rock wall which indicate that subsequent wet seasons have tested the structure.

The Don River facing upstream.
Non-natives, Leucaena trees and Giant reed grass (Arundo donax) are well established on the rock wall.
These two species dominate the sandy banks of the Don River in this lower reach of the river. Native trees (Eucalyptus sp mainly Moreton Bay) are establishing directly upstream of the site however not on the site directly.
The lower part of the bank revetment has been burnt recently and the Giant reed grass has rapidly reshot from its rhizomes.
This suggests fire is not an effective control measure for this introduced species.
GAINSFORD STATION, CHARTERS TOWERS
Hole in the Great Basalt Wall mended
A section of the Great Basalt Wall holding on one side of it, Lake Eumara, an extensive ecologically-sensitive wetlands area was damaged during the 2019 monsoon event.
Flooding blew a hole in the basalt wall which immediately threatened a stretch of the Lynd Highway and in the coming decade could possibly drain the lake and surrounding wetlands.
The site on Allingham Creek, just before it becomes Fletcher Creek was remediated in 2021.
Remediation works included a rock chute with an elevated crest, bund walls, landform reshaping, bank battering and minor revegetation.
According to the most recent monitoring, the repair work is performing well:
The site is in a stable condition. There are no signs of failure from the bunds or rock chute and the chute appears to have had water flowing down it at least once since it was built in 2021.
A variety of native woody tree species including eucalyptus and figs are established along the channel downstream of the rock chute that was disturbed during construction. This vegetation should assist in stabilizing the waterway.
The old gully head cuts further downslope will be monitored for active progression upslope as part of this project.
An aerial photograph of the repaired section of the Great Basalt Wall on Gainsford Station showing the breach in relation to Lake Eumara.
MAJOR CREEK, TOWNSVILLE
Timber piles protect the bank while vegetation establishes
The southern stream bank of Major Creek eroded rapidly during the severe monsoon trough in 2019. Remediation included pile fields, rock revetments and revegetation and this was carried out in 2021.
The latest site assessment report (2024) indicates some maintenance is necessary.
Water flows have reached the pile fields on the upstream end of the project site and there is woody debris up to about half a metre deep. Also, in this uppermost section, some erosion of the clay bank has occurred up to the height of the high-water flood mark (about three-quarters of the height of the bank).
Numerous young trees, such as paperbarks have established on the lower bank between the pile fields in the wetter upstream parts of the project site.
Erosion was significantly less where large rock was placed on the bank to armour the piles field. The original designing engineers will be consulted during the maintenance planning for this difficult site.
On the floodplain, adjacent to this eroding bank, the woody trees, planted to help hold the soil together have, by and large, not survived. Those still hanging on show signs of stress, including re-shooting after damage.
This site will be difficult to successfully vegetate. The shrink and swell properties of the cracking clay soil makes revegetation with woody stems very difficult. In a couple of spots, however, there are native Hakeas (close relatives of Grevillias) that have self-recruited on the bank but they are not in numbers dense enough or at a large enough extent to contribute much to strengthening the bank on this reach of Major Creek.
Further downstream a mixture of pile fields and rock revetment was used to strengthen the creek bank. Unfortunately, there is some rilling and early development of gullies occurring above the revetment but this is not unexpected, because the cracking clay of the upstream section grades into a dispersive duplex soil (Sodosol), a most difficult soil to stabilise following disturbance.
Woody weeds, particularly Chinee apple are scattered in the project area and are thickening following treatment by the landholder a couple of years ago. This is similar to many other sites, where land managers find themselves in a constant cycle of woody weed management to protect their assets.

Grasses, but few trees remain to protect the southern bank of Majors Creek during the next flood event.

Debris indicates the piles are working and also serves to provide a flow height indicator.
MILES LAKE, HILLGROVE STATION
Vegetation protects five sites
Five sites threatening the integrity of wetlands around Miles Lake, on Hillgrove Station, 115 km north of Charters Towers were remediated in 2021.
During the 2019 severe monsoon trough, gullies advanced towards the lake at an alarming rate that soil conservation experts judged posed a high risk to the wetlands dependent on the lake.
Works across the five sites included rock chutes, bunds and reshaping. Follow-up repairs were effected in June 2022 to the reshaped land which was deeply rilled after the first wet season.
The latest site assessment is positive and indicates the work has done its job so far.
Ground cover was generally high across the sites, dominated by legume and grass species. Feral pig movement throughout the area is beginning to form compacted pads. These may later develop into pathways for runoff and restart erosion.
There is no evidence the two rock chutes has been engaged. Whilst the bunds and rock chutes are intact, there is a lot of bare ground and the chute abutments have significant rilling and gullies forming. These areas need attention to protect the structures.
The landform reshaping work is intact.
There are minor channels forming in the lower lower sections of the two reshaped sites. Currently, these channels which are draining the whole site are less than 0.5m deep and are discontinuous.
These reshaped sites are dominated by mature Progrades desmanthus plants more than 2m tall.
Buffel grass is present in the higher areas where the progrades is not as thick.
Management of the Progrades is recommended and will form part of the maintenance plan.

There are still some bare areas around the rock chute. Field officers have set up monitoring points to monitor changes in ground cover.

An aerial view of Miles Lake and surrounding country.
MOLONGLE CREEK, GUMLU
Molongle Creek works holding up
Molongle Creek, near Gumlu was damaged by the severe monsoon trough in 2019 and remediated with pile fields, rock revetment and woody stem plantings in 2021.
The latest assessment indicates a positive result:
- The engineered structures on site are intact and engaging with the river.
- Vegetation cover was high, comprising planted trees and naturally-recruited plants including Leichhardt Trees and Clerodendron.
- The survival rate of previously planted stems was about 50 per cent with 11 species recorded in survey plots. Most plants were between 1m-6m tall.
- Some invasive weeds were present including Ipomea cairicus or similar, Chinee apple, rubber vine, Hawaiian woodrose (Argyreia nervosa) and castor oil plant.
- These species may reduce or impede the recruitment of native plants. Gamba grass is the dominant grass species at the site and will need to be managed.
- Much of the Gamba grass was laying over and forming mulch. This does not appear to be impacting the surviving trees but may have reduced recruitment when plants were shorter.
- There is an irrigation system which appears to be intact but not recently used.

A bird’s eye view of Molongle Creek with the piles along the bank on the right of the picture.
TWO MILE CREEK, TABLETOP STATION
Four sites working well
A cluster of four sites along Two Mile Creek, on Tabletop Station, Hervey Range were remediated in 2020 after being damaged in the 2019 monsoon trough event.
Remediation works included rock chutes, bunds, revegetation, landform shaping and fencing.
The work has been very successful and the only maintenance required is some weed control.
Site 1:
Reshaping and fencing at the site is intact. Ground cover is good including grass species sown in the revegetation work and others including giant speargrass and black speargrass that have naturally recruited.
There are some rills forming on the northern side of the site and evidence of disturbance by pigs.
There is potential for channels and gullies to redevelop at the site. Lantana and Siam weed are present at the northern side of the fenced enclosure. Treatment of these will be included in the maintenance plan.
Site 2:
Landform reshaping and fencing at the site is intact with no evidence of rilling.
Ground cover is good, predominantly joyweed with black speargrass, cherry tomato and some previously sown seed. Pigs have done minor rutting damage.
Site 3:
The rock chute and bund are intact and functioning as intended.
The fence is intact and successfully excluding cattle. There is greater than 95 per cent ground cover across the site.
A rill on the northern side of the chute abutment is deep (1m) but hidden by tall grass. Some soil loss was observed around a tree that was armored with rock and there is a short length of sheer bank opposite the tree, downstream of the reshaped area and it does not appear to have eroded further since the works were done.

Ground cover of more than 95 per cent helps to protect the remediation work.

The rock chute covered by vegetation. The Siam weed in the foreground will be treated as part of the maintenance.
The revegetation area has 100 per cent ground cover including herbs, vines and grass. Unfortunately, it also includes Siam weed and Lantana which will be targeted during maintenance work.
Although the survival rate of the original planting is low (about 10-20 per cent), significant self-recruitment of native eucalypt, (poplar gum, and acacias) has helped.
Significant vine cover on young trees, especially Siatro may be limiting their growth.
Site 4:
The rock chute is intact and functioning as intended. Herbs and grasses are well represented, and the ground cover is high. Fencing on the site is intact and successfully excluding cattle.
Only four of the 10 or so trees planted in a row on the chute abutments have survived, but poplar gums have self-recruited nearby.
The Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements: Efficiencies to Resilience Funding Program – Riverine Site Maintenance program is administered by the Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation on behalf of the Queensland Reconstruction Authority.