$4 million North Pine River catchment investment announced

Seqwater today announced an expansion of its longrunning partnership with Eatons Hill based land care group, Pine Rivers Catchment Association Inc. (PRCA), with almost $4 million to be invested over the next five years to improve catchment area and water quality of the Upper North Pine River, near Dayboro.

For 15 years, the organisations have been working together with local communities upstream of North Pine Dam (Lake Samsonvale) to control vine weeds that threaten the health of the North Pine River, which is a key drinking water catchment for the Moreton Bay Region and South East Queensland. Seqwater relies on large open catchments covering more than 1.2 million hectares of land, 95 per cent of which we they not own or manage, which is why community partnerships like this are so important to Seqwater achieving better land management and water quality outcomes.

PRCA President Derek Johnson said the new funding would help the not-for-profit organisation to continue to plan and deliver multi-year weed eradication, soil erosion prevention and riparian land care programs.

‘Through Seqwater’s support, we have worked since the early 2000s to significantly improve the health of 22 kilometres of the river and Terrors Creek,’ Mr Johnson said.

‘The river was once in a terrible state, with many thousands of riparian trees near death due to cats claw. Now the vines are almost gone, and the river looks amazing, the trees healthy and able to continue to stabilize the river banks, to enhance the condition of the North and South Pine River catchments.’ The North Pine River catchment is a source of water supply for Dayboro, an off-grid community and also for North Pine Dam (Lake Samsonvale), the region’s fourth largest supply dam.

As part of the expanded program, weed control work is also being supported by Moreton Bay Regional Council and river erosion and farm planning works are being delivered by environmental organisation Healthy Land and Water.