By Tony Moore
After years of lobbying, the Newman government has introduced a body to tackle the millions of tonnes of eroded sediment flowing down the Brisbane River to the Port of Brisbane and into Moreton Bay.
The Resilient Rivers program will use $2 million from the Department of Environment, plus yet-to-be determined sums from local councils and water utilities, to fund anti-erosion schemes upstream.
A long-awaited new Queensland body will fight river erosion.
The scheme was launched by Environment Minister Andrew Powell, Minister for Natural Resources Andrew Cripps, Council of Mayors chairman Cr Graham Quirk and Lockyer Valley mayor Steve Jones.
The initial signatories are Council of Mayors (SEQ), Seqwater, Healthy Waterways, SEQ Catchments, Unitywater, and Queensland Urban Utilities.
Mr Powell said the five councils in the Brisbane River catchment would become members of the new Brisbane River Improvement Trust.
"So that is Brisbane, Ipswich, Somerset, Scenic Rim and Lockyer councils," Mr Powell said.
Healthy Waterways will provide the scientific research, while South East Queensland Catchments and SeqWater will provide the project workforces and project skills.
Fairfax Media has extensively covered issues of sediment possibly blocking Brisbane's future drinking water supply and eroding crucial farming land in the Lockyer Valley.
"The initiative is designed to have co-ordinated action to address the issues you have been reporting on for several months now," Mr Powell said.
"...That action plan would be funded through the Brisbane River Improvement Trust, which Minister Cripps announced this morning."
The BRIT will allocate funds from the state government, local councils and potentially from the Port of Brisbane, Queensland Urban Utilities, Unitywater or SeqWater.
"Any entity that wanted to contribute to improving the catchment could put funds in through the BRIT," Mr Powell explained.
The scale of those contributions is now being evaluated and will be announced in 2015, he said.
"The BRIT is an account that is overseen by a board that Minister Cripps will make an announcement about who is on it in due course," he said.
"But it then funds the projects which are agreed on as being the priorities."
The conservation, planting and riverbank re-vegetation projects then go out to the private sector to be completed on tender.
"But obviously we have SEQ Catchment who have been doing fantastic job in that space already," he said.
Mr Cripps said the scheme used a basic approach to tackle soil erosion.
"The Newman government is committed to addressing bread and butter environmental issues and ensuring our waterways are improved for the benefit of all Queenslanders now and into the future," Mr Cripps said.
It will adapt the north Queensland successful Reef Rescue type approach, which has been given a more direct link to the farmer and grazier by the LNP since it won office in 2012, Mr Powell said.
"More than 850 graziers are already participating in the Grazing BMP in the Great Barrier Reef and we hope to build on this positive momentum."