Terrain NRM: New $3.2m Herbert River project to meet 2050 water-quality targets

A new multi-million project in the massive Herbert River catchment area stretching from Ravenshoe to Ingham is intended to help meet 2050 water-quality targets.

A new $3.2 million project will focus on the Herbert catchment – the largest river system in Far North Queensland which begins on the Atherton Tablelands and flows to the ocean almost 300km away at Ingham. Terrain NRM is working with a wide range of industries and groups to plan for the Herbert Integrated Project, which is funded through the Queensland Government’s Queensland Reef Water Quality Program. Picture: Supplied

A new multi-million project in the massive Herbert River catchment area stretching from Ravenshoe to Ingham is intended to help meet 2050 water-quality targets.

Terrain NRM is working with a wide range of industries and groups to plan for the $3.2 million Herbert Integrated Project, funded through the Queensland Government’s Queensland Reef Water Quality Program.

Project manager Fiona Barron said a “whole-of-catchment outlook” was important and would build on previous projects.

“They include working with farmers on grazing and sugar-cane management practice changes to improve everything from the land and production to the quality of water leaving properties,” she said.

“They also include fine-scale water quality monitoring, constructing fishways and repairing stream banks by engineering structures like rock chutes and pile fields.”

The swollen Herbert River at Abergowrie Bridge east of Ingham in February 2022. Picture: Cameron Bates

The Herbert catchment, which begins on the Atherton Tablelands and flows to the ocean almost 300km away in Hinchinbrook, covers about 10,000 square kilometres and is one of the four main contributors to fine sediment loads on the Great Barrier Reef.

Ms Barron said programs delivered over the last 15 years had made “good progress”.

“But to meet the 2050 water quality targets, we need to build on past work.”

She said the new project would rely on local knowledge and the latest science for a program that was tailored to both the upper and lower Herbert, which were both “very different areas”.

“We are factoring all that in and we’ll be prioritising projects – from weed control and stream bank revegetation to road management and whole-of-farm planning - to maximise impact.”

Diving at Soft Coral Wall on the Great Barrier Reef. Picture: Brad Fisher-Coral Expeditions

Ms Barron said the initiative could help landholders and the wider community identify emerging opportunities in the natural capital and green economy markets, “supporting economic and environmental resilience”.

She said a group of representatives from across industry, community and government will help to manage the project and its design.

More than 40 people have been part of workshops in Ravenshoe and Ingham recently to help determine the best actions to further improve water quality, the land, its resilience, agricultural outcomes and co-benefits for the local community.

Originally published as Terrain NRM: New $3.2m Herbert River project to meet 2050 water-quality targets