New data exposes troubling decline in Townsville’s waterways
A new report raises concerns about key waterways, and revealed why North Queenslanders should be concerned. See what is being done.
Townsville
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A new report on the health of Townsville’s waterways and coastal waters has painted a mixed picture of improvements in some areas and deterioration in others, with the Bohle River recording its sixth “poor” result in a row.
Released by the Healthy Waters Partnership for the Dry Tropics on Wednesday, the 2025 Waterways Report Card’s reporting period between July 2023 – June 2024 was marked by significant climate stressors, including Severe Tropical Cyclone Kirrily and the fifth mass coral bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef.
As a consequence, the grade of Cleveland Bay’s habitat dropped from a moderate to poor grade, due to a decline in the health of seagrass meadows, although the report painted a positive picture for a “favourable” recovery.
Phytoplankton (algal) blooms were also of concern, with four of out of seven coral reefs receiving a “very poor” grade again.
Magnetic Island’s Alma Bay beach was recognised as having the “highest litter pressure in the region”, while the pressure has dropped on the east coast of Orpheus Island, due to local factors and dedicated clean-ups.
While overall water quality remained good in Townsville’s two main basins, the Black and urban-influenced Ross Basin, the report warned that the picture beneath the surface was more complex.
Nutrient levels improved in both the Upper and Lower Ross, but were offset by a drop in dissolved oxygen at each of the weirs in the Lower Ross, where grades fell to “poor”.
Encouragingly, the clarity (turbidity) of the Bohle River freshwater sub-basin has improved to “very good”, yet nutrient levels were still high, and dissolved oxygen levels were “very poor”.
Healthy Waters Partnership executive officer Kara-Mae Coulter-Atkins said there had been a number of projects carried out by the Champions of the Bohle to improve the waterway including drain naturalisation, revegetation, sediment and erosion control, and the removal of litter and illegally dumped items by TIDY Up Townsville.
She said the Bohle was under pressure due to it being one of Townsville’s most urbanised basins, supporting nearly half of the city’s population.
“When we look at things like nutrient accumulation and sediment accumulation, they are a cumulative effect, so, it typically isn’t just one one-point source pollution influencing such a large river system, but rather the fact that it is such a heavily urbanised area, and it is continuously being developed in that area as well,” Ms Coulter-Atkins said.
“The Bohle has agricultural (land) in the upper section … there’s also a turf farm there, there’s wastewater treatment plants and stormwater outputs … then you’ve also got your industrial areas that operate in there.”
Not confident that the Bohle’s problems could be solved in the next year, she said more funding was needed to conduct further investigations upstream.
“We are exploring options with several of our partners to get grant funding or additional funding streams so that we can get that upstream sampling to understand,” she said.
“It would take a multi-stakeholder agreement and … movement to see shifts in those grades.”
The partnership wants more people to come on board and share their data, including local developers who might want to share their successes with erosion and sediment control.
Originally published as New data exposes troubling decline in Townsville’s waterways
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