‘Exciting’: New additions to Ross Creek, Townsville part of JCU student’s PhD thesis

The reason nine alien-like additions have been added to boardwalk pylons on the Flinders St foreshore can be revealed.

Concrete 'wraps' have been attached to pylons under the boardwalk on Ross Creek as part of an effort to provide habitat to oysters, mussels, and more. Single use only, no archiving.

Strange grey items have been wrapped around nine boardwalk pylons on the Flinders St foreshore as part of an environmental study.

Made from concrete, the ‘wraps’ are designed to support oysters, barnacles, and other marine life in Ross Creek.

James Cook University marine biology senior lecturer Nathan Waltham said the wraps were part of partnership between JCU and Townsville City Council.

“It’s exciting to see that as part of council’s developments along that foreshore they’ve bought these environmentally friendly wraps that attach to the pylons and greatly increase habitat complexity,” Prof Waltham said.

“After several years of planning and waiting on approvals, it was exciting to see the wraps installed.”

Concrete 'wraps' have been attached to pylons under the boardwalk on Ross Creek as part of an effort to provide habitat to oysters, mussels, and more. Single use only, no archiving.

Prof Waltham said the adoption of the wraps on the Flinders St pylons was actually very novel, because the design had never been used in tropical waters before.

Nine pylons have been chosen to wear the wraps – and nine others have been left bare as ‘control’ pylons for a JCU PhD student’s thesis.

Concrete 'wraps' have been attached to pylons under the boardwalk on Ross Creek as part of an effort to provide habitat to oysters, mussels, and more. Single use only, no archiving.

“Our job now over the next couple of years is to monitor them, to see what attaches and grows on these structures,” Prof Waltham said.

“Coastal development is changing our landscape … under climate change, with rising sea levels, and the intensity and frequency of storms increasing, there’s going to be a need for more of these hard structures to be built along coastlines.”

Originally published as ‘Exciting’: New additions to Ross Creek, Townsville part of JCU student’s PhD thesis