Creating a web of green

In 2008, the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project awarded Bulimba Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee a $10,000 grant to design and implement a community-driven and conducted fauna monitoring program at the Oxbow, a highly degraded wetland system in the lower catchment of Bulimba Creek.
 
This has supported Paul Whatmore, UQ Researcher, to undertake a nekton fish survey at the site, with the results indicating that Oxbow is a model for rehabilitation of degraded wetlands in an urban area.
 
“From a heavily degraded industrial site the Bulimba Creek Oxbow has been rehabilitated to a thriving and healthy urban wetland. My work involved surveys and assessment of the aquatic fauna within the Oxbow, and I found a level of species diversity equal to or greater than other relatively undisturbed estuarine systems within South-East Queensland. … The Oxbow project demonstrates that not only can habitat be protected, but it can also be restored and recovered, even from severe degradation. Given its success, and the generally degraded state of much of Australia’s urban wetlands, I feel this project could be viewed as a model for other urban wetland rehabilitation projects.”