WATER QUALITY SAMPLING AND MONITORING
WATER QUALITY MONITORING
The BBB Program Monitoring and Evaluation Plan is built on the established framework and data collection processes from the Office of the Great Barrier Reef’ s( OGBR) Landholders Driving Change project in the BBB region, ensuring a legacy of continuity in tracking and evaluating long-term change.
Individual on-ground projects implemented projectspecific monitoring and evaluation plans on grazing, gully remediation, and streambank projects. Monitoring and evaluation data collected were provided to program participants, and all landholder information remained confidential. Results shared beyond the property owners and managers were anonymous, including reports to the Paddock to Reef program to monitor, model, and report against the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan.
Additional monitoring carried out for the BBB catchment:
• Gully remediation monitoring— In partnership with CSIRO, Fruition Environmental, and landholders, funding was allocated to continue monitoring four large-scale remediated gully sites. These sites span various subcatchments, erosion types, costs, design methods, interventions, and years since intervention. Ongoing gully monitoring delivered measurable water quality results and confirmed that the treatment methods used were effective and could be applied in other locations.
• Community-based water quality monitoring— In collaboration with James Cook University TropWATER, the existing community water quality monitoring program continued. This effort improved landholders’ understanding of local water quality and provided data to the Queensland Government’ s Source Catchment Modelling team to validate and calibrate hydrology models, improving the accuracy of load estimates.
One of CSIRO’ s water monitoring systems. CSIRO produces an annual report for Landholders Driving Change( LDC), presenting monitoring results from gully rehabilitation sites on four BBB catchment properties— Strathbogie, Mt Wickham, Glen Bowen, and Havilah. The report assesses how effective the treatments are at reducing erosion.
Pictured are water samples from the Glen Bowen gully site— the left from the treated area, the right from the untreated control site.
TropWATER trained landholders in the BBB catchment to collect and store water samples, recording key details like date, time, and stream level. Samples were kept chilled until lab analysis. Scientists Stephen Lewis and Zoe Bainbridge shared insights from the data at feedback events, where landholders could discuss their results in detail. Pictured trying his hand at sampling is Bo Burgess, under the watchful eye of Tristan Gibson, NQ Dry Tropics, pictured far left, with Steve Lewis, TropWATER, Olivia, Billy and Cody Burgess, and Zoe Bainbridge, TropWATER.
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