BBB Water Quality Program Overview
The Reef 2050 Plan identified the Burdekin River Basin as the top priority for reducing the amount of fine sediment carried to the Great Barrier Reef, with the Bowen, Broken and Bogie catchments being the major sources.
To tackle this, the five-year BBB Water Quality Program— funded through the Reef Trust Partnership— was launched to support pollutant reduction targets set by the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan( 2017 – 2022).
The Burdekin River delivers the highest volume of fine sediment into the GBR lagoon, with the Bowen, Broken and Bogie( BBB) catchments contributing about half of that load. The five-year BBB Water Quality Program, supported by the Reef Trust Partnership( RTP), aimed to meet pollutant targets set by the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan( WQIP) 2017-2022. The Bowen, Broken, and Bogie( BBB) Water Quality Program aimed to reduce fine sediment loads and improve the quality of water flowing from the BBB catchments. The RTP allocated $ 26 million to this regional program including:
• $ 1.8 million granted to Greening Australia( December 2020 to August 2023);
• $ 1.2 million granted to Greening Australia( July 2024 to June 2025);
• $ 4.7 million granted to NQ Dry Tropics( November 2020 to June 2025); and
• $ 18 million granted to NQ Dry Tropics( August 2021 to June 2025).
This document highlights the activities delivered through the two RTP-funded NQ Dry Tropics projects.
These projects built on the success of the Burdekin Major Integrated Project( BMIP) and the Queensland Governmentfunded five-year( 2020-2025) Landholders Driving Change( LDC) project that used a participatory grassroots approach to test the effectiveness of strategic, catchment-scale interventions.
The RTP-funded projects delivered outcomes through three key areas:
• Landscape Remediation: Addressing high-yield gully networks and streambank erosion.
• Grazing Services: Improving grazing practices.
• Other Land Managers: Encouraging non-grazing landholders to adopt practices to reduce sediment loss.
Community engagement was targeted to ensure alignment with LDC’ s goals, supporting landholders through education, incentives, and monitoring via the Paddock to Reef Program, with reporting through the Great Barrier Reef Foundation dashboard.
Governance was overseen by the Foundation’ s Steering Committee and Technical Advisory Group. NQ Dry Tropics sought advice from the LDC Project Panel on delivery.
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