Moggill Creek Catchment
Catchment characteristics
Moggill Creek catchment covers 57.6 square kilometres and includes all or part of the suburbs of Kenmore, Kenmore Hills, Brookfield, Upper Brookfield, Mt Coot-tha, Pullenvale and Pinjarra Hills.
Moggill Creek rises in D’Aguilar National Park at Upper Brookfield and runs roughly southeast for 15 kilometres to meet the Brisbane River, where it forms the boundary between the suburbs of Kenmore and Pinjarra Hills.
Moggill Creek’s main tributaries are Gold Creek, Wonga Creek, Gap Creek and McKay Brook.
Natural assets Significant natural assets in the Moggill Creek catchment include: -
D’Aguilar National Park
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Brookfield Recreation Reserve
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Creekside Street Park
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Rafting Ground Reserve
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Gap Creek Reserve
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Gold Creek Reservoir is well known as a bird watching location.
Land Uses Moggill Creek catchment contains a number of land uses, including state forest, with mainly rural and rural residential properties in the upper and middle catchment and more urbanised areas in the lower catchment.
Did you know?
As many as 131 different species of butterfly have been recorded in the Moggill Creek catchment.
Fauna
The mix of farmland, rainforest, open forest and eucalypt woodland provides shelter and food for Brisbane’s four species of gliders and four species of macropod; the greater glider (Petauroides volans), squirrel glider (Petaurus norfolcensis), sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps), and feathertail glider (Acrobates pygmaeus); the eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus), whiptail wallaby (Macropus parryi), red-necked wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) and swamp wallaby (Wallabia bicolor).
A round 250 species of birds have been recorded in the Moggill Creek catchment. Some are considered rare, such as the grey goshawk (Accipiter novaehollandiae) and lewin’s rail (Rallus pectoralis), while others are only occasional visitors, such as the block-necked stork, or jabiru (Ephippiorhynchus assiaticus). Resident species include some that are uncommon elsewhere in Brisbane such as the satin bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus), regent bowerbird (Sericulus chrysocephalus), and bell miner (Manorina melanophrys).
As many as 131 different species of butterfly have been recorded in the Moggill Creek catchment. Most of these rely on particular native trees, vines and grasses. The catchment has one of the highest diversities of native freshwater fish species in Brisbane.
Reptile species in the catchment area are extremely diverse. Moggill Creek and the local area actually take their name from the Aboriginal word for the eastern water dragon (Physignathus lesueurii), which has been adopted by the Moggill Creek Catchment Group as its logo.
F lora
Moggill Creek catchment has some of the most abundant and diverse vegetation in Brisbane. Four main vegetation communities occur within the catchment:
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eucalyptus and corymbia open forest and woodland, comprising a variety of forest types including mixed species forests of grey gum, spotted gum, iron barks and stringybarks
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rainforests
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riparian (water side) forest
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forest red gum open forest and woodland.
The rainforest communities mainly occur in areas of the catchment with highly-fertile soils and most areas of rainforest on flat land were cleared for agriculture when the Moggill Creek district was first settled. More than 250 different species of plants have been recorded and are characterised by emergent hoop pines (Auracaria cunninghamii) rising above the surrounding tree canopy. Smith’s Rainforest Nature Refuge at Brookfield is the single largest remnant of rainforest remaining in Brisbane.
Restoring Moggill Creek
Moggill Creek Catchment Group (MCCG) is a volunteer community action group aiming to conserve and improve the natural environment of its catchment on both private and public land.
MCCG’s vision for Moggill Creek is a waterway free of pollution, inhabited by a diverse range of native wildlife and bordered by locally-native trees and shrubs.
The Moggill Creek Catchment Nursery located at the end of Gold Creek Road Brookfield, exists to provide members of the Moggill and Pullen Pullen Catchment groups with free local native plants so that they can revegetate their land. Plants of approximately 200 species native to Moggill and Pullen Pullen catchments are grown at the nursery.
Council’s community conservation partnerships program helps community groups restore natural habitats in parks, remnant bushland and wetlands along waterways. There are currently a number of active bushcare groups tending rehabilitation sites in the Moggill Creek catchment. The program also supports the community to protect and restore Brisbane’s waterways and bays in partnership with groups, businesses, schools and individual property owners.
For more information on Council’s community conservation partnerships program and environment centres phone Council on (07) 3403 8888.
Websites
Brisbane City Council: www.brisbane.qld.gov.au
Moggill Creek Catchment Group:
www.moggillcreek.org
mccgsecretary@live.com.au
Brisbane Catchment Network: www.brisbanecatchments.net.au
Healthy Waterways: www.healthywaterways.org
SEQ Catchments: www.seqcatchments.com.au |
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