Waterway Restoration in Action – Field Trip Recap

On Friday 18 July 2025 a group of 40 practitioners, landholders, and waterway management professionals came together for a full-day field trip to explore four active restoration sites across the Bremer River and Warril Creek catchments.

This professional development and industry networking activity was organised by Flood CoP and RBMS – Queensland Branch, in collaboration with Healthy Land & Water and Resilient Rivers.

The trip began at Shapcott Park in Ipswich, before travelling west to visit multiple restoration sites across the Warril Creek catchment near Aratula, including properties with active erosion management and energy dissipation structures.

What was the focus of the day?

The field trip showcased a variety of on-ground waterway restoration techniques across four contrasting sites. From urban creek restoration to large-scale rural landholder interventions, participants were able to see and discuss approaches to:

Bank stabilisation
Flow energy management
Log jams, vetiver grass, and pile-field techniques
Catchment-wide vs. reach-scale design decisions
The role of landholder collaboration and regulatory considerations

The event wasn’t all mud and methodology. There was plenty of time for good chats, curious questions, and a hearty dose of networking.

We wrapped it all up the proper way for a Friday: with a relaxed debrief at the local pub, cold drinks in hand and hot pizzas on the table.

The day was a perfect example of how cross-sector collaboration can offer deep, place-based learning that only thrives when working together.

A special thank you to all attendees who carpooled, shared questions, and contributed to a rich day of learning in the field.

Why waterway restoration matters and what does it look like?

Catchment and waterway health is vital for the long-term resilience of our local and downstream communities, ecosystems, and agricultural landscapes. This field trip allowed participants to see firsthand what’s working (and what’s challenging) in real restoration projects, guided by those actively doing the work.

Participants left with a clearer understanding of the technical approaches and the relationships, funding models, and long-term thinking required to scale this work across regions.

During the day participants were tasked with BUILDING A WORD CLOUD. Elements that entail and enable waterway restoration were written down after each site, and were prompted by building a localised systems picture of:

(i) why we are doing waterway restoration

(ii) what is entailed in the design, implementation and maintenance of these restoration intaivares

(iii) the benefits of these efforts

Compiling these 4 word clouds, from 360 pieces of paper!! – and then translating into a systems framework is proving to be challenging!!! Efforts are underway – with Piet Filet’s systems analysis skills being pushed to the limit – even AI is pretty ordinary at helping!! But please, watch this spot for an imminent addition of the 4 word clouds and a systems framework.

What were we seeing at some of the waterway restoration sites?

Who participated?

Joining the day were a rich mix of peers including guests from Rockhampton, namely the Fitzroy Basin Association and a Streamology colleague from Melbourne – so a specials thanks to those folk for making the additional effort to join us.

Also present were colleagues from:

Local Government – Scenic Rim, Ipswhich and Brisbane
Catchment Groups – Healthy Land Water, FBA, Resilient Rivers and Ipswich River Improvement Trust
Consulatnts – Aurecon, Balmoral Group, Bligh Tanner, Ecological Service Professionals, Engeny, Geomorphe, Hydrobiology, Neilly Group and Streamology

Plus we were fortunate to spend time and hear from the Donaldson family, Julie and Brian, who have spent a 25 year period revegetating, restoring and maintaining a part of the upper catchment – impressive efforts.

We are grateful to the individuals and organisations who made this day happen:

Margie Dickson (Healthy Land & Water) – for coordinating the itinerary, liaising with landholders, and sharing her insights and passion throughout the day.
Jack McCann (Ipswich City Council) – for leading the discussion at two urban sites and sharing his local knowledge.
Anna Shera (Resilient Rivers, Council of Mayors SEQ) – for her collaborative work with landholders and sharing lessons from broader Resilient Rivers projects.
John Howlie – for providing detailed background on the site assessments and restoration design considerations.
Adriana Sanchez-Rosas, Michal Krawczyk (Flood CoP team) – for handling the event’s activity logistics and visual documentation.
Nicole Wheeler, Chamantha Athapaththu, Louis North & Ben Pearson (RBMS QLD) – for driving the partnership forward and supporting the event’s success.
Piet Filet (Flood CoP) – for initiating and co-leading the collaboration with RBMS, and for weaving together people, places, and purpose in a way that brought this field trip to life.

Reflections on the day

From misty views over the mountains to a stormy drive home (and a pizza or two), the day reminded us of the power of on ground learning, landscape connection, and peer to peer experience sharing.

There is an ongoing momentum built around waterway health in SEQ and this trip showed just how many pieces of the puzzle are already in motion. And with time we hope with days like this to further build the collective picture and experiences needed for successful and effective waterway restoration.

With a shared understanding of this need and operation of waterway restoration, plus having all the responsible parties active and connected, then the opportunities and scope to have restoration works more widespread across the catchments can be more likely.