Norman Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee Archives

Stage D of the Veloway 1 (V1), an infrastructure project delivered by the Department of Transport and Main Roads, is now underway. When finished, the V1 will connect cyclists from Brisbane City to the Gateway Motorway at Eight Mile Plains. This project has been divided into five stages and right now, three stages are already completed and in use.

Stage D Completion

Veloway 1, Stage D
(Photo credit: www.tmr.qld.gov.au)

Stage D, presently under construction, is scheduled to be completed by October 2017. It will run from Lewisham Street, Greenslopes to O’Keefe Street, Buranda. The Queensland Government has just announced a dedicated budget of $3.7 million for 2017-2018 out of the total $23.7 million proposed investment for the construction.

Stage D is divided into four sections, with completed sections 1, 2, and 4 that will only be in use once the ongoing Section 3 construction is completed. Other completed and upcoming stages of the V1 development can be viewed on Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads’ official website.

Read: Veloway 1 Stage D Plan

“Better Bikeways 4 Brisbane”

The V1 Project is a part of the $100-million, four-year Better Bikeways 4 Brisbane program that aims to extend Brisbane’s network of bikeways to provide ease of access to different destinations, especially the Central Business District. The BB4B program was launched by the Brisbane City Council in 2016.

Benefits and Advantages

Bike Routes to the CBD
(Photo credit: www.space4cyclingbne.com)

The V1 project will successfully provide dedicated roads for cyclists that will ensure their safety and security. The 17-kilometre cycleway also promotes an active and healthy lifestyle. Cycling provides cardio benefits, and aids in strength conditioning, weight loss, and injury recovery.

Cycling to work, instead of just sitting in a car or on a bus, will be easier with the V1 project. With “Better Bikeways 4 Brisbane”, the community will be encouraged to walk or cycle. Over the last four years, South East Queensland has had a 12% increase in vehicle registrations that has contributed to greater congestion. The construction of the V1 will be able to reduce the number of vehicles on road; therefore, decreasing the congestion and decreasing the travel time from point A to point B, either via bicycle or car.

In a bid to study traffic and movement patters, eco-counters have been installed in some areas of the inner city, to monitor the volume of cyclists and pedestrians and help the Council understand how people are travelling. The data will be used in planning, monitoring, and maintaining the bikeways and pathways.

Along with promoting healthy lifestyle and minimising traffic congestion, the cycleway will reduce pollution in Greenslopes and nearby areas. Less cars also mean less pollution.

Green Affecting Green

V1 has also had a controversial impact on the environment. During its construction, some areas of the Norman Creek riparian corridor were affected, destroying significant vegetation that had been growing for nine years, affecting flora and fauna that used to live here. Along with the decreased vegetation, possibilities of erosion also increased.

However, the Norman Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee (N4C) established a Development Control Plan for this affected site and managed to bring back the beautiful green patch of forest and the faunas living here.

Read: Norman Creek Catchment New Issue

Environmental Offsets

Every development project has impacts on the environment and the community, both positive and negative. Queensland Environment Offsets Act (QEOA) of 2014 aims to balance the unavoidable impacts of the infrastructure projects and developments to the environment and vegetation.

Offset restoration includes:

Revegetation and planting
Mulch to avoid soil erosion
Habitat enhancement through placement of coarse woody debris
Installation of natural or artificial hollows, perches, and nesting sites for the local wildlife’s habitat; and
Regeneration including weed management and native vegetation maintenance.

The government and the community aim to work together as joint stakeholders to provide alternate solutions for every negative outcome it will yield, similar to the solutions that N4C has come up with during the V1 project.

Other infrastructure development projects can be viewed on the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads’ official website or on the Brisbane City Council’s official website.

The State Government ignored Norman Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee’s (N4C) petition to preserve the quarry site of Stephens Mountain in Greenslopes against the “Coorparoo and Districts Neighbourhood Plan” development program. The development states that the quarry site and the adjoining Energex depot are suitable for residential development. The development is expected to maximize the usage of the Greenslopes Busway Station, which is in close proximity to the area.

N4C: Protectors of the Quarry

N4C office
(Photo credit: www.norman-creek-catchment.org.au)

N4C, currently located at 66 Baron Street, is a community-based non-profit organisation established in 1996. It aims to protect and maintain the Norman Creek Catchment and the Ekibin Quarry.

The organisation’s duties include creek restoration, protection of existing vegetation, ecological studies, bird watching and recording, and habitat designing and building.

Through its ongoing project, Creek Restoration – Norman Creek at Greenslopes DCP, N4C has been successful in cleaning the water of the creek and providing habitat for the native animals. They also have an ongoing research and observation effort to study the freshwater ecology and the flora and fauna in the area.

N4C is also responsible for presenting the environmental outcomes, positive or negative, of the proposed infrastructure and developmental projects to the Brisbane City Council. This includes their bid to protect the quarry from the Neighbourhood Project.

Home of Unique Birdlife

Pardalote: one of the rare bird species in Ekibin Quarry
(Photo credit: JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons)

N4C’s ecologists have recorded that the old Ekibin Quarry is home to more than 70 bird species. Most of these birds are only found on this Stephens Mountain side of the quarry. They exclusively found a habitat in this area, making them impossible to be spotted within the urbanised areas of Brisbane.

“N4C members have noted that the interesting thing about Stephens Mountain and the former quarry site is the number of small bush birds that are resident there … Species that would not usually be found within the urban matrix of the inner suburbs of Brisbane are found on the quarry site,” N4C Vice-President Damien Madden said in an interview.

According to a 2011 survey, some of the bird species found in the quarry are the Tawny Grassbird, Golden-Headed Cisticola, Finches, Whistlers, and Pardalotes, along with the migratory birds Drangos, Dollarbirds, and Honeyeaters.

The Coorparoo and Districts Neighbourhood Plan stated that the quarry is considered to have limited ecological and landscape value.

Effects on Norman Creek Catchment

Mr. Madden also pointed out that this development will divide the Norman Creek Catchment, which has already been affected by the South East Freeway, the Greenslopes Busway Station, and the Veloway Cycleway. Any more development will lead to an extreme damage to the catchment, according to Mr. Madden. He said that natural areas are now being disregarded because of the developments that have been simultaneously introduced.

This has also affected the residents. “We’ve got 100,000 people here and there is only about 2 per cent open space where Norman Creek and its tributaries flow through,” Mr. Madden said.

The N4C also believes that the quarry along with the catchment will help the council’s vegetated stormwater project near the Annerley Recreation Club, if it’s rehabilitated.

“We’ve treated our waterways absolutely shockingly. We have freshwater flowing all year around which is significant in such a dry continent and further upstream the creek is piped … This is a natural corridor linkage to Norman Creek, downstream of the freeway. This is an opportunity that should be recognised and not missed,” he added.

Norman Creek Catchment is an area of lush, natural features. Water flows down through a network of streams and creeks before reaching the Brisbane River and entering the Moreton Bay. There are 24 kilometre of waterways with 15 kilometere of freshwater creeks. It feeds the creeks of Ben’s Hole, Scotts, Bridgewater, Coorparoo, Kingfisher, Little Swamp, Sandy, Mott, Ekibin, Wellers Hill, Perrone, and Glindemann.

A Look Back in Time at the Ekibin Quarry

Quarry works in 1950s
(Photo credit: www.library .brisbane.qld.gov.au)

According to the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines, the quarry name was derived from the Aboriginal word “Yekkabin”. This is an aquatic plant with edible roots that grew in the creek.

Thomas Blacket Stephen bought the 78.5 hectare of land, including the quarry, in 1857 and established wool scouring and fellmongers business. Mr. Stephen expanded his business to farming and tannery works, and then later added rifle range and Chinese market gardens.

In the 19th century, road surfacing materials were extracted from the quarry. In the early 20th century, blue metal, fine-grained blue-gray mudstone, was also extracted from Ekibin Quarry and used for road construction.

The Stephens Shire Council acquired 10.5 hectare of land for the continuation of the Ekibin Quarry. Later in the 1940s and 1950s, the hot asphalt plant was added to the quarry works.

Early in the 1960s, portions of the land were sold for sanitation and for the Energex depot’s construction. Brisbane City Council stopped the quarry operations due to exhaustion of the quartzite. The quarry has been vacant since then.

Some subsequent developments have affected the quarry. The South East Freeway was constructed in 1970s. The Greenslopes Busway Station was completed in 2001, in line with the South East Freeway’s extension from Woolloongabba to Eight Mile Plains. The Veloway Cycleway project is the latest development that is expected to be completed in late 2017.

Today’s Development Program

The Coorparoo nd Districts Draft Neighbourhood Plan
(Photo credit: Brisbane City/Twitter)

The Coorparoo and Districts Neighbourhood Plan is a residential development program including parts of Coorparoo, Greenslopes, Camp Hill, Holland, and Holland Park West. The Neighbourhood Plan’s draft indicates that Stephens Mountain will be rezoned as “Emerging Community” that will be a mix of housing types and small-scale commercial activities. According to Brisbane City Council’s spokeswoman, N4C’s submission was considered.

“Under this zoning, any future development will be assessed at the highest level with community consultation and extensive consideration given to environmental impacts … If future development were to occur on this site, detailed technical environmental studies would also be required as part of any development application,” the spokeswoman said.

Adoption of the Neighbourhood Plan will commence in late 2017, if approved by the Queensland Government. To view the draft of the Neighbourhood Plan, visit the Brisbane City Council’s webpage for the residential project.

Tag: Norman Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee

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