Adapting To Change: Landscapes & Natural Environment

Ipswich is blessed with a tremendous range of outdoor areas and features including many waterways. Part of creating, preserving and enhancing our natural environment is to have a healthy respect for our waterways and catchments.

It is important to understand we all live within a creek or river catchment area and our day to day activities have the potential to impact on the health of our local waterways, our neighbouring councils’ waterways and ultimately Moreton Bay.

Every catchment throughout Ipswich is different in terms of size and surrounding land use. Some may contain large natural areas and mountainous terrain while others may be mostly urban and developed. Understanding the unique features of each is vital.

Looking after our waterways cannot be done in isolation. A strong and workable partnership between councils and other organisations is vital to planning, promoting and implementing successful strategies for improving our waterways.

Support from community, through private landholder partnerships and community groups, is also an important and welcome addition to carrying out waterway management across the city.

Empowering and assisting people to care for creeks and waterways on their own property extends council’s ability to improve overall condition and values.

Ipswich City Council continues to play a lead role in educating the community and industry on the benefits of improving our management of waterways across the city.

Improving the health of our waterways provides benefits in many other ways. Many of the city’s 500 parks and reserves are close to or adjoin our creeks and rivers, and there is the potential for many more as our city continues to grow and expand.

The population of Ipswich is set to more than double within the next 20 years. It is crucial for the sustainable development and growth of our city that we have a plan to balance the protection and health of our waterways with access for community enjoyment and all the benefits that brings.

The Waterway Health Strategy will go a long way to achieving better management and improving the way we look after this most precious resource.