Six Mile Creek

Information from  City of Ipswich Waterway Health Strategy, 2020

The Six Mile Creek sub-catchment covers an area of 31km2. The creek flows north from the White Rock – Spring Mountain Conservation Estate through the suburbs of Redbank Plains, New Chum, Collingwood Park and Redbank to join the Brisbane River downstream of Moggill Road Ferry.

Land use within the sub-catchment is mixed, with the upper reaches retaining significant tracts of bushland, old mining areas in the west and urban development in the east. The mid sub-catchment is currently experiencing rapid urban growth mostly on the eastern side of the creek. Regional Business and Industry and supporting buffers are planned for the western side of the corridor.

The waterway channel has experienced degradation in the middle and lower reaches as a result of riparian vegetation removal, channelisation and impoundments (voids from historic mine sites). Bed and bank instabilities exist and some informal grade control works have been undertaken.

The waterway flows through large areas of vegetation in the upper and lower sub-catchment areas, but there is little or no vegetation present in the middle reaches. The vegetation in the sub-catchment contains some mapped endangered communities.

There are many council parks and reserves along the waterway which provide access for the community. There are also a number of council conservation and landholder partnerships in the sub-catchment.

Special features of the catchment include:

• Anecdotal sighting and recent detection of Platypus in Six Mile Creek
• Significant urban growth
• Threatened ecological community Box Gum Grassy Woodland is mapped within the catchment. It is listed as critically endangered in the
  Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999.