A project to reinvigorate sensitive coastal ecosystems at a historical property in north Queensland has secured $1.77 million in government funding to help restore surrounding saltwater wetlands and protect the reef.
Greening Australia has been awarded a Blue Carbon Ecosystem Restoration Grant to help improve tidal restoration, water quality and bird and marine biodiversity at Mungalla Station near Ingham.
It is one of five federal government grants to restore degraded wetlands systems.
Reef Aid Program director Lynise Wearne believes the station's wetlands ecosystems have been undervalued in the past.
"We've been really focusing on the gullies ... but the coastal wetlands have so many benefits that I think we're still starting to realise," Dr Wearne said.
"This property is only a couple of kilometres from directly going out to the reef."
Mungalla Station
Mungalla Station is located 12 kilometres east of Ingham in north Queensland, a short distance from the Great Barrier Reef.
The 880-hectare property, which is used for cattle grazing, ecotourism and programs to support Indigenous youth, boasts 230 hectares of wetlands.
Nwaigi traditional owners at Mungalla Station are working alongside Greening Australia to reintroduce tidal flows into crucial ecosystems.
As part of the project, sections of man-made earth or "bund" walls will be removed from the property.
Station manager Jacob Cassady said settlers installed the walls early last century to restrict saltwater coming into freshwater systems for grazing purposes.
But that has allowed weeds that thrive in freshwater — water hyacinth, salvinia and hymenachne — to clog up the natural ecosystems.
"Some of the problems that we've inherited with this historic cattle property is the noxious weeds and the introduction of pondered pastures for cattle and its devastating impact on waterways and the wetlands," Mr Cassady said.
"We sit adjacent to a Great Barrier Reef Marine Park lagoon and Halifax Bay, so it's critical that the water quality that's going out to the reef is clean — and that doesn't happen unless the wetlands are functioning."
The current project will add to work that was done in 2013 when a section of bund wall was mechanically removed from one of the property's wetlands.
"It had an amazing effect, and we were quite successful in restoring wetlands," Mr Cassady said.
"However, it has since closed up and we've had lots of freshwater, so we've got to reopen that again."
Pumping underground saltwater
Mr Cassady said a pump has already been installed as part of the project to provide access to underground saltwater.
"We worked out that underground there are these aquifers of saltwater," he said.
"So, we started [using] a pump, to pump these salt bores into the wetland ... and bird life is starting to come back."
Dr Wearne said restoring tidal flows would reinvigorate the wetlands and expected to see wildlife and birdlife continue to return to and thrive in the area as the project gets underway.
"It reinstates what would have been coastal wetland with tidal flows coming in and out of it, we're reinstating those natural flows back into a wetland," he said.
Carbon credits plus opportunities
The project will also reduce the amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere.
"Melaleuca mangroves sequester carbon at a higher rate than freshwater wetlands and can cover the methane reduction in coastal wetlands," Dr Wearne said.
Mungalla Station is still used for grazing and its owners hope this new restoration project will provide a new income revenue through carbon credits.
Mr Cassady said if approved, the sale of blue carbon credits would help facilitate new ecotourism opportunities at the station.
"There is an international and even a regional demand for blue carbon credit so that puts us in a good position to generate income to sustain activities for young people and as well as building tourism," he said.
"Projects like blue carbon generate income gives us the capacity to have training in conservation and ecosystem management, and training in tourism and hospitality.
"We've got some very rare and quite interesting birdlife here and people will travel to see it."
Dr Wearne said Greening Australia would be working with traditional owners to register the project with the Clean Energy Regulator early next year.
