The Great Barrier Reef is being threatened from many fronts. Climate change, ocean acidification, coral bleaching, disease outbreaks, extreme weather, shipping, ghost nets, rubbish and introduced species are all stressing the reef. The reef is also being stressed by large quantities of nutrients and sediments flowing into its waters from coastal streams.

The Healthy Rivers to Reef Partnership has been formed to identify water quality problems in rivers from Bowen to Hay Point. The partnership aims to ensure that rivers and streams are properly managed to reduce the flow of pollutants into the reef.

On Wednesday 6 July at 6pm we will be hosting an information session about the partnership to introduce the partnership and the most recent report card on our waterways. Di Tarte and Charlie Morgan will explain how the report card has been developed and how the project will proceed in the future.

If you are concerned about the health of the reef and our waterways, please come along to this meeting.

6pm - 7pm Wednesday 6 July 2016

Mackay Environment Centre, 156 Wood St Mackay

RSVP at mackayconservationgroup.org.au/healthy_rivers

Download a copy of the report "An Economic Analysis Of The Urannah Dam Project" here: 

Urannah Dam economic analysis

The Great Barrier Reef is in trouble. It is being threatened by poor water quality from coastal rivers, Crown of Thorns starfish and climate change. 

On top of all those threats, the Mercury reported on Monday that a ship passed through the reef on its way to Brisbane with a crew that didn’t understand how to use its navigation equipment. That could have led to a disaster.

In the past, politicians have mostly dismissed environmentalist’s distress about the condition of the reef. That lack of concern ended last year when UNESCO proposed to declare the World Heritage status of the reef “in danger”.

Since then we have seen significant impacts like dumping of capital dredge spoil in the ocean banned.

This year’s coral bleaching catastrophe has again focussed political attention on the condition of the reef.

Great Barrier Reef Reaches Apocalypse Level Three Coral Bleaching Alert 

2015 was the hottest year on record

January 2016 - the hottest January on record

February 2016 - the hottest month ever recorded

In March 2016 we're heading to be the hottest year on record yet again.

In this Olympic year – these are not world records we want to be breaking!

AND our Great Barrier Reef is suffering…..

The Great Barrier Reef, once touted as the world’s best managed and healthiest reef system  in the world, is now facing a coral bleaching apocalypse.  Increased water temperatures brought on by global warming are cooking the northern section of the Reef, consider by scientists to be the most pristine region of the Reef.

Today  the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA)  issued a level three coral bleaching alert,  based on wide-spread severe bleaching in the northern section of the reef.  

The federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, has talked down the event but he failed to address the scope and severity of the bleaching.

Urannah Dam has been in the news a lot over the past year. Politicians have been talking up the proposal as a potential source of new water for agricultural land around Bowen. However, there are serious questions about whether farmers will ever see a drop of any water from this dam.

The Urannah Creek west of Eungella range is a beautiful place that has considerable environmental values. Its water flows into the Broken River and then into the Burdekin.It is home to the Irwin’s Turtle a unique species that was discovered in 1990 by Steve Irwin’s father Bob. 

Experiencing the Great Barrier Reef is on everybody’s bucket list.

After all, it is the most spectacularly diverse ecosystem on the planet.

The Reef is so big that you can see it from the surface of the moon.

It is home to tens of thousands of animals with over 1600 species of fish from Nemo to Jaws, including many vulnerable and endangered species.

But there are right ways and wrong ways to experience the Reef and, when it comes to fish, fish ‘framing’ is the wrong way.

Fish ‘framing’ involves dangling some form of bait such as fish heads or carcasses into the water to attract large fish to the surface and sometimes right out of the water and onto the deck for a photo opportunity.

For more than a decade Mackay Conservation Group has been voicing concerns about the proposed Urannah Dam that will flood some of the few remaining pristine river systems in Central Queensland. This dam was first put forward way back in the 1960s. An economic analysis back then found that the dam didn’t make sense. It still doesn’t.

Media Release

15 April 2021

Mackay Rally For Our Reef

Concerned community members call on Queensland Government to reject Clive-Palmer owned Central Queensland Coal Project

Mackay community members gathered for a Mackay Rally For Our Reef at Bluewater Quay today (Thursday 15 April 2021), where they called for the Queensland government to reject the proposed Clive Palmer-owned Central Queensland Coal Project, which would be located just 10 Kilometres from the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

Media Release

22 March 2021

Highlights:

• Donors commit $29,000 to protect our rivers systems
• Urannah Dam threatens a wetland of national significance that is home to 30 rare and threatened species.
• Dam will return just 26 cents in benefits for every dollar it costs

The Swim For Our Rivers fundraising event held last Saturday raised a total of nearly $29,000 for campaigns to protect Irwin's Turtle and the Burdekin River system.

Mackay Conservation Group and North Queensland Conservation Council held simultaneous swim events in Mackay and Townsville on the weekend.

"We were really pleased with the level of support we received from our communities," said Peter McCallum, Mackay Conservation Group coordinator.

"235 individual donors contributed $120 each on average."