Protecting South-East Queensland's Water Supply

Part of the Brisbane River catchment area, the O'Sheas Crossing planting site is upstream of Wivenhoe Dam in south east Queensland. The 27 ha site had been grazed heavily in the past, compacting soils and altering natural runoff and water filtration processes. Establishing a Greenfleet forest on the site helped the soil structure to recover, reducing the amount of sediment and nutrients flowing directly into south east Queensland's biggest water supply storage.

Prior to being cleared for grazing, the site was originally open forest - with Black Tea-Tree and Forest Red Gum the dominant species. Greenfleet have returned these species to the area, along with a selection of minor species such as Weeping Bottlebrush, River Sheoak and Weeping Lilly Pilly to reflect the original species mix. The trees have been planted to mimic the original planting patterns, with the Lilly Pilly species appearing only on the fringes of the site, while the Black Tea-Tree and Forest Red Gums were planted in much larger quantities right across the planting area.

Some of the Greenfleet planting activity at O'Sheas Crossing was featured on an edition of the ABC's Catalyst program in November 2007. The segment was filmed in mid-October 2007 at O'Sheas Crossing in south east Queensland. If you saw Catalyst, you would have seen a large D7 dozer working the soil before the trees were planted. Using such heavy machinery in the planting process helps give the trees the best start in life, breaking up the hard soil, (to a depth of up to 1m),ensuring the roots have plenty of room to grow and rain can penetrate the ground to nourish the seedlings. The emissions generated during forestry operations, including machinery emissions,are built into our carbon capture models.

A site inspection in April 2008 revealed the trees in excellent condition, with approximate height of 1.5-1.8m. By June 2010, many of the trees had grown to around 4m tall, with our foresters commenting that the site was in excellent condition, with trees in the eastern section growing very quickly, while the western portion was growing more slowly but still looking healthy.