Clean Up Australia Day is Australia’s largest community-based environmental event held annually during the first week of March; however, the event regularly coincides with hot and humid weather in our region.
Council sincerely appreciates the community's ongoing support of Clean Up efforts in the Gladstone region and encourages people to register for a site for the Great Spring Clean Up events held between August and October.
With your help, we can put the “great” back into the great outdoors! Spring cleaning our homes has become an annual ritual for many of us, so let’s get out and clean up our local environments and improve public places.
The event encourages schools, businesses, and the community to get involved to remove litter from local parks, roadsides, creeks, and beaches, which is particularly important with severe weather kicking in at this time of year.
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Gladstone Regional Council is proud to be part of the Great Barrier Reef Cleaner Road Runoff Project, which is working to develop better practices to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
The project monitors unsealed roads throughout the state to better understand the loss of fine sediments from road material during rain events and its impact on water quality.
Fine sediments are one of the three greatest water quality risks to the Reef as it reduces available light to seagrass beds and inshore coral reefs.
With an estimated average of 25mm of silt washing off the top of the 38,000km of unsealed roads in the Reef catchment area, the results from this project will help improve best practices for road designs and maintenance in the future.
Eight Pump Active Suspended Sediment (PASS) Samplers have been placed in the Gladstone Region test area along Raglan Station Road and will capture sediment samples after major rainfall events.
The Cleaner Road Runoff Project is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government's Reef Trust, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and Local Government Association of QLD with support from Griffith University, IPWEQ, Department of Environment and Science, Office of the Great Barrier Reef, Bundaberg Regional Council, Whitsunday Regional Council, Isaac Regional Council, Cassowary Coast Regional Council and Gladstone Regional Council.
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National Tree Day and Schools Tree Day are annual, national events where the community comes together to get their hands dirty planting trees and restoring native vegetation in local areas. The events are held each year during the last week in July.
Gladstone Regional Council supports National Tree Day by facilitating tree planting events throughout the region in conjunction with local businesses and community groups.
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Friends of Conservation is a volunteer program facilitated by Gladstone Regional Council. Volunteers primarily work alongside staff to propagate and care for native plants at Council’s Tannum Sands Nursery. Friends of Conservation also participate in other activities and events throughout the region to help conserve the natural environment.
Volunteers meet every Tuesday from 7:30am to 10:30am at Council’s Tannum Sands Nursery. Come every week or only when you can.
For more information or to apply to become a volunteer, contact (07) 4971 4444 or visit Gladstone Volunteering.
Council recognises World Wetlands Day which falls on 2 February each year.
The theme for World Wetlands Day 2025 is ‘Protecting Wetlands for Our Common Future.’
Gladstone Regional Council is proud to be a part of the Reef Guardian Council program.
The Reef Guardian Council program is a partnership between local government and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (Reef Authority) which recognises that local and regional approaches are central to protecting and managing the Reef and the communities it supports.
Local governments are key management partners as many of the threats to the Reef and heritage values arise outside of the Marine Park boundaries and the Reef Authority’s jurisdiction.
The program includes 20 participating councils between Bundaberg and Cooktown(JPG, 968KB), covering an area of 317,000 square kilometres and a population of more than 1.1 million people. Each council progresses a Reef Guardian Action Plan that outlines a variety of initiatives they are taking to contribute to Reef health and align with the Queensland and Australian Government objectives to improve the long-term outlook for the Reef, particularly the Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan.
Gladstone Regional Council undertakes a wide range of initiatives that help address the key threats to the Reef including:
- Limiting the impacts of climate change
- Reducing the impacts from land-based activities
- Protecting, rehabilitating and restoring habitats
- Reducing impacts from water-based activities
- Conserving historic and cultural heritage.
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Gladstone Regional Council has launched a pilot program to restore waterway vegetation to improve water quality in the Great Barrier Reef catchment area.
The program aims to restore riparian vegetation along a section of Tigalee Creek, Sun Valley, through a combination of pest weed controls, reduced mowing along the creek banks and planting an additional 650 native plants.
Riparian vegetation plays an important role in water health and water quality and restoring it within the Reef catchment area reduces sediment and other pollutants from impacting coral health and marine ecosystems.
We are proud to be a Reef Guardian Council that is working to protect and conserve the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park through activities that improve the health and resilience of the Reef.
The programs results will be finalised in March 2023 and, if successful, will provide a framework for other restoration projects throughout the region.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Environment & Conservation team on (07) 4970 0700 or Email Council.
Gladstone Regional Council manages various reserves and natural areas throughout the Gladstone region. Council supports various community groups and organisations to undertake conservation projects that help protect and enhance the values of these natural areas. Support may include, in-kind provision of native plants, materials and staff assistance.
For more information, or to collaborate with Council, contact the Environment & Conservation team on (07) 4970 0700.
Funding opportunities
Community Investment Program Fitzroy Basin Association Burnett Mary Regional Group