Living Here
Clean Up Australia Day
Cleaner Road Runoff research project
National Tree Day and Schools Tree Day
Friends of Conservation
Reef Guardian Council Program
Tigalee Creek Riparian Vegetation Restoration
Litter Education and Awareness Program (LEAP)
Collaborative conservation projects
Clean Up Australia Day
Clean Up Australia Day is Australia’s largest community-based environmental event held annually during the first week of March. The event encourages schools, businesses and the community to get involved to remove litter from local parks, roadsides, creeks and beaches. Register Online
Gladstone Regional Council supports the community during Clean Up Australia Day by providing free disposal of waste to the waste transfer stations and landfills provided the waste is presented at the facility in Clean Up Australia day bags. View facility locations and operating hours online.
Great Northern Clean Up
In 2023, Council will be aligning with the Great Northern Clean-up day on 16 – 18 September.
Our region often experiences hot and humid weather in early March, and last year’s Clean Up Australia day on Sunday 6 March coincided with a heatwave event. The regions north of the Tropic of Capricorn have been participating in the Great Northern Clean Up since 2009, and aligning with the Great Northern Clean Up enables participation in cooler months reducing fatigue, heat and dehydration risks to participants.
The community are still welcome to create their own Clean Up event in March via the Clean Up Australia Day website, however they will be responsible for the disposal of waste to one of the regions waste facilities.
Council sincerely appreciates the communities ongoing support of Clean Up efforts in the Gladstone region and hope that people will be able to register a site for the Great Northern Clean Up event in September.
Further details regarding the Great Northern Clean Up will be provided closer to the date. Please follow the link for more details on the Great Northern Clean Up https://www.cleanup.org.au/gncu.
Cleaner Road Runoff research project
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.
National Tree Day and Schools Tree Day
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 and Schools Tree Day by facilitating tree planting events throughout the region in conjunction with local businesses and community groups.
More Information GRC Event Information
Friends of Conservation
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 Monday 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.
Role Description Application Form
Reef Guardian Council Program
The Reef Guardian Council program showcases environmentally sustainable practices undertaken by councils in the Great Barrier Reef catchment.
Gladstone Regional Council is one of 19 councils between Bundaberg and Cooktown working together to protect and conserve the Marine Park through activities that improve the health and resilience of the Reef.
The Reef Guardian Councils Climate change snapshot highlights council-led actions such as developing policies and strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, changing street lighting to LED, installing bike paths to encourage active transport and using landfill gas for energy production.
Tigalee Creek Riparian Vegetation Restoration
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.
Litter Education and Awareness Program
From May 2021 to June 2022, Gladstone Regional Council undertook the Litter Education and Awareness Program (LEAP), run in collaboration with local Reef Guardian Schools, Cleanwater Group and Tangaroa Blue.
What is LEAP?
The LEAP project involved installing litter capture devices within and surrounding participating Reef Guardian schools, analysing the contents captured over a 12-month period and educating students about stormwater pollution and ways to prevent it.
Students involved were given the opportunity to learn first-hand what pollutants were entering the drains around their school, and further discussed litter reduction and stormwater management.
Data collected from the LEAP program was uploaded to the Australian Marine Debris Database, making it available for researchers and litter reduction organisations.
Why was LEAP undertaken?
The Litter Education & Awareness Project (LEAP) was developed in response to an alleged contravention of the Environment Protection Act 1994 relating to extraction of material above that of Council’s prescribed licensing, across some Council managed pits.
Upon discovery, Gladstone Regional Council notified the Department of Environment and Science (DES). Following a formal investigation, an Enforceable Undertaking was entered by Council and DES, through which Council committed to undertake the LEAP project.
How was the litter captured?
Most of the litter capture devices installed for LEAP were called ‘Drain Buddies’, a litter trap designed by Cleanwater Group.
A drain buddy is a reinforced mesh basket that sits within a storm drain and catches debris and pollutants entering that drain. Drain buddies are installed with an ‘overflow’ to avoid causing flooding if the basket becomes too full of matter.
Due to the varied nature of storm drains within school grounds, some schools had different types of litter capture devices installed, such as solid mesh ‘trays’ that sit within shallow drains. These variations work on a similar principle, straining the pollutants and debris from stormwater.
Ten schools across Gladstone, Agnes Water and Boyne Tannum participated in the 12-month LEAP Program, which provided opportunities for students to learn firsthand about stormwater litter of the reef, environmental conservation, and litter source reduction. The LEAP project aimed to improve awareness of stormwater pollution, and ways we can all manage this issue.
School participants
- Toolooa State High School
- Chanel College
- Kin Kora State School
- Clinton State School
- Gladstone State High School
- Gladstone West State School
- St John’s Catholic Primary School
- Boyne Island State School
- Tannum Sands State School
- Agnes Water State School
Project outcomes
A total of 12,315 pieces of litter was captured over the 12 months, hand-counted and categorised by school students into the various litter categories.
“Film remnants” were found to be the most common type of litter found with 2,634 pieces counted. This was followed by confetti/glitter, confectionery wrappers, foil and plastic straw wrappers.
Collaborative conservation projects
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
