Locals are concerned about the sprawl of the dry creek bed and say the area desperately needs some heavy rain

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The locals call this spot the “turtle bridge”, and most stop for a few moments to watch the turtles and the families of ducks. Lately they’ve been muttering about the sprawl of the dry creek bed, which has turned the section of Brisbane’s Breakfast Creek into a shallow stagnant pond, shrinking by the day.

“It’s drier than I can remember,” one long-term Kelvin Grove resident says, before walking on.

“The water just looks awful,” says another. “We had better get some rain soon.”

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The forecast is not promising. Many parts of south-east Queensland are on track for the driest January on record, and no significant rainfall is forecast.

Brisbane is not drought-declared, and household water restrictions are not considered necessary. But the city’s ecosystems, located in generous environmental corridors and parklands that twist through the suburbs along creek catchments, are showing signs of strain.

“From my point of view, it’s grim,” says Leo Lee, a former president of Save Our Waterways Now, who has lived along the Enoggera Creek catchment (Enoggera Creek becomes Breakfast Creek before it joins the Brisbane River) for more than 60 years.

“It has been drier. When we had that drought up to about 2009, in that period it got a lot drier. But at the moment we’re desperately in need of [heavy rainfall].”



Lee estimates the native fish stocks in the catchment are about 5% of those when he was a child. The loss, he says, is mainly due to environmental factors, pollution and disease.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Many locals stop to watch the turtles and the families of ducks in Breakfast Creek at Kelvin Grove. Photograph: Ben Smee/The Guardian

He said native species were equipped to handle the variable “flash flows” of waterways on Brisbane’s northside. But he said extreme conditions – even in creeks that historically run dry during prolonged periods without rain – could compound other factors and cause local extinctions.

“The populations have dwindled so that if you do get something like a drought it becomes a critical environmental factor,” Lee said. “You don’t have the numbers of organisms that have been in the creek before.”

Lee also raised concern that a manmade weir, a few hundred metres from the turtle bridge, at Bennett Park in Kelvin Grove, had stopped the tidal ebb and flow in much of the catchment.

“All those turtles and all those things would not be [stuck] there if it was a tidally influenced creek,” Lee said. “The fish that migrate up and down the creek are mostly blocked by that weir. If that weir wasn’t down the end, they would be dispersed throughout the catchment. Now they’re all gathering down that one end where the pool is.”

Quick guide Heatwaves and climate change in Australia Show Hide According to the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO, Australia has warmed by 1C since 1910, and temperatures will increase in the future. So how will climate change affect future heatwaves in Australia? The CSIRO and BoM have compiled different models for predicting the outcome of climate change in Australia to produce a guide to how different regions will likely be affected. They found that every part of Australia will continue to experience increases in average temperature, and will have a higher frequency of hot days.

The duration of hot spells will increase in every region. In many areas in the northern half of Australia, the average number of days above 35C could increase by two to three times.

Late in the century, towns such as Darwin, Alice Springs and Broome may experience days with temperatures above 35C for about a third of the year. These higher temperatures will also result in higher evaporation, which will continue to make drought conditions worse.

Brisbane has recorded 26.6mm of rainfall so far in January. It’s not the driest January on record in the city, but well below the month average of 145.2mm.

Elsewhere in south-east Queensland, some gauges have recorded no or negligible rainfall. At Coolangatta on the Gold Coast, 3.8mm has been recorded so far this month, compared to a January average of 161mm. At Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, 0.4mm has fallen compared to an average of 145.5mm.

“The remainder of the month forecast is mainly fine, but nothing much in it precipitation-wise, just a shower here and there,” the Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Mark Trenorden said. “It’s been pretty dry.”

At the Ashgrove end of Balun Park is a low bridge designed to flood, where families often take their dogs to swim. The water is usually waist deep; now it’s a dry creek bed.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The pool of remaining water at the ‘turtle bridge’ stretches for only about 40m, but is bustling with wildlife including eels, fish, snakes, lizards and birds. Photograph: Ben Smee/The Guardian

The turtle bridge is at the opposite end of the park, at Kelvin Grove. The pool of remaining water stretches for only about 40m, but is bustling with wildlife.

The turtles poke their heads out near the bridge, used to some people ignoring council signs and throwing in food. There are eels and fish, snakes, lizards and birdlife congregating at the murky waterhole.

And every day, on either side of the bridge, the creek bed creeps a little closer.