2016-12-12 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                12 DECEMBER 2016


RECOMMENDATION
That Council note the report by the Environment Officer to the General Committee Meeting dated
12 December 2016, and:
A.    Accept the Draft Resource Allocation Authority conditions proposed by the Department of
      Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries on behalf of the project partners;
B.    Authorise the development application for the project to be submitted as soon as possible
      to facilitate deployment of the oyster reef restoration units in the March to May oyster spat
      recruitment season;
C.    Authorise the Chief Executive Officer to negotiate and enter into a formal agreement with
      relevant project partners, which will result in nil additional cost to Council (following
      payment of development application fees) associated with the project, following receipt of
      the development approval.



REPORT
The purpose of this report is to notify Council of the conditions proposed in the Resource
Allocation Authority, and seek Council’s agreement to proceed with the lodgement of a
development application.

1.    Background

In 2015, Dr Ruth Thurston of the School of Biological Sciences and Australian Research Council
Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, University of Queensland prepared a report
detailing the historical ecology of the Noosa Estuary Fisheries. This report is available on
Council’s website (a link to the report can be found here or visit www.noosa.qld.gov.au/rivers-
creeks).

This report identified that among many significant changes to Noosa’s river system, the once
plentiful oyster reef habitats throughout the Noosa Estuary that provided important habitat to
fisheries resources, became functionally extinct in the mid-late 1900’s. This was attributed to
heavy harvesting of the oysters and dredging of the substructure for road construction materials.

A report was subsequently prepared detailing management options to restore the ecology of
Noosa River for the benefit of fisheries habitats. It identified the restoration of oysters as one of
the key components to restore the health of fisheries habitats, and therefore fisheries in the
Noosa River. This report is also available on Council’s website (a link to the report can be found
here or visit www.noosa.qld.gov.au/rivers-creeks).

To supplement the findings and recommendations of these reports, The Nature Conservancy
undertook a feasibility study to determine the likelihood of being able to naturally restore oyster
reefs in the Noosa River system. The study involved placement of 160 settlement tiles throughout
the Noosa River System. Oyster larvae or oyster spat successfully recruited on a number of
settlement tiles. This indicated that viable oyster spat is still plentiful throughout the Noosa River.
However, it was also concluded that while oyster spat is still plentiful, there is inappropriate
substrate remaining for settlement of the oyster spat throughout the system.

Following this study, Noosa Council co-funded with the other partners, the preparation of a
project plan and development application, also providing in kind support to investigate the
possibility of restoring oyster reefs throughout the Noosa River system. The project proposal is to
establish oyster restoration units at 15 sites throughout the Noosa River. The location and design
for the proposed oyster reefs are shown in Attachment 1 to this report.



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