Obi Obi Parklands - Maleny Community Precinct
Riparian Rehabilitation Projects

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Maleny District Green Hills Fund is working with Sunshine Coast Council and other Precinct stakeholders to provide attractive and accessible recreation & sports spaces, gardens, pathways, reforested areas, protected wetlands and scenic outlooks, with sound and sustainable management, while caring for and restoring the natural environment.

This overview briefing video shows what we have been doing for the creation of Obi Obi Parklands over the past few years.

 

Briefing maps and narration by Steve Swayne (a Director of Maleny DIstrict Green Hills Fund).

Two areas of rainforest restoration planting undertaken in a public tree planting event in 2010 continue to thrive. These are shown in purple on the map below this text.

An Obi Obi Parklands bushcare group has undertaken, with assistance from Council and Barung Landcare, continued maintenance, weeding, and mulching in these areas shown as purple and in a previous restoration area shown as darker green on the map.

Green Hills was awarded an Australian Government Caring For Our Country Community Action Grant in 2011 and a large section of creek bank has now been cleared of weed species and is being prepared for replanting with riparian rainforest. This is shown in yellow on the map.

Green Hills has just been awarded major grant funding for a three year program of weed species removal, and riparian rainforest replanting with follow up maintenance through the Australian Government's Clean Energy Future Biodiversity Fund. This area is shown as red on the map.

This riparian restoration is a significant first step to creating protective and connecting habitat for the 29 threatened and endangered plant and animal species which occur or are likely to occur on the Precinct site.

Unitywater has made a major announcement regarding the creation of wetland areas, reforestation and treated effluent dispersal in the northern wetland area of the precinct, shown in aqua green on the map.

Sunshine Coast Council is now undertaking a staged construction of a walking & cycling pathway from Maleny town to Gardners Falls. Green Hills has been an advocate of this path for many years.

Click on map to see full screen version

What is a riparian corridor?
A riparian corridor forms a transition zone between the land, also known as the terrestrial environment, and the river or watercourse or aquatic environment. Riparian corridors perform a range of important environmental functions such as:

• providing bed and bank stability and reducing bank and channel erosion
  
• protecting water quality by trapping sediment, nutrients and other contaminants
  
• providing diversity of habitat for terrestrial, riparian and aquatic plants (flora) and animals (fauna)
  
• providing connectivity between wildlife habitats
  
• conveying flood flows and controlling the direction of flood flows
  
• providing an interface or buffer between developments and waterways

The protection, restoration or rehabilitation of vegetated riparian corridors is important for maintaining or improving the shape, stability (or geomorphic form) and ecological functions of a watercourse.

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