JCU and Council’s groundbreaking eco-engineering project

James Cook University has partnered with Townsville City Council to install specialised environmental wraps on river pylons for a groundbreaking project along the city's Flinders Street foreshore.

This innovative eco-engineering project will help achieve nature positive outcomes for coastal infrastructures by turning previously featureless structures into complex ecosystems that support oysters, barnacles, and other marine life.

JCU’s Marine Biology senior lecturer Nathan Waltham said the wraps are around 1.2m long, are made out of concrete and are part of an ongoing partnership with Townsville City Council to enhance environmental outcomes for sea wall upgrades.

“It’s exciting to see that as part of Council’s developments along that foreshore they’ve bought these environmentally friendly wraps that attach to the pylons and greatly increase habitat complexity,” Associate Prof Waltham said.

“After several years of planning and waiting on approvals it was exciting to see the wraps installed, and it’s novel in that it’s a wrap around the pylon, so something like this hasn’t actually been tested anywhere in tropical areas of the world before.

“We helped the council with the experimental design, and we helped choose which of the pylons to attach these structures to. Some of the pylons on Flinders Street don't have the wraps, and they're our controls for the project.

“So, Council engineers have installed them and our job now over the next couple of years is to monitor them, to see what attaches and grows on these structures.”

The environmental wraps will last for decades and for the first 12-15 months a PhD student, funded through a joint partnership between North Queensland Bulk Ports and JCU, will monitor the nine pylons that feature them, and the nine that don’t for their thesis.

“We're going out and surveying what's attached and growing on the structures every two months. So that includes temperature loggers which are recording air and water temperatures every 20 minutes,” he said.

“The beauty of it is we can go back with students next year or the year after and repeat surveys to build up long term data sets and really discover what's going on.

“Coastal development is changing our landscape, so this research field is about trying to get that balance for more nature positive outcomes. So, attaching these wraps may look very simple and very small but if we prove the concept works and we get things growing in these water attaining features then we can scale up efforts from there.

“Under climate change, with rising sea levels, and the intensity and frequency of storms increasing, there's going to be a need for more of these hard structures to be built along coastlines. And so, my research is around, well, how can you get a balance between having that as a requirement and still getting positive environmental outcomes.”

Acting Townsville Mayor Ann-Maree Greaney said Council was committed to maintaining and enhancing the city’s waterways alongside development of the city.

“When constructing the boardwalk along Flinders Street it was important we could include features that enhanced the biodiversity of the area, especially as the city develops around Ross Creek,” Cr Greaney said.

“It is great Council can work with JCU as a world-class research and education facility to effectively investigate how we can improve the health and diversity of our waterways as we continue to develop around them.

“Not only am I excited to see the results, but I’m really pleased these wraps will provide an opportunity for students to continue to learn in their chosen field in the years to come.”