Know Your Creek
Cabbage Tree Creek Catchment
Catchment characteristics
The Cabbage Tree Creek catchment covers 45 square kilometres from the bushy foothills of the
Taylor Range, through residential and industrial areas of northern Brisbane to Moreton Bay. The
main tributaries in the catchment are Cabbage Tree Creek and Little Cabbage Tree Creek flowing
briefly into an estuary shared with Nundah Creek before entering Moreton Bay between
Sandgate and Boondall.
Suburbs covered by the catchment include Shorncliffe, Deagon, Sandgate, Taigum, Zillmere,
Fitzgibbon, Boondall, Aspley, Carseldine, Bracken Ridge, Bridgeman Downs and McDowall
within Brisbane City, as well as Everton Hills, Arana Hills and Ferny Hills in the Pine Rivers Shire.
Natural assets
Significant natural assets in Cabbage Tree Creek catchment include:

D’Aguilar National Park – The Ferny Hills area has natural bushland, barbecues, picnic
areas and walking tracks.

Bunyaville State Forest Park – This park has walking tracks and picnic areas. The
nearby Bunyaville Environmental Education Centre also provides educational material
about the natural areas.

Fitzgibbon Parklands – This is the largest sporting ground in the area.

Chermside Hills – This remnant bushland in Chermside West is managed as a nature
reserve.

Curlew Park – Predominantly used for soccer games, this park in Sandgate offers picnic
facilities, shaded tables, play equipment and toilet facilities.

Brisbane Entertainment Centre – The Entertainment Centre is surrounded by extensive
parklands with grassed areas, play equipment, a BMX track, lakes and pathways, and
bikeways that link to Boondall Wetlands.

Boondall Wetlands – The catchment’s largest open space area is located adjacent to
Moreton Bay and provides opportunities for walking, cycling and canoeing, as well as an
environment centre.

Mountains to Mangroves – A self-guided nature trail on display at the Downfall Creek
Bushland Centre and other locations around Brisbane. It consists of signs highlighting the
area’s social, historical and environmental values.
Did you know?
Chermside Hills Reserve in the Cabbage Tree Creek catchment is one of the last remaining
conserved areas in Brisbane that contain forest grass-trees.
Fauna
The Cabbage Tree Creek catchment acts as a corridor for animals
to travel from the large bushland areas of D’Aguilar National Park to
the coastal lowlands and wetlands, and bushland reserves abutting
Moreton Bay.
190 species of native birds have been reported in the catchment, these include 18 different types
of raptors (birds of prey). Several bird species are of conservation significance such as the grey
goshawk (Accipiter novaehollandiae), osprey (Pandion haliaetus) and peregrine falcon (Falco
peregrinus).
Following requests from the community, Brisbane City Council protected Boondall Wetlands for
conservation and recreation purposes. The largest protected wetland of this type in Brisbane, it is
home to numerous animals including 190 species of birds and numerous marine and terrestrial
fauna including the threatened water mouse (Xeromys myoides). It is also a temporary home for
migratory shorebirds that make their way each spring from their northern hemisphere breeding
grounds to feed in the mudflats and tidal wetlands of Moreton Bay and surrounding areas.
Migratory birds of significance include the eastern curlew (Numenius madagascariensis).
Flora
Most significant plant species are now found in large public reserves at either end of the
catchment, within Boondall Wetlands and D’Aguilar National Park. There are smaller privatelyowned lands within the catchment that contain plant species that are locally significant, for
example, native apple (Angophora woodsiana) and weeping lillypilly (Waterhousea floribunda).
Vegetation along the waterways of the Cabbage Tree Creek catchment varies considerably.
Open eucalypt forest exists along the headwaters in D’Aguilar National Park while Bridgeman
Downs contains remnants of rainforest dominated by the weeping lillypilly. The mid-catchment
supports eucalypt woodland and open forests with a shrubby or heathy understorey, along with a
number of freshwater wetlands. Remnant riparian forest species still exist adjacent to creek lines,
while paperbark woodlands, permanent water bodies, salt marshes and mangroves exist within
the lower catchment.
Chermside Hills Reserve in the Cabbage Tree Creek catchment is one of the last remaining
conserved areas in Brisbane that contain forest grass-trees (Xanthorrhoea johnsonii) and a
number of threatened plant species.
Boondall Wetlands support numerous wetland communities both freshwater and marine and
include threatened plant communities such as the Casuarina glauca forests.
Restoring Cabbage Tree Creek
The Northern Catchments Network Inc. (NCN) is a community-based organisation established to
connect individuals and groups across the catchments of Cabbage Tree Creek, Bald Hills Creek
and Nundah / Downfall Creek to consolidate efforts, skills and energy for enhanced
environmental benefits.
NCN’s vision is to ‘protect and enhance our northern catchments by connecting people, wildlife
and habitat, through education, engagement and better practice to create healthy ecosystems for
the future’.
Council’s conservation partnerships program helps community groups restore natural habitats in
parks, remnant bushland and wetlands along waterways. A number of active bushcare groups
are tending rehabilitation sites along Cabbage Tree Creek.
The program also supports the community to protect and restore Brisbane’s waterways and bays
in partnership with groups, businesses, schools and individual property owners.
The Boondall Wetlands Environment Centre (BWEC) has extensive
walking and cycling tracks that meander through internationallysignificant wetlands with links to the Nudgee Beach foreshore.
BWEC is open through the week and also on weekends.
For more information on Council’s community conservation partnerships program and
environment centres phone Council on (07) 3403 8888.
Websites
Brisbane City Council: www.brisbane.qld.gov.au
Northern Catchments Network Inc.: www.northerncatchmentsnetwork.org.au
Mountains to Mangroves: www.mountainstomangroves.org
Brisbane Catchment Network: www.brisbanecatchments.net.au
Healthy Waterways: www.healthywaterways.org
SEQ Catchments: www.seqcatchments.com.au