New crayfish found at Reedy Creek, Queensland
A new crayfish species in the Tenuibranchiurus genus has been found in an unlikely location on our Reedy Creek Reserve in Queensland.
Reedy Creek Reserve, near the town of Agnes Water, protects a very rare thing – intact Queensland coastal and riparian forest that has, elsewhere, been dramatically cleared for development.
The reserve was originally donated to us in 2004 by Michael Myer. It was part of a 600-hectare coastal strip, a quarter of which was kept for the Sunrise@1770 beach front eco-estate and the rest donated to us as a nature reserve.
The land boasts rare vine-forest communities, riparian melaleuca forests and corymbia woodlands.
Reedy Creek itself forms a complex bird, freshwater fish and amphibian habitat that supports a range of species, including the Grey Goshawk. The reserve also provides a buffer for the adjacent coastal foreshore, which is an important nesting site for marine turtles.
What we’re doing
The main threats here are weeds escaping from residential areas or brought in by visitors, feral animals (including foxes that prey on turtle nests) and erosion of sandy soils.
As this reserve is near a residential area, fire management is a priority for ecological and safety reasons.
Thankfully, the neighbouring Sunrise@1770 development was done to strict environmental standards, including using local native plants in their allotments.
Revegetation work has been carried out on the foreshore to stabilise the dunes. Further reveg work is happening in cleared areas using endemic tree stock. We’re also carefully managing areas of rare vine thicket rainforest and planting on the rainforest fringe to encourage it to extend.
Giant Cockroaches
Cockroach expert Dr Harley Rose from the University of Sydney, has revealed that Reedy Creek has some very rare Giant Burrowing Cockroaches. We think this species is endemic to a small area and might even be restricted to 10km-12km of the coastline near Reedy Creek.
Reserve Scorecard
See a full ecological scorecard for Reedy Creek Reserve.
Learn more about how we measure our impact.
653 KB Cultural values
This reserve contains cultural heritage materials of interest to Aboriginal people. When Michael Myer bought the land he gifted an additional parcel of land to the Traditional Custodians.
