For the past 15 years, Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) has partnered with BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) to monitor and enhance the environmental health of the Hay Point foreshore, located south of Mackay. This award-winning foreshore restoration project is adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park World Heritage area and the BMA Hay Point Coal Terminal.
The project involves collaboration with various community groups, including local Landcare branches, Mackay and District Turtle Watch, Australian Wildlife Rescue (Mackay), and Scout groups.
In 2022, 304 community volunteers participated in 31 activities and events, including community clean-up days, monitoring events, education events, and workshops.
BMA’s Hay Point Coal Terminal General Manager Linda Murry said BMA was proud to continue the legacy of working with CVA.
“This partnership gives us an opportunity to connect with the local community, and look after this iconic piece of coastline, and it’s always a pleasure to collaborate with such committed and inspiring local volunteers,” she said.
One of the project’s major achievements has been the restoration of a previously cleared bund wall named the ‘Envirobund.’
CVA has worked hard to revegetate the wall with native vegetation, providing a space of refuge for native wildlife and serving as a buffer between local residents and the coal terminal. This has resulted in wallabies being spotted on the site, and various species of birds passing through and nesting in the planted vegetation.
The foreshore restoration project has helped rehabilitate the critically endangered ‘beach scrub’ habitat along the Mackay region’s coastline. In 2008, the project won the Queensland Clean Beach Challenge, an environmental protection award organised by Keep Australia Beautiful.
The project’s civil and landscape works, completed by Epoca, promote community access to the beach area near the Hay Point Coal terminal land. The restoration project also involves preventing marine debris from becoming an issue for wildlife and marine creatures in Hay Point and Salonika Beach.
Overall, the partnership between CVA and BMA has been instrumental in the ongoing efforts to improve the environmental health of the Hay Point foreshore and surrounding areas.