Toondah Harbour is a boat harbour at

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Redland City Redland City, better known as the Redlands and formerly known as Redland Shire, is a Local government in Australia, local government area and a part of the Brisbane metropolitan area in South East Queensland. With a population of 156,863 in Jun ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia. It is in southern

Moreton Bay Moreton Bay is a bay located on the eastern coast of Australia from central Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources. The waters of Moreton Bay are a popular destination for recreational anglers and are ...

. It is the location of the Stradbroke Island Ferry Terminal used by water taxis and vehicular ferries to provide access to

North Stradbroke Island North Stradbroke Island ( Jandai: ''Minjerribah''), colloquially ''Straddie'' or ''North Straddie'', is an island that lies within Moreton Bay in the Australian state of Queensland, southeast of the centre of Brisbane. Originally there was onl ...

History

Toondah Harbour is named after a vessel, the steamer "Toondah", which was used to survey and beacon channels in Moreton Bay. Toondah Harbour Vehicular Ferry Embarkation

Toondah Harbour Vehicular Ferry Embarkation

Dredging the Fison Channel at Toondah Harbour

Bar-tailed godwit feeding on tidal mudflats near Toondah Harbour in Moreton Bay

Geography

The harbour is situated south of Cleveland Point in an area of coastal

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

s featuring sandbanks,

mudflats Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

and

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

s. The area is naturally shallow but the Fison Channel has been dredged to provide access for vehicular ferries which connect Cleveland to

Dunwich Dunwich is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB around north-east of London, south of Southwold and north of Leiston, on the North Sea coast. In the Anglo-Saxon period, Dunwich was ...

on North Stradbroke Island. Cassim Island at Sunrise viewed from G

Cassim Island, an area of sandbanks and mangroves located to the north of Toondah Harbour, provides shelter from northerly winds. The island is named after William Cassim, an early Cleveland hotel keeper. Cassim Island provides a high value habitat for wading birds and other mangrove fauna.

Environment

The marine and coastal area around the harbour are situated within internationally-significant wetlands, forming part of the Moreton Bay Ramsar site.

Tidal flats Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal f ...

mangroves A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

and

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the or ...

beds provide important habitats for

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

crustaceans Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

green turtles The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exten ...

, loggerhead turtles,

dugongs The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest m ...

, and 43 species of shorebirds, including the vulnerable

eastern curlew The Far Eastern curlew (''Numenius madagascariensis'') is a large shorebird most similar in appearance to the long-billed curlew, but slightly larger. It is mostly brown in color, differentiated from other curlews by its plain, unpatterned brown ...

, the

bar-tailed godwit The bar-tailed godwit (''Limosa lapponica'') is a large and strongly migratory wader in the family Scolopacidae, which feeds on bristle-worms and shellfish on coastal mudflats and estuaries. It has distinctive red breeding plumage, long legs, ...

and the

grey-tailed tattler The grey-tailed tattler (''Tringa brevipes'', formerly ''Heteroscelus brevipes''Banks, Richard C.; Cicero, Carla; Dunn, Jon L.; Kratter, Andrew W.; Rasmussen, Pamela C.; Remsen, J. V. Jr.; Rising, James D. & Stotz, Douglas F. (2006):Forty-seventh ...

. The region is also used by migratory birds as part of the

East Asian–Australasian Flyway The East Asian–Australasian Flyway is one of the world's great flyways. At its northernmost it stretches eastwards from the Taimyr Peninsula in Russia to Alaska. Its southern end encompasses Australia and New Zealand. Between these extremes th ...

. Endangered

southern right whales The southern right whale (''Eubalaena australis'') is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena''. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20° ...

have been observed visiting the area annually since 2002.

Development

Protest against Toondah PDA plan 23 February 2014

Secret plans for a 400 berth marina, foreshore development and multi-level residential, retail and commercial developments were discussed by the Redland City Council in 2007 under former Mayor Don Secombe. On 10 January 2014 the Queensland Government released a proposed development scheme for the Toondah Harbour Priority Development Area in Cleveland which would allow development of a large marina up to 800 berths in southern Moreton Bay between Toondah Harbour, G.J. Walter Park and Cassim Island. This proposal has been opposed by marine planning experts and various environmentally concerned community groups including Wildlife Queensland - Bayside Branch. A number of Queensland architects and planners reviewed the scheme at an Urban Design Workshop. The workshop Convenor said the group found the current Toondah scheme "too large, unfeasible and risky". He said the workshop recommended smaller developments across the city linking Raby Bay with Cleveland's CBD and the ferry terminal. Inclement prevailing winds, traffic bottlenecking, flooding, site pollution, significant environmental complications and native title uncertainty are some of the risks identified for any real estate development in the Toondah Harbour area. On 23 February approximately 300 people attended a rally to protest against the Government's plans to "carve up" the G.J. Walter Park as part of its Toondah Harbour redevelopment proposal. On 4 March 2014 a petition with 1,211 signatures calling for the Government's plans to be withdrawn was tabled in the Queensland Parliament. On 19 March the Council decided to ask the Queensland Government to make some changes to the plan which include reducing building heights from 15 storeys to 10 and a 400-berth marina at Toondah Harbour instead of 800 berths. In March 2014 the Government indicated that it was preparing an amended development scheme. In April 2014 the Redland City Council released copies of various "expert reports" used to prepare the proposed development scheme together with revised artists impressions of the proposed development. On 31 May 2014 an approved development scheme was released together with a lengthy report on the 583 submissions received during the consultation period.Toondah Harbour Priority Development Area Development Scheme Submissions Report, May 2014: http://www.edq.qld.gov.au/resources/plan/pda/submissions-report-toondah-harbour.pdf, Retrieved 1 June 2014

References

External links