The Lockyer Creek is a

creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: * Creek people, a former name of Muscogee, Native Americans * C ...

South East Queensland South East Queensland (SEQ) is a Bioregion, bio-geographical, Megalopolis, metropolitan and Statistics, statistical Regions of Queensland, region of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. A

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the

Brisbane River The Brisbane River (Turrbal language, Turrbal: ) is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia. It flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the ...

, the creek is a major

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils can prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditions that harm root gro ...

system in the

Lockyer Valley The Lockyer Valley is an area of rich farmlands that lies to the west of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and east of Toowoomba. The Lockyer Valley is rated among the top ten most fertile farming areas in the world, and the intensively cultiv ...

. Rising on the eastern slopes of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills. It runs roughl ...

, the creek flows generally north-easterly for more than before it reaches its

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

with the Brisbane River north-northeast of , and downstream from the

Wivenhoe Dam Wivenhoe Dam is a rock and earth-fill embankment dam with a concrete spillway across the Brisbane River in South East Queensland, Australia. The dam takes it names from the local Wivenhoe Pocket rural community. The dam wall is located abou ...

. The creek is named after

Edmund Lockyer Edmund Lockyer, (21 January 1784 – 10 June 1860) was a British soldier and explorer of Australia. Born in Plymouth, Devon, Lockyer was the son of Thomas Lockyer, a sailmaker, and his wife Ann. Lockyer began his army career as an ensign in ...

Course and features

Draining parts of the western

Scenic Rim The Scenic Rim is a group of forested mountain ranges of the Great Dividing Range, located south of Brisbane agglomeration, straddling the border between south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales, Australia. In 2021, the Sce ...

, the creek's headwaters are in the

Main Range National Park The Main Range is a mountain range and national park in Queensland, Australia, located predominantly in Tregony, Queensland, Tregony, Southern Downs Region, southwest of Brisbane. It is part of the World Heritage Site Gondwana Rainforests of Au ...

, a small sub-section of the Great Dividing Range. Its tributaries drain the slopes east of

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( ), nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar', is a city on the border of South East Queensland and Darling Downs regions of Queensland, Australia. It is located west of Queensland's capital, Brisbane. The urban population of Toowoom ...

and areas to the north of . The total stream length of the Lockyer Creek network is . The total

catchment area A catchment area in human geography, is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...

is , and covers nearly one quarter of the total catchment area of the Brisbane River. O'Reillys Weir is located about upstream from the creek's confluence with the Brisbane River. Approximately upstream from the junction of Lockyer Creek and the Brisbane River is the Wivenhoe Dam. Tributaries flowing into Lockyer Creek include Flagstone Creek, Sandy Creek, Alice Creek, Laidley Creek, Tenthill Creek, Murphys Creek and Ma Ma Creek. Lower areas of the catchment have been cleared for intensive agriculture. Upper parts of the catchment remain mostly forested, partially protected within

Lockyer National Park Lockyer National Park is a national park in north of the Lockyer Valley Region in South East Queensland, Australia. The landscape is dominated by the foothills of the Great Dividing Range and features sandstone gorges and eucalypt forest. There ...

formerly known as White Mountain State Forest.

Bushfires A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...

protection,

water quality Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...

and

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

management are the main

resource ''Resource'' refers to all the materials available in our environment which are Technology, technologically accessible, Economics, economically feasible and Culture, culturally Sustainability, sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and want ...

management issues for the waterway. The creek is significantly degraded. The poor conditions have resulted in unstable stream banks and gully erosion from the removal of riparian vegetation. There are a total of nine major private and public water storages within this drainage system, including

Atkinson Dam The Atkinson Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam across the Buaraba Creek and a naturally forming lagoon, which is located near Lowood in the South East region of Queensland, Australia. The main purpose of the dam is for irrigation of farming l ...

Bill Gunn Dam The Bill Gunn Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam with an un-gated spillway located off-stream in Laidley Heights in the South East region of Queensland, Australia. The main purpose of the dam is for irrigation of the Lockyer Valley. The re ...

and

Lake Clarendon The Lake Clarendon Dam is a rock and earth-fill embankment dam with an un-gated spillway located off-stream in the locality of Lake Clarendon in the Lockyer Valley Region, South East Queensland, Australia. The main purpose of the dam is for ...

. The Lockyer Creek valley had been one of the driest catchments in Queensland during the recent

droughts in Australia Drought in Australia is defined by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology as rainfall over period greater than three-months being in the lowest decile of what has been recorded for that region in the past. This definition takes into account that ...

Flood events

During the 2011 Queensland floods, on 10 and 11 January the creek experienced severe

flash flood A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice and snow. Flash f ...

ing from overnight and daytime heavy rain in a catchment of about . During the floods the creek reached deep, a record that was higher than what was experienced during the

1974 Brisbane flood In January 1974 a flood occurred in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia after three weeks of continual rain. The Brisbane River, which runs through the heart of the city, broke its banks and flooded the surrounding areas. The cyclone that produced t ...

. The

Bureau of Meteorology The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM or BoM) is an executive agency of the Government of Australia, Australian Government that is responsible for providing Weather forecasting, weather forecasts and Meteorology, meteorological services to Australia a ...

recorded a rise of in 23 minutes during the flash flood but initially dismissed the reading as a fault. It was estimated that 4,000

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

s or of water per second flowed through Lockyer Creek, leading to the use of descriptive phrases such as "wall of water", or even "inland tsunami". Water rose approximately above the 1893 flood level recorded at the Lockyer Creek Railway bridge (see below). Dozens of homes were destroyed and 19 people died in the floods. The town of

Grantham Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...

was particularly hard hit. A report by

GHD Group GHD Group Pty Ltd (formerly known as Gutteridge Haskins & Davey) is a global employee-owned multinational technical professional services firm providing advisory, architecture and design, buildings, digital, energy and resources, environmental ...

for the Brisbane City Council suggested that flood mitigating dams on Lockyer Creek and Bremer River could be a useful measure for flood proofing Brisbane.

Bridges

The Lockyer Creek Bridge at Bageli Park, designed by William Pagan, is one of the largest of its type in Queensland and one of Australia's first reinforced concrete arch

rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' (1967 fil ...

bridges. The bridge, built in 1910/1911, features three spans, each supported by two arches, and appeared on a stamp that was part of a series featuring landmark bridges. A model of the bridge was featured in the April 2011 edition of the ''Australian Model Railway Magazine''. The bridge is still used for very heavy Brisbane bound coal and grain traffic. Another single arch bridge on the same line, but over a side gully, with the same name, is closer to and was built in 1903. Further downstream in the district of Clarendon, an earlier railway structure (1885) built of timber piles with a deck of iron trusses, is possibly as spectacular. This bridge is no longer used by rail traffic.

Heritage listings

Lockyer Creek has a number of

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and human-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In ma ...

sites, including: * Toowoomba – Helidon Line:

Lockyer Creek Railway Bridge (Lockyer) Lockyer Creek Railway Bridge (Lockyer) is a heritage-listed railway bridge on the Main Line railway, Queensland, Toowoomba–Helidon railway line over Lockyer Creek, Queensland, Lockyer Creek at Lockyer, Queensland, Lockyer, Lockyer Valley Regi ...

* Toowoomba – Helidon Line:

Lockyer Creek Railway Bridge (Murphys Creek) Lockyer Creek Railway Bridge (Murphys Creek) is a heritage-listed railway bridge on the Toowoomba–Helidon line over Lockyer Creek at Murphys Creek, Lockyer Valley Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by William Pagan and built fr ...

Brisbane Valley railway line The Brisbane Valley railway line was a railway connection in Queensland, Australia connecting Ipswich, Queensland, Ipswich, west of Brisbane, to the upper Brisbane River valley. Progressively opened between 1884 and 1913, the railway provided ...

Lockyer Creek Railway Bridge (Clarendon) Lockyer Creek Railway Bridge is a heritage-listed railway bridge on the Brisbane Valley railway line over Lockyer Creek at Clarendon, Somerset Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Henry Charles Stanley and built from 1885 to 1886 ...

References

External links