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: People * Creek people, also known as Muscogee, Native Americans ...

located in South East

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 , established_ ...

, Australia. A

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or 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 drain the surrounding drainag ...

of the

Brisbane River The Brisbane River is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia, and flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the river, named it after the G ...

, 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 of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditio ...

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

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

with the Brisbane River north-northeast of , and downstream from the Wivenhoe Dam. The creek is named after Edmund Lockyer.

Course and features

Lockyer Creek Railway Bridge (Clarendon) (2008) 01

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, Southern Downs Region, southwest of Brisbane. It is part of the World Heritage Site Gondwana Rainforests of Australia (formerly kno ...

, 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 in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 ...

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

catchment area In human geography, a catchment area 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 ar ...

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,

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

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 ...

and

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( 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 an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

management are the main

resource Resource refers to all the materials available in our environment which are technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and wants. Resources can broadly be classified upon their av ...

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.

Lockyer Creek Railway Bridge (Guinn Park), from SW (2009)

There are a total of nine major private and public water storages within this drainage system, including Atkinson Dam, Bill Gunn Dam and Lake Clarendon. The Lockyer Creek valley had been one of the driest catchments in Queensland during the recent droughts in Australia.

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 or snow flowing ...

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 produ ...

. The

Bureau of Meteorology The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM or BoM) is an executive agency of the Australian Government responsible for providing weather services to Australia and surrounding areas. It was established in 1906 under the Meteorology Act, and brought together ...

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 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

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). A report by GHD Group 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 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 man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many i ...

sites, including: * Toowoomba – Helidon Line:

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

* 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, west of Brisbane, to the upper Brisbane River valley. Progressively opened between 1884 and 1913, the railway provided a vital transport link ...

: Lockyer Creek Railway Bridge (Clarendon)

References

External links