On 3-4 June 2025, members of the K’gari Biosecurity Advisory Group (KBAG) joined key stakeholders for a 2-day collaborative Biosecurity Strategy BlueSheet workshop held on K’gari.

The workshop opened with five different perspectives of K’gari’s current biosecurity provided by the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation (BAC), World Heritage, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS), Fraser Coast Regional Council (FCRC) and Tourism.

The BAC’s Biosecurity Officer, Seth Henaway, talked about the project’s benchmarking work before Queensland University of Technology’s Honours student, Ella-Jane Raymond, presented findings of the Biosecurity Risk and Cost–Benefit Analysis for K’gari.

Workshop participants then worked through an expertly facilitated agenda with Craig Salt from Sustainable Consulting to develop a shared vision, priorities, and targets to support improved environmental biosecurity on K’gari. Topics included:

• The good and ‘not so good’ aspects of current biosecurity activities for K’gari.
• A desired future for K’gari; and
• The pathway forward.

Over the two days, participants discussed how to improve biosecurity for K’gari with four strategic areas:

1. Education and Awareness
2. Prevention – pre-entry intervention
3. Adaptive management – surveillance, research, and management on K’gari
4. Collaborative Governance.

Activities will be underpinned by a risk-based approach to prioritisation and delivery, with compliance and enforcement.

KBAG members reconvened in late June to review and endorse the draft BlueSheet. The K’gari Biosecurity Strategy will be finalised and released by the end of this year.

Funded by an Australian Heritage Grant, the KBAG has been established by the BAC to support the development of the K’gari Biosecurity Strategy between July 2024 and December 2025. The KBAG is an interagency and transdisciplinary group overseeing the project’s implementation. Members provide input and support, and review activities and reports as they are undertaken.

Organisations represented at the workshop included the BAC, Butchulla Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and the Office of the Great Barrier Reef and World Heritage (Department of Tourism, Environment, Science and Innovation), Biosecurity Queensland and Horticulture & Forestry Science (Department of Primary Industries), Fraser Coast Regional Council, Sealink Kingfisher Bay, Queensland University of Technology, K’gari Research Station and the University of the Sunshine Coast, FINIA – the Natural Integrity Alliance for K’gari, FIDO,  and representatives of the K’gari community.

Article contributed by Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC