This short item isn’t directly about K’gari., it is more about Korrawinga (what we call the Great Sandy Strait). I know little of Butchulla lore, but I think Korrawinga was formed by Yindingie with the assistance of the spirit K’gari.  

Another version of this story is that what we now call K’gari is the northernmost coastal sand mass by the longshore drift of sandy sediments from south coast NSW, the Hawkesbury and Hunter Rivers to deposit sand eastwards of major volcanoes such as Mount Ebor, Mount Warning and those of the Glasshouse Mountains. This took place as sea levels rose and fell, particularly during the Pleistocene Epoch. But just off Sandy Cape, there is a major marine canyon into which remaining sand flowed to the abyssal plain of the Coral Sea. Without the scouring of current-driven sand, coral reefs could grow in the warm shallow seas, northwards of K’gari.

This is why the Mary, Burrum and Burnett Rivers are now recognised as the southernmost Reef Catchment rivers, and why the Great Sandy Strait and Hervey Bay are recognised as the southernmost inshore receiving waters of the Reef Catchment.  

After over a century of land clearing, ill-considered coastal development and fishery exploitation, the condition of these receiving waters and the Great Barrier Reef has noticeably declined over the last few decades. 

The latest iteration of ongoing efforts to improve water quality in Reef Catchments such as Mary, Burrum and Burnett is the Reef 2050 Catchment Water Quality Strategy

Apparently motivated by the Australian and Queensland governments’ promise to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee that revised Water Quality targets would be met by 2030, this Strategy is intended to decrease water pollution in Reef Catchments.  

I attended an online webinar introducing the Draft Strategy, after which a fellow attendee expressed frustration with the interminable reinvention of this particular wheel.  Nevertheless, they’re giving us all the opportunity to Have Our Say on this draft Strategy. We have until 19 November (15 days after Melbourne Cup) to provide feedback and comment.

My own feedback will focus on the deterioration in the Sandy Strait, most notably the episodic losses of the seagrass on which turtles, dugongs and many other animals depend.  Writing about that loss in the FINIA newsletter of September 2023: Reflecting on Tin Can Bay Seagrass Decline, I pondered whether the catastrophic depletion of sea cucumbers due to overfishing in the 1990s might have something to do with seagrass loss since then.

Well might I ponder, but the good news is someone is now actively researching this question.  That person is USC PhD candidate Alison Hammond.

Alison’s working hypothesis is that sea cucumbers are important for the health of seagrass, which used to cover much of the Great Sandy Strait and Hervey Bay before they were over-exploited.  Loss of sea cucumbers may have consequently affected water quality in these inshore waters that are the southernmost Reef catchment.  

Alison is currently seeking any information, be it anecdotes, personal recollections, or written records and photographs, relating to the sea cucumber fishery and seagrass presence in the Great Sandy and Hervey Bay waters..

Article contributed by David Arthur, Wide Bay Burnett Environment Council

To contact Alison to discuss her project or provide your sea cucumber anecdotes, please call her on 0419 740 994 or email alison.hammond@research.usc.edu.au