Toondah Harbour is a boat harbour at

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Redland City Redland City, also known as the Redlands and formerly known as Redland Shire, is a Local government in Australia, local government area (LGA) and a part of Brisbane, Greater Brisbane in South East Queensland, Australia. With a population of 159 ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, 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 (Janday language, 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. Original ...

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 semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

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 ...

and

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

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 & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape around north-east of London, south of Southwold and north of Leiston, on the North Sea coast. In the Anglo-Saxon ...

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 A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

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 ...

mangroves A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen and remove sal ...

and

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

beds provide important habitats for

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

crustaceans Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of Arthropod, arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquat ...

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 FIle:Vadare - Ystad-2021.jpg, 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, forage for food c ...

, including the vulnerable eastern curlew, 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 of migratory birds. At its northernmost it stretches eastwards from the Taimyr Peninsula in Russia to Alaska. Its southern end encompasses Australia and New Zealand. Between ...

. 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