Winter isn’t the easiest season to build in-stream structures, but that didn’t stop the Water Stewardship Program team from completing construction across two neighbouring properties on Kellys Creek this year: Bangalla and Burwood Lodge, both part of the Moss Vale Community of Practice.
Together the sites span a connected stretch of Kellys Creek and its tributary, Little Kellys Creek, in the Southern Highlands. Bangalla, downstream, carries a legacy of erosion and channel incision built up over many decades, shaped by the combined forces of concentrated flood flows carving through the landscape and the broader hydrological pressures the creek has faced over time. Upstream at Burwood Lodge, Little Kellys Creek is at an earlier stage of decline, giving the two projects together a chance to demonstrate both corrective and preventative approaches within the one system.
Both projects are holistic in scope, pairing in-stream structures with riparian fencing, stock exclusion corridors and revegetation. At Burwood Lodge, supported by Wingecarribee Shire Council, this includes a substantial planting program for the endangered Southern Highlands Shale Woodland community.
The construction team — Tony Wells, Erin Healy and Dan Jones from Mulloon, alongside Coopers Earthmoving operator Mitch Cook — pushed through a start date that had shifted into the depths of winter, working in wetter and colder conditions than usual. Despite the weather, the crew gelled quickly, building a series of log-sill and rock structures along both sites.
These structures are a type of nature-based solution: built entirely from 100% natural materials, simple rocks and logs rather than concrete or steel, they work with the landscape’s own hydrology to gently raise the creek bed, slow the flow of water through the channel, and help restore the surrounding wetland and floodplain’s natural capacity to act as a soil sponge, holding and filtering moisture rather than letting it rush straight through.
All works were carried out under full regulatory approval, including consultation on fish passage, and detailed hydraulic modelling has confirmed the structures, while transformative for erosion control and drought resilience, will have a negligible effect on existing flood heights and extents. Baseline eDNA sampling was also collected at the site during the recent Moss Vale Creek Health and Habitat Day, giving the team a benchmark against which to measure improvements in aquatic species composition and richness as the creek recovers.
According to a neighbour who has lived on Kellys Creek for 58 years, the creek was once shallow, healthy and largely free of erosion, a very different picture to the deeply incised channel of recent decades. The works at Bangalla have been carefully designed to rebuild the eroded creek bed and slow and heal the flow, while at Little Kellys Creek the change has already caught the landholders’ attention, who said it now looks like a lovely little creek, where before it was an ugly old drain.
“I knew it was going to be a fantastic project, but it’s so much more than that already,” said Doug, the Burwood Lodge landholder. At Bangalla, the reaction was just as warm, “everything went really well, the construction team was heroic and it was so thrilling to have it in, seeing the constructed riffles. It’s blissful.” – Sandy, Bangalla landholder.
A huge thank you goes to the landholders of Bangalla and Burwood Lodge. Opening up their properties and getting behind a different way of caring for the land takes real trust and commitment, and their willingness to lead the way is exactly what is needed to restore the health and function of Kellys Creek. They are true catchment champions, or at the very least are leading by example, and we’re enormously grateful for their partnership and generosity.
With the in-stream works complete, the sites now rest until spring, when Whipbird Environmental will carry out the revegetation works. Once the plants are in the ground, Mulloon and the Moss Vale community are looking forward to hosting a demonstration site tour, a chance to see the finished project and learn how the sites will continue to regenerate and evolve over time.
And the momentum keeps building: Deidre’s property, Quindalup, will be the next site to join the Water Stewardship Program on Kellys Creek. Stay tuned for more.
This project has been funded by WaterNSW and The Ian Potter Foundation. The revegetation program at Burwood Lodge is additionally supported by Wingecarribee Shire Council.
Bangalla, before (above) and immediately after (below) earthworks: the newly constructed log-sill and rock structures are already reshaping the creek’s flow and form.
Above: Burwood Lodge, immediately after earthworks – Little Kellys Creek transformed from a simple drain into what landholders describe as ‘a lovely little creek’.
Top banner image: a glimpse of a not-yet-finished structure site, with a backdrop of the stunning Southern Highlands sunrise.