Calamvale Creek is a small natural creek that runs through the Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

 suburb

Suburb

The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

 of Calamvale

Calamvale, Queensland

Calamvale is a suburb on the south side of the city of Brisbane, Australia. A relatively large suburb, it adjoins Stretton, Parkinson, Sunnybank Hills, Acacia Ridge, Algester and Drewvale. It is 18 kilometres from Brisbane's central business district....

, in Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is the local name for part of a longer channel known as Scrubby Creek. Calamvale Creek is the downstream part of the Golden Pond wetlands system, which Brisbane City Council constructed in the late 1990s to treat stormwater that runs into the creek, and to provide a small wildfowl habitat in an urban setting.http://calamvalecreek.awardspace.com/

Golden Pond wetlands system

The Golden Pond wetlands system is a "treatment train" designed to purify stormwater that runs into the eastern boundary of Calamvale. The wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

s system provides a home and retreat for many water birds and animals.

Wildlife

The wetlands and creek provide a suitable habitat for duck

Duck

Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...

s, egret

Egret

An egret is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season. Many egrets are members of the genera Egretta or Ardea which contain other species named as herons rather than egrets...

s, royal spoonbills

Spoonbill

Spoonbills are a group of large, long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, which also includes the Ibises.All have large, flat, spatulate bills and feed by wading through shallow water, sweeping the partly opened bill from side to side...

, cormorant

Cormorant

The bird family Phalacrocoracidae is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of genera is disputed.- Names :...

s, swamphens

Purple Swamphen

The Purple Swamphen , also known as the African Purple Swamphen, Purple Moorhen, Purple Gallinule, Pūkeko or Purple Coot, is a large bird in the family Rallidae . From its name in French, talève sultane, it is also known as the Sultana Bird...

, dusky moorhens

Dusky Moorhen

The Dusky Moorhen is a bird in the rail family. It occurs in Australia, New Guinea, and Indonesia.The New Guinea birds are smaller, at 25-32 cm in length, than the Australian race...

, nankeen night herons

Nankeen Night Heron

The Nankeen Night Heron, Nycticorax caledonicus, also commonly referred to as the Rufous Night Heron, and in Melanesia as Melabaob, is a medium-sized heron. It is found throughout much of Australia except the arid inland, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Melanesia...

, straw-necked ibises

Straw-necked Ibis

The Straw-necked Ibis is a bird of the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae. It can be found throughout Australia, New Guinea, and parts of Indonesia. Adults have distinctive straw-like feathers on their neck....

, white-faced herons

White-faced Heron

The White-faced Heron, Egretta novaehollandiae, also known as the White-fronted Heron, and incorrectly as the Grey Heron, or Blue Crane, is a common bird throughout most of Australasia, including New Guinea, the islands of Torres Strait, Indonesia, New Zealand, the islands of the Subantarctic, and...

, water dragons, turtle

Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...

s, and many other birds and animals. In summer, the paperbark trees beside the creek provide a home for the Australian bowl spider (Cyrtophora exanthematica

Cyrtophora exanthematica

Cyrtophora exanthematica are tent spiders common in tropical Asia and Australia. They are commonly known as double-tailed tent spiders because of the pair of blunt projections at the end of their abdomens. They are harmless to humans....

) — a 12-millimetre (half-inch) beige-coloured spider that makes a bowl-shaped web, with a lid, at the end of tree branches using fresh and dead leaves.http://calamvalecreek.awardspace.com/bianca.html

Treatment train for water quality

Before water runs into Calamvale Creek, it passes through a "treatment train", which improves water quality as it progresses downstream. Stormwater from an upstream drainage channel first flows into a sediment basin

Sediment basin

A sediment basin is a temporary pond built on a construction site to capture eroded or disturbed soil that is washed off during rain storms, and protect the water quality of a nearby stream, river, lake, or bay. The sediment-laden soil settles in the pond before the runoff is discharged...

, which captures much of the heavier sediment

Sediment

Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....

s in the water. The water then runs into Golden Pond Wetland 1, on the northern side of Golden Avenue, and passes through a gross pollutant trap that traps heavy debris so that filtered water runs into Wetland 2, on the southern side of Golden Avenue.

From Wetland 2, water runs into a natural riparian wetland, and then winds east to flow into the 600-metre Calamvale Creek and its small lagoons.

Map of Calamvale Creek

A map of Calamvale Creek, Golden Pond, and the surrounding neighbourhood is available from the Critters of Calamvale Creek website.http://calamvalecreek.awardspace.com/map1.html

Research

Environmental engineers from Brisbane’s Griffith University

Griffith University

Griffith University is a public, coeducational, research university located in the southeastern region of the Australian state of Queensland. The university has five satellite campuses located in the Gold Coast, Logan City and in the Brisbane suburbs of Mount Gravatt, Nathan and South Bank. Current...

 have done considerable research on water quality, plant sustainability, the effectiveness of mosquito

Mosquito

Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...

 control, and related topics at Golden Pond and Calamvale Creek. Conference papers on this research have been presented worldwide.

Public toilets

There are no public toilets around Calamvale Creek, or in Calamvale itself. The closest public toilets are in Sunnybank Hills Shoppingtown (corner Calam & Compton Roads, Sunnybank Hills — Open: Mon-Wed, Fri-Sat 9am-5:30pm; Thu 9am-9pm; Sun 9am-4pm); Banoon railway station (Brenton Street, Sunnybank Hills. Open: Mon-Fri 6:20am-3:20pm); and Altandi railway station (Gundooee Street, Sunnybank. Open: Mon-Fri 5:35am-1:35pm).http://www.toiletmap.gov.au/browse.aspx?type=area&id=a2ef0877-ada1-4bdd-b376-14d1c328ae94

External links

• Critters of Calamvale Creek — Photos, history and research on Calamvale Creek
• Conference papers on the Golden Pond Wetlands and Calamvale Creek