Save Our Waterways Now

Save Our Waterways Now (SOWN) is a community-based organisation rehabilitating Enoggera catchment in 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...

, the largest city 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...

. The principal waterway in the Enoggera catchment is Enoggera Creek

Enoggera Creek

Enoggera Creek is a waterway that rises on the D'Aguilar Range and flows into the Brisbane River. The creek's headwaters form on the southern slopes of Mount Nebo in Brisbane Forest Park....

 with two main tributaries, Fish Creek and Ithaca Creek

Ithaca Creek

Ithaca Creek is a waterway in the Enoggera Creek catchment, in the western suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It arises in in the Taylor Range at the Mount Coot-tha forest with two streams, one arising at J C Slaughter Falls, the other and stronger source being Simpson Falls, the western...

.

SOWN was incorporated on 18 February 1998 as Save Our Waterways - Now Inc., organisation number IA19057, an association under the jurisdiction of the Office of Fair Trading, Queensland. SOWN was formed as a response to habitat loss and environmental degradation. Enoggera Creek and its tributaries had been degraded by past agricultural land-uses and by the dumping of refuse and garden waste from the homes and developments in the catchment.

SOWN operates a volunteer-run plant nursery which propagates more than 30,000 locally native species every year and provides them free to SOWN members.

History

The first record of major tree planting and habitat restoration in the Enoggera catchment was reported in January 1982 as an activity of Men of the Trees

Men of the Trees

Men of the Trees is an international, non-profit, non-political, conservation organisation. It is involved in planting, maintenance and protection of trees. It was founded by Richard St. Barbe Baker. Also known as the International Tree Foundation....

 whose newsletter reported "... to date 1,800 trees have been placed, of which about 1,700 have survived.”. Another local group, the Enoggera Creek Beautification Committee, held its first planting on 26 January 1986.

In 1994 Brian Hallinan, Brisbane City Council Alderman for The Gap Ward, created SOWN by bringing together the environmental activists and interested residents as a project of Men of the Trees. The project received National Heritage Trust funding for a coordinator, equipment and expenses.

By the late 1990s SOWN was a major environmental organisation with many restoration sites and active volunteers. On 30 March 1998 in a speech to the Australian Senate, Senator Ian Macdonald reported “the project was developed to provide a working model of waterways management, with an emphasis on ongoing maintenance ... In the last year alone some 20,000 native trees and grasses were planted, with 900 cubic metres of mulch being spread. The strength of the project has been the work by 700 or so volunteers, who have contributed more than 68,000 volunteer hours since the project’s inception...”

In 2007, SOWN merged with the Brisbane Rainforest Action and Information Network (BRAIN). In 2008 SOWN launched Ithaca Intact, a flagship project to restore the entire seven kilometre length of Ithaca Creek.