A Bondi solution has been suggested to improve the health and appearance of a brown-coloured creek that separates multi-million-dollar homes on Noosa’s doorstep.<\/p>\n
Burgess Creek runs 5 kilometres from heavily commercialised Noosa Junction to the otherwise idyllic beachfront, and contains signs warning against swimming and human consumption.<\/p>\n
The creek flows into the Pacific Ocean between Sunrise Beach and Castaways Beach, suburbs where the median house price is about $2 million, according to PropTrack, a property data website.<\/p>\n
Signs indicate “creek water contains treated sewage effluent”, but compounding issues include fertiliser run-off, historic landfill sites, erosion, invasive flora, animal excrement and household run-off.<\/p>\n
The Queensland government has allocated $100,000 towards a Burgess Creek catchment management plan (CMP), to be developed with Noosa Shire Council before the end of 2026.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Residents say they regularly warn people not to swim, or let their dogs play in the creek. (ABC News: Robert Burgin)<\/p>\n
“There are legacy issues and points where pollutants are entering the waterway,” said Kim Rawlings, Noosa Council’s director of strategy and environment.<\/p>\n
Benefits of a Bondi solution<\/p>\n
Erosion to the northern bank of Burgess Creek has created steep drop-offs and siltation. (ABC News: Robert Burgin)<\/p>\n
Sunrise Beach resident Matthew Hoffman purchased a property fronting the northern side of Burgess Creek in 2005 after relocating from Sydney’s eastern suburbs.<\/p>\n
“It’s a good spot and I wouldn’t move [but] it’s basically become a wasteland,” Mr Hoffman said.<\/p>\n
“It’s full of weed and, with all the building that’s gone up behind us and towards the junction, we’re getting a tonne of runoff.<\/p>\n
“The population has increased so much in this area.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The sensitive ecosystem around Burgess Creek juggles many competing demands. (ABC News: Robert Burgin)<\/p>\n
Mr Hoffman said concerns about the cleanliness of the creek, erosion to the banks near busy road David Low Way, and the safety of beachgoers prompted him to think of solutions.<\/p>\n
He proposed investigating deep ocean outfalls, which discharge treated effluent kilometres out to sea.<\/p>\n
Similar outfalls became operational along the Sydney coastline at Bondi, Malabar and North Head in the early 1990s, costing more than a combined $300 million at the time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A man swims through a sewage plume at a Sydney beach in 1990. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
“When they took the sewage out to sea, it was a revelation because there was no more crap coming back on to the beach,” Mr Hoffman said.<\/p>\n
A 2017 Deloitte report stated Sydney’s deep ocean outfalls prevented 180,000 sick days per year and provided more than $2 billion in economic benefits since implementation.<\/p>\n
Slow going<\/p>\n
State Environment and Tourism Minister Andrew Powell \u2014 the member for Glass House on the Sunshine Coast hinterland \u2014 said long-term funding would be considered once the catchment plan was finalised.<\/p>\n
In 2021, action group Eastern Beaches Protection Association collected more than 1,500 signatures and petitioned the council to stop stormwater runoff from eroding and contaminating dunes and waterways.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, four years later, the solution still seems years away.<\/p>\n
Noosa Boardriders president Paul Petersen said it was “an area nobody wants to go near when it rains”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Surfers, bathers, beach walkers and their dogs often frequent the area. (ABC News: Robert Burgin)<\/p>\n
“We’ve surfed that area for a long time and while it’s a beautiful spot, with the sewage outflow, you don’t want your kids in it.”<\/p>\n
Utilities company Unitywater has a sewage pump station about 200 metres before Burgess Creek meets the beach.<\/p>\n
Unitywater said the pump sent 600 litres per minute back to a treatment plant further upstream, which also improved water flow and prevented stagnant water.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes it can get a little smelly, but we do our best to keep things fresh with regular maintenance and specialised odour control units,” the company said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A modified section of Burgess Creek underneath coastal arterial road David Low Way. (ABC News: Robert Burgin)<\/p>\n
Unitywater said it was doing monthly groundwater tests in conjunction with Noosa Council and monitored its network 24\/7.<\/p>\n
In June 2025, Noosa Council and landcare groups also launched a project to remove Singapore daisy weeds from the Burgess Creek catchment.<\/p>\n
Council described the poisoned vegetation as “confronting to see going from green to brown” but said it was necessary and handled with ecologically safe chemicals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bondi solution has been suggested to improve the health and appearance of a brown-coloured creek that separates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[34994,34992,34997,35000,43,44,34993,34999,34998,34996,41,39,42,40,34995,15944],"class_list":["post-39278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bondi-solution","tag-burgess-creek","tag-castaways-beach","tag-eastern-beaches-protection-association","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-noosa-creek","tag-noosa-shire-council-catchment-management-plan","tag-sewage-in-creek-noose","tag-sunrise-beach","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-toxic-noosa-creek","tag-water-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}