| Lockyer | |
|---|---|
 Lower Lockyer Creek, 2011 | |
  Location of the Lockyer Creekmouth in Queensland | |
| Etymology | Edmund Lockyer |
| Location | |
| Country | Australia |
| State | Queensland |
| Region | South East Queensland |
| Cities | Helidon,Grantham,Gatton |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Great Dividing Range |
| • location | Main Range National Park |
| • coordinates | 27°28′6″S152°5′19″E / 27.46833°S 152.08861°E /-27.46833; 152.08861 |
| • elevation | 216 m (709 ft) |
| Mouth | confluence with theBrisbane River |
• location | nearWivenhoe Pocket |
• coordinates | 27°24′59″S152°36′20″E / 27.41639°S 152.60556°E /-27.41639; 152.60556 |
• elevation | 37 m (121 ft) |
| Length | 113 km (70 mi) |
| Basin size | 3,032 km2 (1,171 sq mi) |
| Basin features | |
| River system | Brisbane River |
| Tributaries | |
| • left | Buaraba Creek, Redbank Creek (Queensland), Sheep Creek (Queensland), Alice Creek (Queensland), Murphy's Creek |
| • right | Plain Creek, Laidley Creek, Sandy Creek (Queensland), Tenthill Creek,Ma Ma Creek, Flagstone Creek (Queensland), Gatton Creek |
| National park | Main Range National Park |
| [1] | |
TheLockyer Creek is acreek inSouth East Queensland,Australia. Atributary of theBrisbane River, the creek is a majordrainage system in theLockyer Valley. Rising on the eastern slopes of theGreat Dividing Range, the creek flows generally north-easterly for more than 100 kilometres (62 mi) before it reaches itsconfluence with the Brisbane River north-northeast ofLowood, and downstream from theWivenhoe Dam. The creek is named afterEdmund Lockyer.[2]
_(2008)_01.jpg)
Draining parts of the westernScenic Rim, the creek's headwaters are in theMain Range National Park, a small sub-section of the Great Dividing Range. Its tributaries drain the slopes east ofToowoomba and areas to the north ofGatton. The total stream length of the Lockyer Creek network is 6,056 kilometres (3,763 mi).[3]
The totalcatchment area is 3,032 km2 (1,171 sq mi),[4] and covers nearly one quarter of the total catchment area of the Brisbane River.[2] O'Reillys Weir is located about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) upstream from the creek's confluence with the Brisbane River. Approximately 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) upstream from the junction of Lockyer Creek and the Brisbane River is the Wivenhoe Dam. Tributaries flowing into Lockyer Creek include Flagstone Creek, Sandy Creek, Alice Creek, Laidley Creek, Tenthill Creek, Murphys Creek and Ma Ma Creek.[4]
Lower areas of the catchment have been cleared for intensive agriculture.[3] Upper parts of the catchment remain mostly forested,[3] partially protected withinLockyer National Park formerly known as White Mountain State Forest.Bushfires,soil protection,water quality andflood management are the mainresource management issues for the waterway.[5] The creek is significantly degraded. The poor conditions have resulted in unstable stream banks and gully erosion from the removal of riparian vegetation.[3][6]
%2c_from_SW_(2009).jpg)
There are a total of nine major private and public water storages within this drainage system, includingAtkinson Dam,Bill Gunn Dam andLake Clarendon.[4] The Lockyer Creek valley had been one of the driestcatchments in Queensland during the recentdroughts in Australia.
During the2011 Queensland floods, on 10 and 11 January the creek experienced severeflash flooding from overnight and daytime heavy rain in a catchment of about 2,000 square kilometres (770 sq mi).[7] During the floods the creek reached 18 metres (59 ft) deep,[8] a record that was higher than what was experienced during the1974 Brisbane flood.[8]
TheBureau of Meteorology recorded a rise of 8 metres (26 ft) in 23 minutes during the flash flood but initially dismissed the reading as a fault.[9] It was estimated that 4,000 tonnes or 4,000 megalitres (1,100×10^6 US gal) of water per second flowed through Lockyer Creek, leading to the use of descriptive phrases such as "wall of water", or even "inland tsunami".[9] Water rose approximately 9 feet (2.7 m) above the 1893 flood level recorded at the Lockyer Creek Railway bridge (see below). Dozens of homes were destroyed and 19 people died in the floods.[10] The town ofGrantham was particularly hard hit.[11]
A report byGHD Group for the Brisbane City Council suggested that flood mitigating dams on Lockyer Creek andBremer River could be a useful measure for flood proofing Brisbane.[12]
The Lockyer Creek Bridge at Bageli Park, designed byWilliam Pagan, is one of the largest of its type in Queensland and one of Australia's first reinforced concrete archrail bridges.[13] The bridge, built in 1910/1911, features three spans, each supported by two arches, and appeared on a stamp that was part of a series featuring landmark bridges.[14] A model of the bridge was featured in the April 2011 edition of theAustralian Model Railway Magazine.[15] The bridge is still used for very heavy Brisbane bound coal and grain traffic. Another single arch bridge on the same line, but over a side gully, with the same name, is closer toGatton and was built in 1903.[16] Further downstream in the district of Clarendon, an earlier railway structure (1885) built of timber piles with a deck of iron trusses, is possibly as spectacular. This bridge is no longer used by rail traffic.[17]
Lockyer Creek has a number ofheritage-listed sites, including:
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
