Calamvale Creek

Calamvale Creek is a small natural creek that runs through the Brisbane suburb of Calamvale, in Queensland, Australia. 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 wetlands system provides a home and retreat for many water birds and animals.

Wildlife

The wetlands and creek provide a suitable habitat for ducks, egrets, royal spoonbills, cormorants, swamphens, dusky moorhens, nankeen night herons, straw-necked ibises, white-faced herons, water dragons, turtles, and many other birds and animals. In summer, the paperbark trees beside the creek provide a home for the Australian bowl spider "(Cyrtophora exanthematica)" — 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, which captures much of the heavier sediments 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 have done considerable research on water quality, plant sustainability, the effectiveness of mosquito 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

* [http://calamvalecreek.awardspace.com/ Critters of Calamvale Creek] — Photos, history and research on Calamvale Creek
* [http://calamvalecreek.awardspace.com/papers.html Conference papers] on the Golden Pond Wetlands and Calamvale Creek