Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership

Gladstone Harbour: A working port rich in marine resources

QUEENSLAND'S LARGEST MULTI-COMMODITY PORT.

THE GLADSTONE HEALTHY HARBOUR PARTNERSHIP (GHHP) IS PROUD TO RELEASE THE

2020 Gladstone Harbour Report Card

The Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership (GHHP) presents its sixth annual report card to the community and stakeholders. The 2020 Gladstone Harbour Report Card contains the results calculated using 33 indicators derived from 106 different measures within the four components of harbour health: Environment, Economic, Social, and Cultural.

Monitoring since 2014 has shown that some indicators are stable from year to year. Because of this stability, some assessments will now be done every third or fifth year. For the 2020 Report Card, Social, Cultural, Economic and Mangroves were not assessed. For these indicators, the 2019 results, and in the case of Cultural Heritage, the 2018 results have been carried over to 2020.

Overall, the Gladstone Harbour Report Card 2020 grade results were: Environmental health of Gladstone Harbour, good (B); Cultural health of Gladstone Harbour, satisfactory (C); Social health of Gladstone Harbour, good (B); and the Economic health of Gladstone Harbour, good (B).

Not only was 2020 the first time that the Environmental component grade was good (B), but it is also the first time since monitoring and reporting began that the water quality grade was very good (A).

WANT TO
KNOW MORE?

The GHHP Education Resource Kit contains activities and assessment pieces that form part of the school curriculum for students from prep to grade 12.

The kit aims to provide students of all ages with an understanding of the health testing taking place in the Gladstone Harbour.

Inside the 2020 GHHP Technical Report

The 2020 GHHP Technical Report provides a comprehensive overview of the 2020 Gladstone Harbour Report Card and contains the complete results for all report card components, Environmental, Social, Cultural and Economic.

The technical report explains the drivers and pressures that could influence the results and includes the methodologies employed to collect data and calculate the final grades and scores.

A full overview (including maps) of the areas in which monitoring for all four report card components was conducted is also provided.

Inside the 2020 GHHP Technical Report

The technical report explains the drivers and pressures that could influence the results and includes the methodologies employed to collect data and calculate the final grades and scores.

A full overview (including maps) of the areas in which monitoring for all four report card components was conducted is also provided.

2020 Highlights

The 2020 Gladstone Harbour Report Card had several noteworthy highlights.

The Environmental component was graded as B for the first time since GHHP reporting began in 2014. This result was driven by improved grades for water quality, seagrass, and fish recruitment.

Water quality was relatively uniform across the harbour, with 12 of the 13 environmental monitoring zones receiving very good grades. The remaining zone received a good grade. As in previous years, dissolved metals scores were consistently very good at the zone level. Both physicochemical and nutrient scores improved markedly in most zones. As a result, this was the first time the overall water quality indicator received a very good grade (A).

Seagrass in Gladstone Harbour was graded as good (B). This is the second year of substantial recovery from the overall poor condition reported in previous report cards (2015 – 2018). Moreover, the overall seagrass condition in 2020 was the best in the past decade. As in the previous year, results suggest that the dry, mild weather conditions provided ideal conditions for seagrass recovery. The overall improvements shown in the majority of monitored zones provide a strong foundation for seagrass in the Gladstone area.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

The Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership acknowledges the traditional owners of the land and sea in the Port Curtis Coral Coast region, the Gurang, Gooreng Gooreng, Taribelang Bunda and Bailai people, and pays respect to the ancestors, the Elders both past and present, and to the people.