Kedron Brook

[rando]

Took the dog for a walk along the creek last week from just near the Gympie road bridge to Webster road at Stafford.
Did not see a single fish ,eel or turtle the whole way. It makes me wonder why, I would have thought that waterway was in much better shape than when i was a kid.
Back then various industries used it as a drain.In particular the Wool Scour at The Grange used to regularly dump their waste into it. The water would go black for a week and stink to high heaven.
But there were fish aplenty, mullet in abundance,Herring, guppies gudgeons swordtails gambusia and every little eddie or backwater had clouds of fry.
Now I know most of those are introduced and are now regarded as pests, but there was nothing ,,,, not even gambusia.

I was just mooching along letting the dog have an "explore" and keeping an eye out for anything interesting that might be about.

I know just after the flooding finished I went for a similiar walk and the creek was full of snags etc and i saw fish everywhere, even a couple of bass( not telling where!!) , a lot of tilapia and other chiclidae species as well.
I wonder if desnagging has caused a population decline, as I noticed all the flood debris has been removed.
It is little wonder the bay is so unproductive when the feeder creeks are lifeless.>:(

[marto78]

That is very surprising and disapointing to hear that mate. I remember seeing and catching lots of different species down there as kids and it was amasing how quickly the water level dropped immediately after a flood. It could go from being 4m higher than the bike track to back into the creek in about 10mins and the amount of fish and turtles (we couldn't catch any other way) left stranded in puddles on the bike track after was of great amusement to us .

I dont ever recall seeing any tilapia back 20 odd years ago, maybe that has something to do with the decline in the native fish stocks.

[rando]

Marto.
I only saw the tilapia just after the floods and they were big buggers.
I am wondering if the rock weirs they have placed in the creek bed every couple of hundred metres are a factor,a migration barrier?.
I know what you mean about how quickly it drops. Even back in the sixties before they did all the flood mitigation work it would drop like a stone as soon as the rain stopped. But back in those days it would be a couple of days before it went completely back to normal. Now its all over in a day.

[marto78]

I dont think it is the rock walls at all as any little bit of rainfall and those rock walls are under water.

Even 20 years ago in the dry there were areas that shallow that fish could not pass through, about 200m up stream of Webster Rd there is another bridge with a concrete culvit under it which at the best of times has very little water flowing over it. About 20m up from that there is a natural rock formation with a small water fall and almost a metre difference in height and there were always lots of fish on both sides of it.

Although the way the deverted the ck at Gympie was probably not the best thing for it, I think you will find that once it warms up and there is a bit more rain you will start to see a lot more fish around.

[theoldlegend]

Now that brings back memories Rando, although our patch as kids was Kalinga Park with Shaw Road to the west down to Sandgate Road to the east. We knew every nook and cranny of that area and creek. Virtually every afternoon after school we could be found there somewhere.

Even as a kid, I can't remember the incoming tide getting past a large sewerage pipe running through Kedron Brook underneath the railway line bridge, so it must have been just about at the tidal limit. We used to swim just upstream of that pipe, and it was fresh water.

I can recall though, big schools of mullet swimming up on the incoming tide and we used to try and catch them with bread on small hooks. Just to the east of the Sandgate Road bridge is the start of Schultz' Canal, but it might be called a floodway or something else these days.

The exit to that new airport tunnel is there somewhere now, and I probably wouldn't know the area any more, but it was sure good times.


TOL

[Rufus]

Hey Guys, I live a little further up Kedron Brook, just short of Brookside Shopping Center and there are a few big holes that are currently holding Eel-tail Catfish, Tilapia, (removed about 20 of them in one session) Mullet and other smaller varieties. The numbers change as the fresh water comes through. During the right seasons we even notice the Carfish nests in the shallower water. As for the pollution, one has to remember the Wunderlick Asbestos factory was located in this area a few years back and I have heard from old reliable sources that lots of asbestos escaped in the Brook. Don't think I would eat anything caught in this area.

Cheers, Mark

[Mossy247]

Hey Guys, I live a little further up Kedron Brook, just short of Brookside Shopping Center and there are a few big holes that are currently holding Eel-tail Catfish, Tilapia, (removed about 20 of them in one session) Mullet and other smaller varieties. The numbers change as the fresh water comes through. During the right seasons we even notice the Carfish nests in the shallower water. As for the pollution, one has to remember the Wunderlick Asbestos factory was located in this area a few years back and I have heard from old reliable sources that lots of asbestos escaped in the Brook. Don't think I would eat anything caught in this area.
Cheers, Mark
Hmmmmm wish someone told me that when me and my mates used to swim behind the soccer club. Maybe that had something to do with my constant ear infections not long after swimming down the creek. Oh good times. I caught a perch once out of that creek and plenty of eels.

[J2DAG83]

A mate of mine was renoing a house along there somehwere for a few months not to long ago and said he'd see a couple platypus cruising around in there most mornings having a bit of a play.

[Captain Seaweed]

could it be related to the redirection of the brooke by Airport Link during construction? Maybe they had a few silt issues in the few years it took to construct.

[tunaticer]

I suspect that the Brook is suffering the same as the Pine rover after the floods in the last two years.
The Pine River is fairly barren of small baitfish and glassy prawns currently and they have not recovered since the floods earlier this year. Normally at the end of winter there is constant activity hugging the banks of tiny prawns and fish being harrassed by other things. This activity usually peaks at around February with the height of the prawn run.

Maybe it is just a case that too much of a flush has removed the breeding cycle from the creek this year?

[rando]

TOL
That post is interesting to me as I grew up doing exactly the same in the same area. We lived on Shaw road from '64 till 78 and I knew every inch of the creek from Sandgate road to Gympie road.If you are my vintage its very likely we met .

[theoldlegend]

Yeah, it's quite possible Rando, although I would have been about five years in front of you. Kalinga Park from east to west, all that was our second home.

There was a group of old deviates used to hang around in their cars around trying to get us young boys into their cars, but we used to just yell at them and run away, so they had no luck there. Most of our "oldies" seemed to know about it, but nobody wanted to speak about it.

When I was quite young, there was this Chinese market gardener who had a plot on the Toombul side of the creek about where the bottom cricket field used to be near the railway line. He caught us one day knocking off some carrots and chased us with one of those reaping hook thingos, but he was never in the hunt.

Bloody hell, the memories.


TOL

[rando]

Same same. We used to taunt the homo's as well.
Gees! just imagine the uproar nowerdays if a pediphile was known to hang out near where kids played.
There was a good swimming hole just west of the western-most foot bridge with a rope hanging from a tree,,,, nirvana for young blokes.
I got chased by the chinaman's dog as well.I thought the bloody thing was going to eat me. It chased me all the way to the old coal mine.
Just before the "big" flood in '74 there was a big flood in the creek ,,, all of Shaw park was a metre under and most of Kalinga park too. A mate & I pinched my older brothers Kayak and took it for a paddle in the creek. Broke it in half on the foot bridge near toombul and we both nearly lost our lives.
Me twice,,, because my brother was going to kill me for smashing his yak.

Do any of these names ring a bell???
Paul Martin, Anthony Martin, Ian Wilkinson, Tony Bott, Russel Athow

[theoldlegend]

The name "Athow" rings a bell Rando. Can't place the others though.

I tried to do some research on the old coal mine years ago, but found nothing. Probably wasn't looking in the right places, or perhaps there's no record of it. About ten years ago, called in to the old stamping ground and found it largely changed from what I remember. Tried to remember where the old coal mine used to be, and went for a bit of a look, but seemed to be getting strange looks from other people, who might have thought I could have been a pervert, so I left.

TOL

[rando]

The old Coal mine has virtually disappeared. Been filled in or something. There is a plaque mounted on a large rock,in front of where the entrance was to notify people of the historical significance of Queensland's first commercial coal mine.
The Cairn is beside the bike track on the northern side of the creek half way between the two foot bridges.

[Rainbowrunner]

http://www.kedronbrook.org.au/kedron_brook_environment/flora_fauna.php

These people do some good stuff, I think there is some ANGFA guys that do regular fish surveys too

[rando]

Courier mail article Thurs march 4th 1909
VISIT TO THE MINE
It is not generally known that a coal mine has been opened out almost in the city of Brisbane-to be more precise, half a mile west of Nundah railway station and three quarters of a mile east of Eagle Junction. At present it is only a small affair, but a seam has been worked to some extent, and over 1000 tons of coal have been sold to local manufacturers.
The existence of coal in the locality, although only proved during
the past few years, has been suspected for a long time. Leich- hardt in one of his early works states that while walking near the Brook of Kedron he noticed indications of coal. About ten years ago Alderman Thompson (late Mayor of Bris- bane) spent some time and capital prospecting for coal where the pre- sent mine is situated. Then two years ago Mr. C. H. Gardner turned his attention to coal mining, and it is due to him that the mine has been developed so far as it has.
The mine is situated on a bluff overlooking Kedron Brook, on pro- perty which originally belonged to Dr. Bancroft, but which about 3 5 years ago was purchased by Mr. Gardner. When the latter set out to prove the coal, he encountered many faults and difnculties, but he perse- vered, and has now got the workings down into what appears to be settled country. The seam varies in height, some of the working chambers being 4ft. high, with a band of pipe-clay several inches thick running through the middle of it, and a penny band higher up. while at the furthest end of tho main heading the height of the seam is about 5ft. 9in. As the drive is only in about 450ft. the seam shows the usual disturbances of coal near the surface. Whether there are further seams below the one being worked remains to be proved, but as the experience throughout Australia is that several are found underlying each other, the probability is that the same formation will exist here.
The property consists of 20 acres of freehold, and, an adjoining lease of 25 acres from the Government at a royalty of 6d. per ton on the coal won. The plant is small, consisting of a vertical boiler and engine and winding gear, but even so the mine employed about a dozen men at the beginning of last month. Since then operations have been confined to baling and keeping the workings clear, pending the obtaining of more capital to work the property. There is an interesting combination of marketable products in this mine, for shale underlying the coal has been sold to the Virginia works for the manufacture of fire bricks at 4s. 6d. per yard ; and above the coal is an extensive deposit of quartz conglom- erate, which the Brisbane City Coun- cil and the Toombul Shire Council
are both using for road-making pur-
poses.
With the new capital now being obtained the mine will be further developed, and arrangements will be made for connecting it with, the rallway by a siding 40 chains long, while fuller equipment will be pro- vided to enable a larger output of coal, the handling of gravel in bulk, and the securing of shale sufficient to meet all local requirements. A num- ber of prominent business men have taken shares in the company and they will doubtless see that the mine is developed to its fullest extent.