Port of Brisbane, Beneficial Re-Use of Dredge Material

Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd (PBPL) has adopted a long-term, sustainable dredged material management strategy that combines re-use for land reclamation with permitted placement in Moreton Bay with objectives that include supporting port growth and environmental outcomes and reducing future maintenance dredging requirements. Central to this approach is the re-use of sediments dredged from navigation channels to create new port land within the Port’s 224-hectare Future Port Expansion (FPE) area. Not all of this material is re-used. In FY25, about 337,000 cubic meters of channel silt and mud went partly to the Mud Island placement area in Moreton Bay and partly to the FPE, and about 290,000 cubic meters of sand went to the FPE (Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd, 2025, p. 42). In FY26, about 223,000 cubic meters of channel silt and mud was placed at the Mud Island Dredged Material Placement Area, while about 307,000 cubic meters of sand was placed at the FPE for land reclamation (Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd, 2026, p. 39). Material re-used at the FPE is placed within a series of engineered internal paddocks, progressively reclaimed and raised to suitable development levels through staged filling and consolidation.

Over time, repeated placement elevates the reclaimed land to levels appropriate for capping, ground improvement, and future port development. This staged re-use approach turns a routine maintenance requirement into an input for port expansion. The FPE will provide new port land and increased quay line.

Beyond land creation, the reuse strategy delivers meaningful environmental co-benefits. Areas within the FPE provide important roosting habitat for migratory shorebirds, including the critically endangered Far Eastern Curlew, while rock revetments around reclaimed areas create artificial hard-substrate habitats that support marine flora and fauna. These outcomes demonstrate how beneficial re-use can integrate ecological value into industrial port development when landform design, placement sequencing, and habitat considerations are incorporated early.

PBPL has supplemented material re-use with proactive measures to reduce future sediment generation and dredging demands. Initiatives such as the Offsite Stormwater Treatment Project, involving rehabilitation of degraded creek banks in the Lockyer Valley, about 100 km upstream, aim to address sediment sources upstream. In parallel, PBPL has worked on a sediment module for NCOS Online, its under keel clearance forecasting system. Governance and transparency are strengthened through PBPL’s Dredging Technical Advisory and Consultative Committee (TACC), formed in 2018/19 to consult key stakeholders, including environment groups, on dredging. Together, these measures show how beneficial re-use of dredged material can be combined with catchment and governance measures, with potential benefits for port growth, cost and the environment.