Castaways Beach art project

The brick building near Burgess Creek is one of 113 pump stations in Noosa that helps transport your wastewater to the Noosa Wastewater Treatment Plant.

No wastewater from this pump station is released directly into the creek. Wastewater is pumped up to the Treatment Plant at a rate of 600 litres per minute to go through the treatment process. Every day, our pump stations in Noosa transfer 1.2 million litres of wastewater to this Treatment Plant. 

Sometimes it can get a little smelly – after all, it’s pumping wastewater! But we do our best to keep things fresh with regular maintenance and specialised odour control units. Our control room team monitors our network 24/7.

Notice the brown colour of the creek? The tea-coloured water is caused by the decomposing wallum and melaleuca tea tree leaves that fall into the creek. These paperbark trees, as well as others, produce the tannin colour.  

It’s not caused by wastewater.

The same dark brown water can be seen in many other coastal creeks in Noosa and the Noosa Everglades.

Monitoring and improving the water quality of Burgess Creek is an ongoing priority for Unitywater.

Unitywater conducts regular water quality testing of Burgess Creek as part of the Environmental Authority for the Noosa wastewater treatment plant.

Noosa Council also maintain a program of public health water quality testing across the region, including for Burgess Creek, to understand the public health status and potential risks to recreational waters in Noosa.

The Burgess Creek Catchment is a small coastal creek catchment that runs through residential developments in Noosa Heads, through bushland and community facilities, joining the ocean at Castaways Beach.

The catchment covers approximately 545 hectares and water from the surrounding landscape all drains into the creek. This affects the water quality of the creek, and that’s why it’s not recommended for swimming.

Some of the things that contribute to the health of the creek include:

• Housing and industrial estates: Stormwater can wash sediments, rubbish and pollutants into the creek. This can include compost, petrol, hydrocarbons, litter, plastics, detergents and droppings from pets.
• Historical land uses like landfill sites: Old landfills potentially leak leachate into the catchment. Leachate is water that drains through and from a landfill. This leachate can contain pollutants which impact water quality.
• Sports and recreational fields: To keep sporting fields in tip-top condition they are regularly mowed and occasionally fertilised. These grass clippings and nutrients can be washed into the nearby Burgess Creek adding to the vegetation and nutrient loads within Burgess Creek.
• Local vegetation including Noosa National Park: Leaves and soil can also impact a waterway’s ecological balance. Changes to water flow or runoff can damage vegetation causing them to die and release the nutrients they contain.
• Noosa Wastewater Treatment Plant: We take great care in treating your wastewater to comply with strict environmental standards and make sure the treated water is healthy enough to return to the natural environment. Our Noosa wastewater treatment plant currently processes an average of 9.3 megalitres of wastewater per day, taking it through a multi-stage process of cleaning and filtration before returning it to the environment at Burgess Creek. The consistent steady flows of this treated water prevents stagnation and the growth of negative algae, bacteria blooms and mosquitos during periods of dry weather.  
• Fauna including birds, bats, reptiles and domestic pets: Droppings from native animals, plus our own dogs and cats impacts the water quality of the creek. 

Land Management

Unitywater has provided funding to assist with land management and restoration projects within the Lower Burgess Creek environmental reserve. In partnership with Noosa Council and Noosa Landcare, the funding supports the development and implementation of a works management plan to improve environmental outcomes for the reserve. The current program is focused on weed management within 7 targeted areas.

Noosa Men’s & Women’s Sheds

Unitywater provides long-term leases on the surplus land and buildings at the Noosa Wastewater treatment plant to community organisations that support healthy and thriving communities.

The Noosa men’s shed has called the site home since 2014. The shed supports over 200 members, working to foster mateship, well-being and connection in the local community.

In 2022, Unitywater entered a similar leasing agreement with the newly established Noosa Women’s Shed, providing a deed of license and grant funding to help get them up and running.