River Torrens – Breakout Creek (Karrawirra Pari

message out, and through them FoGSV became involved in school art and craft projects and public art in many forms. Concerns about sediment in the metropolitan rivers and off the beaches led FoGSV to develop the Secchi Disk Program for longterm citizen monitoring of basic water quality and turbidity in the gulf.

Members of WACRA help maintain the Secchi Disk Program. FoGSV and WACRA have worked closely and effectively on a wide range of activities. WACRA will continue to focus on the performance of coast protection along the metropolitan coast in the hope that, one day, the responsible board (Coast Protection Board) might really wonder why the methods that it has applied, with little change, for four decades, seem to have left quite deplorable conditions on several beaches.

River Torrens – Breakout Creek (Karrawirra Pari)

Jim Douglas

The River Torrens has its source in the Mount Lofty Ranges. It is Adelaide's largest metropolitan waterway, fed by six creeks and flowing across the Adelaide Plains through the City of Adelaide to its outlet into Gulf St Vincent. Breakout Creek is the final 3.5 kilometres of the River Torrens upstream from the outlet into Gulf St Vincent. It is located within the local government boundaries of the City of Charles Sturt and the City of West Torrens.

In 1995, the Torrens Catchment Water Management Board (now Green Adelaide) set up a key stakeholders consultation group to develop a draft concept plan. Alison Harvey was the Henley and Grange representative (WACRA). The vision was to develop a continuous wetland in three stages that, according to the Torrens Catchment Water Management Plan, would:

Revitalise the Torrens River Catchment, its rivers, lakes and streams to a state of clean water and healthy ecosystems, and to ensure a resource that is available for the sustainable use and enjoyment of all.

Specific issues to be addressed in the plan included the improvement of water quality, stormwater management, the upgrading of environmental quality, and flood controls. Priority works included trash racks, silt traps, wetland/retention basins, established recreation places, and significant reduction of pollutants.

In 1999, the first stage of the Breakout Creek 'demonstration' wetland upstream of Henley Beach Road was completed. The project involved widening the existing waterway and deepening sections to form wetlands, access paths, viewing platforms and significant vegetation plantings. Horses were no longer agisted within the area.

In 2005, a social impact assessment was conducted of the waterway between Henley Beach Road and Tapleys Hill Road that involved considerable community consultation. Soon after, a concept plan was agreed upon and work commenced on the second stage.

In 2006, growing community concern about the state of the River Torrens Lake prompted the government to establish a Torrens Taskforce to review the situation. The taskforce