Bremer River
Railway bridge across the Bremer River, Ipswich, Queensland
Origin	Main Range
Mouth	confluence with Brisbane River
Basin countries	Australia
Basin area	2032 km²

The Bremer River is a sub-catchment of the Brisbane River. The river drains several Scenic Rim valleys in south-east Queensland, including Fassifern Valley. The river was discovered in 1824 by John Oxley and Allan Cunningham.

This river and its tributaries cover an area of approximately 2032 km².^[1] Most valleys within the catchment have extensive alluvial terraces. The Bremer River system is extremely degraded.

Contents 1 Course 2 Degradation 3 Water supply 4 History 5 See also 6 References

[edit] Course

The Bremer passes close to the town of Rosewood and winds through the city of Ipswich. The catchment area is bordered by the Little Liverpool Range to the west, with the Main Range lying to the south and south-west. Towards the east is the Flinders Peak and the Teviot Range.^[2] The river has a number of tributaries such as Bundamba Creek, Purga Creek, Reynolds Creek, Warrill Creek and Western Creek.

[edit] Degradation

The river system is known to flood and is considered to be heavily polluted, suffering from poor water quality. The Bremer does not receive enough water in its catchment to meet both human requirements and the need to flush out impurities. This results in poor water quality with high levels of turbidity, high nutrient levels and high levels of bacteria, especially where sewerage and drain runoff from the city of Ipswich is discharged into the river. Riparian vegetation has been nearly completely removed and the banks are now weed-infested.^[3] Downstream the river suffers from not only sewerage and farming runoff but also abattoir effluent.^[3]

In 2008 an annual assessment of water quality rated the Bremer River an F, the lowest grading possible.^[4] Heavy metals including mercury, chromium, nickel and cadmium were found in Warrill Creek, a tributary of the Bremer, in 2009.^[5] The source of the contamination was discharge from the RAAF Base Amberley. The contaminates did not reach the Bremer River itself.^[6]

[edit] Water supply

Moogerah Dam was built in the upper reaches of Reynolds Creek.^[7] The dam is currently providing drinking water for towns such as Boonah and is an irrigation source for crop farmers and those grazing cattle.

[edit] History

The discovery of the Bremer River by Europeans was made by John Oxley and Alan Cunningham on 25 September, 1824. Oxley named it Bremer's Creek after Captain James Gordon Bremer, who was in charge of HMS Tamar, at that time performing duties in the waters of the colony of New South Wales.^[8]

Before the railway line from Ipswich to Brisbane was completed in 1875, the river served as an important navigation route between the two towns.^[9]

[edit] See also

• List of rivers in Australia

[edit] References