Welcome to Blue Heart Neighbourhood!

We are a mix of government organisations and individuals who own property or live in the Blue Heart. As neighbours we are learning together and sharing information about how we use and manage our places.

About the Blue Heart

The Blue Heart is an area of more than 5,000 hectares of public and private owned land located on the Maroochy River floodplain. The Kabi Kabi peoples have maintained a connection to land and water in the Blue Heart for millennia.

The area was once a hub for sugar growing and networks of drains were built to keep tidal waters out. The Nambour mill closed in 2003 and sugar cane farming decreased. These days, tidal water is encroaching some parts of the Blue Heart. This is providing an indication of the impacts of sea level rise in the future. Sunshine Coast Council, Unitywater and the Department of Environment and Science have formed a partnership to respond to challenges and explore new opportunities.

Explore the Blue Heart project area in the explore tab.

Project aims

Blue Heart aims to protect and manage critical areas of the Maroochy River floodplain. It will achieve this by restoring important floodplain ecosystems as well as investigating new land uses.

One of the primary problems facing rural communities is incidents of crime that impact the function of pastoral, agricultural and aquaculture farming operations. To address this issue, the Universtiy of New England (UNE) Centre for Rural Criminology is undertaking a survey on farm crime in Australia.

They need valuable information from those involved in farming who have key insights into the important issues. Have your say in improving the safety and well-being of rural farming communities! Click here: Australian Farm Crime Survey

Tidal inundation: Areas of the Blue Heart are affected by tidal inundation, which is different to flooding. These tidal areas are expanding. Sunshine Coast Council discuss inundation where it is happening and why. We'll also look at how council is responding and what you might explore to manage inundation on your property in the Blue Heart.

Blue Carbon Farming: Blue Heart Sunshine Coast was a successful applicant for the Blue Carbon Ecosystem Restoration Australian Government grant and received $2.036M from the Commonwealth government. Restoration projects will be registered under the Australian Government’s Blue Carbon Ecosystem Method and the carbon credits will be sold. These projects will be occurring on publicly owned land and learnings will be shared with landholders in the Blue Heart. Sunshine Coast Council explain what blue carbon is, what is planned on publicly owned land and the steps in the process for farming blue carbon to sell the credits.

When there are opportunities to learn more about the Blue Heart we will announce events here. More engagement activities are planned so check back here soon.

Alternatively you can share your Blue Heart story about these topics here via a post:

• Land use – have you investigated alternative land use such as carbon farming, offsets or alternative agriculture?
• Land management – how do you manage pest species, fire risk, tidal inundation, flooding and other land management topics of interest?
• Land transition – changes you have noticed over time?
• People living, working and playing in the Blue Heart – what are your favourite places in the Blue Heart and why? Do you have some historical stories or images to share?