Recommendations

The aim of this review was to assess the effectiveness of the Maintenance Dredging Strategy for Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area Ports (the Strategy) in achieving the objectives of:

• ensuring the ongoing protection of the Great Barrier Reef’s outstanding universal value
• the continued operating efficiency of Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area ports.

The actions in the Strategy have been completed and the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area ports are applying the principles of the Strategy. The decision-making principles that underpin the Strategy, adopted from the Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan 2015, remain aligned to the revised Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan 2021–2025.

The Strategy should continue to be implemented by Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area ports, with the following additional recommendations to be applied:

1. Recommendation 1: Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area ports should regularly review membership of Technical Advisory and Consultative Committees to include government agencies and relevant non-government members such as community groups, conservation groups, and Traditional Owners.
2. Recommendation 2: Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area ports should regularly review their communication plans for maintenance dredging to ensure maintenance dredging activities are shared with stakeholders.
3. Recommendation 3: Queensland Ports Association should host regular forums with government agencies and Queensland port authorities to exchange information, share new port initiatives, data, research findings and experiences, and discuss opportunities to streamline regulatory processes related to maintenance dredging.
4. Recommendation 4: As the Reef 2050 Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program Data Management System develops, the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area ports should share their maintenance dredging, monitoring and reporting datasets through the Data Management System.

Implementation of these recommendations should continue to guide maintenance dredging within ports in a way that is predictable for stakeholders, is adaptive and achieves optimised environmental outcomes. Commitment to the continual improvement of maintenance dredging management practices remains an ongoing obligation of government, regulators, and the ports industry. This is essential to achieving the objectives of the Strategy.