Tinchi Tamba Wetlands, Bald Hills

Tinchi Tamba Wetlands Reserve is over 380 hectares in size and is part of a network of coastal wetlands on the edge of Moreton Bay. The wetlands are located 19 kilometres north of the Brisbane CBD, between Pine River and Bald Hills Creek and includes tidal flats, mangroves, salt-marshes, melaleuca wetlands, grasslands and open forest.

Freshwater and saltwater flooding shapes the wetlands. High tides flood the mangrove and tidal flats, creating food-rich environments for fish, crabs, molluscs and birds. Spring tides flood the saltmarshes several times every year. During major floods most of Tinchi Tamba is covered by water.

Visitors to the reserve can explore the areas by foot on the Bird Hide and Island Circuit tracks or by canoe following the Eagle and Island canoe trails. Barbecue, picnic, toilet and fishing facilities are available at Deep Water Bend.

Walking track information and track map

Tinchi Tamba Wetlands Reserve offers a variety of walking trails.

To see a map of the wetlands, track locations, grading and length of the tracks, download the:

Special features

Deep Water Bend

There are picnic and barbecue facilities, fishing platforms, boat and canoe ramp, self-guiding walking tracks and a bird hide at this section of the wetlands.

Council is pleased to advise repairs on the Tinchi Tamba boat ramp pontoon are now complete in a more flood resilient form and is now open to the public.

River sunsets

Don’t miss the stunning rays of the setting sun over the silhouette of the D’Aguilar Ranges, combined with cool breezes from the water.

Birdlife

Tinchi Tamba is a shorebird hot spot. Look for the secretive mangrove kingfishers within the mangroves. During the summer months migratory shorebirds roost and feed on the mudflats.

Canoe trails

The magical wetland waterways within Tinchi Tamba can be explored using the canoe trails.

Flora and fauna

The vegetation includes an intricate mosaic of dry eucalypt woodlands, casuarina forests, paperbark swamps, intertidal flats, mangroves, low open shrubland, saltmarshes, grasslands, reed and sedge swamp pasture.

The primary weeds in Tinchi Tamba Wetlands are broad-leaved pepper tree (Schinus terebinthifolius) groundsel bush (Baccharis halimifolia) and asparagus fern (Asparagus aethiopicus).

Moreton Bay Marine Park is listed as a Wetland of International Importance. Migratory shorebirds feed on the food-rich mud flats and roost in the salt marshes and mangroves along the shore. Each spring they fly to Moreton Bay from countries as far away as Siberia, China, Japan, Mongolia and Alaska. The bay is also an important refuge for the vulnerable dugong and green and loggerhead turtles that are a threatened species worldwide.

See the following birds:

collared kingfishers, mangrove honeyeaters, striated herons and mangrove gerygones
sea-eagles and brahminy kites
great egrets and pied cormorants
eastern curlews, sharp-tailed sandpipers and whimbrels
avocets, royal spoonbills, Pacific herons and Australian white ibis
pale-headed rosellas, rufous whistlers and brown honeyeaters
brown quails and golden-headed cisticola in the grasslands
cormorants.

History

Indigenous Australians hunted and fished in the sheltered and food-rich wetlands of Tinchi Tamba for thousands of years. The Wyampa tribe originally inhabited this area.

After colonial settlement, the lands were opened for selection. In 1921, land was resumed for soldier settlements and cleared for farms, however the land proved unsuitable for agriculture. Deep Water Bend was declared a recreation reserve in 1929.

In the late 1980s, a canal development was planned along the river. Brisbane City Council saved the wetlands in 1993 by purchasing this land through the Bushland Preservation Levy.