What are River Improvement Trusts?
Repair and prevent damage to rivers
Protect and improve rivers
Prevent or mitigate flooding
River Improvement Trusts (Trusts) are statutory authorities constituted under the River Improvement Trust Act 1940 (the Act) to protect and improve rivers, repair and prevent damage to rivers and prevent or mitigate flooding of land by riverine floods. The primary role of a trust is to plan, design, finance, undertake and maintain stream improvement works for the benefit of the community within its river improvement area.
There are currently eleven regionally located River Improvement Trust bodies located in Queensland. At a state level, these regional individual trusts are supported by the State Council of River Trusts Queensland Inc.
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How did the State Council of River Trusts Queensland commence?
The State Council of River Trusts Queensland (SCRTQ) is an overarching association that works in partnership with the State Government via the Department of Local Government, Water and Volunteers and other agencies involved in aspects of riverine function repair, riverine restoration and preventative flood and inundation management. The collective interests and aspirations of each of the eleven regional trusts and their respective stakeholders are looked after by SCRITQ.
The SCRTQ came into effect following a shared commitment from regional River Improvement Trusts and the Queensland Government to streamline engagement and operations via the provision of single state-based body supporting place-based collective interests of regional communities, land managers, local governments, and other parties with an active interest in riverine repair and management.
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What is the State Council of River Trusts Queensland?
The purpose of the SCRTQ is to support a streamlined process of engagement and services delivery that exists between the Queensland Government and the respective eleven Trusts that operate across Queensland. SCRTQ oversees the distribution and expenditure of annual funding via the Queensland Government’s Department of Local Government, Water and Volunteers through an annual projects’ plan and provides to the Dept Local Government, Water and Volunteers an annual report on activities and outcomes achieved via this funding provision. The SCRTQ does this by coordinating the actions and activities of the eleven regional trusts aligned to the state funding provided.
The SCRTQ operations focus toward:
- Information and advocacy provision on behalf of our member Trusts as it pertains to programs, policy, and legislation in support of our regional trust member’s ability to protect and improve rivers, repair and prevent damage to rivers and prevent or mitigate inundation of land by riverine floods.
- Capturing, aggregating, and showcasing planned and forecast works and investment plans within and across the eleven regional River Improvement Trusts.
- Reporting annually on the realised actions and outcomes achieved and their associated annual financial reports by the Trusts.
Each financial year, Trusts are obliged to provide annual reports and audited financial statements to the Minister for Local Government, Water and Volunteers (the Minister). The Minister is required to table either a copy of each Trust’s annual report or a summary of the Trust’s annual reports in the Queensland Parliament. This report is a summarised compilation of the individual annual reports produced by the Trusts for the financial year ending 30 June.
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Who is the State Council of River Trusts Queensland?
The SCRTQ is comprised of membership from each of the regional River Improvement Trusts, which are statutory authorities constituted under the River Improvement Trust Act 1940 (the Act).
Each of the SCRTQ committee members (office bearers) are elected by the members on an annual basis. Committee representation is aligned to three geographical locations across Queensland. The SCRTQ is comprised of a chairperson and four committee members:
- One member from the northern regions – comprised of the Herbert River, Cassowary Coast, and Cairns River Improvement Trusts
- One member from the central regions – comprised of the Burdekin Shire, Don River and Whitsunday River Improvement Trusts
- Two members from the southern regions – comprised of the Ipswich, Scenic Rim, Stanthorpe Shire, Wambo Shire and Warwick Shire River Improvement Trusts