About the Hub
An intiative to connect growers with water quality science
The Water Quality Science & Agriculture Hub cuts through the noise, providing clear and unbiased information underpinned by the latest and best available scientific evidence. By making water quality science more accessible and relevant, growers can have the confidence to implement practices to reduce off-farm losses while maintaining profitability.
Connecting water quality science with growers
James Cook University's TropWATER hosts the Water Quality Science and Agriculture Hub. Our team work to build trust and transparency between farmers and water quality science. We collaborate with extension providers and industry partners to act as critical knowledge brokers in interpreting complex science for growers and communities.
Our information is based on decades of water quality science from catchment to reef, including paddock-scale, creeks, drains and rivers, to wetlands, estuarine and marine waters. Our team has a broader understanding of the interplay between water quality science, changing climate, farming practices and influences on the health of ecosystems. We have a long history of working with communities and industry while maintaining a strong research focus.
This research and engagement supports growers to adopt progressive farming practices, improving both farm productivity and profitability and simultaneously addressing water quality concerns.
We hope to amplify water quality science across catchments to help more growers take control of management practices to directly reduce paddock runoff.
How we got started
The Water Quality Science and Agriculture Hub leverages on the successes and relationships forged through the GBRF Water Quality Monitoring Support project, delivered in 2021-2024. This project united ten water quality monitoring projects – spanning the Wet Tropics, the Burdekin, and Mackay Whitsunday regions – to collectively improve the data collection and communication of water quality science in farming communities.
Building on this, TropWATER scientists and communications specialists were funded to produce the Water Quality Science and Agriculture Hub, delivering complex and relevant water quality science for growers and communities.
The Hub currently brings together content summarising the Reef Trust Partnership’s regional water quality programs, including collaborations with CSIRO, UQ’s Reef Catchments Science Partnership, AgriTech Solutions, and local leaders such as BBIFMAC, Canegrowers, Catchment Solutions, Farmacist, Herbert Cane Productivity Services, LiquaForce, NQ Dry Tropics, Reef Catchments, Sugar Research Australia, and Terrain NRM.
With more funding, we aim to grow this website into a hub that brings together more collaborators, their projects, and the impact of their work for growers.
The project is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, under the Regional Water Quality Program (Regional Programs – Great Barrier Reef Foundation).
The WQ Science & Agri Hub was launched in 2025 and is a central space for independent, science-based information on water quality in sugarcane-growing regions connected to the Great Barrier Reef. It's designed to cut through confusion, misinformation and politicisation.
The Hub is a dynamic repository facilitated by JCU TropWATER –hosting content that’s science-based, regionally relevant, and practical. It covers water quality monitoring, nutrient, sediment and pesticide losses, farming practices, catchment data, and insights from key scientists and extension teams.
Currently, our content focusses on Great Barrier Reef Foundation – Regional Programs and sugarcane regions involved in those programs. With further funding, we aim to expand the Hub’s reach – both geographically across other Reef catchments, and to include other industries, like grazing and horticulture, and key stakeholders in that space.
The Hub connects science and practice in ways that are useful for extension staff, growers, NRM groups, regional stakeholders and governments.
By making water quality science more accessible and relevant, growers can have the confidence to implement practices to reduce off-farm losses while maintaining profitability. We also aim to provide information to governments and industry with credible information for evidence-based policy and sustainable land management.
Many growers are adopting improved farming practices. Yet, there are still growers who do not engage in improved practices.
For decades, scientists have been gathering robust water quality monitoring data across Great Barrier Reef catchments – showing how fertiliser and pesticides impact freshwater and marine ecosystems. There are also hundreds of scientific papers and reports – so why doesn’t the science resonate with all growers?
There are growing issues in the water quality science and agriculture space in the way science is communicated and understood by growers. There is an urgent need for knowledge brokers to facilitate and provide context of critical information to farmers, policymakers, government, and extension staff. Water quality issues include:
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The dissemination of misinformation and misinterpretation of water quality science in the media, farming communities and key organisations are impeding farmers' adoption of improved water quality practices.
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There is inadequate training, support and information for extension staff in water quality science.
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The limited access to reputable and unbiased communication platforms further compounds the issue, hindering informed decision-making.
These issues in water quality science are growing, and there is a need for knowledge brokers to help facilitate and provide context in the water quality science and agriculture space.
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The Hub was born out of feedback from those who work closely with growers. In 2022-2024, we ran a GBRF Water Quality Support Project that focussed on refining water quality monitoring, associated reporting, and communication to growers. This involved more than 10 extension teams across the Reef Trust Partnership’s regional water quality program sugarcane regions: Mackay Whitsundays, lower Burdekin, lower Herbert, Tully, Johnstone and Mulgrave-Russell. The project includes collaborations with CSIRO, UQ’s Reef Catchments Science Partnership, AgriTech Solutions, and local leaders such as BBIFMAC, Canegrowers, Catchment Solutions, Farmacist, Herbert Cane Productivity Services, LiquaForce, NQ Dry Tropics, Reef Catchments, Sugar Research Australia, and Terrain NRM.
At the conclusion of this project, it was raised that there was a lack of reliable source of water quality science. Farmers often receive information that is conflicting, politicised, or hard to access and explain. This was creating disconnects between scientists and growers. The Hub was created using content produced under this project to tackle this issue. It aims to bridge that gap – by providing credible, consistent and practical information grounded in the latest science.
The Hub is facilitated by JCU TropWATER. The core team includes water quality scientists Dr Stephen Lewis, Dr Zoe Bainbridge, and Dr Aaron Davis, and science communicator Molly McShane. Our team has been working in the Great Barrier Reef region over the past 20 years – working on the ground with farmers, researching catchment to reef science, and informing catchment management.
We currently work closely with CSIRO, UQ Reef Catchments Science Partnership, AgriTech Solutions and local extension and industry groups such as BBIFMAC, Canegrowers, Catchment Solutions, Farmacist, HCPSL, LiquaForce, NQ Dry Tropics, Reef Catchments, Sugar Research Australia and Terrain NRM.
Moving forward, we want to expand our collaborations with more organisations in this space – helping to bring more science, projects, and findings to growers.
The public website provides clarity on the link between water quality science and agriculture. It explains the sugarcane regions of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation - Regional Programs, their specific challenges and how local water quality monitoring data can help inform and adjust farming practices. This website can be used:
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To access introductory resources on water quality science, monitoring, and catchment science to become more confident in the latest science and complex or sensitive topic
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Use as a tool to communicate with growers and to support your advice, by sending links or resources to farmers for them to read, if they are curious
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Keep updated with our ongoing blogs and FAQs that unpack new issues or showcase initiatives that could be adopted
Private site:
There is a private member only page for mainly extension staff. This is a safe space where we can directly communicate complex, sensitive or controversial topics. Extension staff and those who work with farmers could use it to:
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Seek advice or ask questions directly to water quality scientists from JCU, CSIRO and UQ
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Have access to our reviews of new and old misleading reports/research and provide critical context to such science
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Access to resources including, regional narratives about water quality and cane farms, science communication tools to support extension staff, technical guidance documents on water quality monitoring methods
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Access to key research papers
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For members to collaborate and connect with each other across regions and organisations
This private area is being developed slowly in line with feedback. The intention is for it to be a useful tool in understanding and communicating water quality science and to support your work – not add more to your plate.
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Yes, we encourage feedback which can be emailed to wqaghub@jcu.edu.au.
The Hub currently has six months of pilot funding and we’re actively testing how useful it is, how it’s being used, and where it can grow. This kind of platform hasn’t existed before – and we know we won’t get everything right to start with. That means we’re open to feedback on what’s working, what’s not, and what’s missing.
We want to make sure the Hub is genuinely useful. To do that, we need your input to help shape where it goes next.
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What topics or tools would help you most in your work?
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What format works best for you – short explainers, visuals, videos, case studies, newsletter?
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If you are a member, do you find this space useful, or is the log in a barrier?
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Is anything unclear or hard to find?
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What’s missing altogether?
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Who are we and why do we exist?
The Water Quality Science and Agriculture Hub connects extension staff, growers and regional industry with clear, credible water quality science – cutting through the noise to provide unbiased information underpinned by the latest available scientific evidence. Our goal is to help those working with growers to provide them with the confidence to implement practices to reduce off-farm losses while maintaining profitability. We also aim to offer government and industry reliable insights to improve land management.
The Hub's information is based on decades of water quality science from catchment to reef, including paddock-scale, creeks, drains and rivers, to wetlands, estuarine and marine waters. Our team has a broader understanding of the interplay between water quality science, changing climate, farming practices and influences on the health of ecosystems. We have a long history of working with communities and industry while maintaining a strong research focus.
This initiative emerged from the Great Barrier Reef Foundation – Regional Programs and currently focuses on sugarcane regions involved in those programs. With further funding, we aim to expand the Hub’s reach – both geographically across other Reef catchments, and to include other industries like grazing and horticulture.
We are a new online platform and initiative, and it can be confusing to understand what our role is and where we fit in. Here, we try to answer some of these questions.
Traditional Owners and Indigenous Rangers
Traditional Owners and Indigenous Rangers are key partners in many ongoing TropWATER projects. Our collaborations include mapping seagrass and coral reefs on sea Country, conducting Traditional Owner-led dugong surveys, monitoring mangrove shorelines, performing eDNA monitoring of invasive species, and participating in wetland protection initiatives, among many other activities.
Industries
Our work with industry spans tourism, agriculture, mining, and ports. Examples include identifying management practices that improve water quality leaving farms, co-designing robust ecological monitoring programs to help companies proactively reduce risks of negatively impacting aquatic environments, and providing management tools for environmental protection of seagrass habitats.
Landholders
We work with landholders, including cane farmers and graziers, to understand how, when, and where sediment and nutrients moves from the land into key catchments, reducing loads of fine sediment and nutrient reaching the Great Barrier Reef. This work helps growers adopt progressive practices to improve water quality. We also research the most effective methods to incentivise wetland and catchment restoration opportunities for landholders by leveraging ecosystem service markets.
Governments
Our work is instrumental in informing management and policymakers at local, state, and federal levels. We advise government on water quality conditions in the Great Barrier Reef, coastal restoration, blue carbon, dugong population dynamics, water security risks and seagrass health. We also advise defence management, providing critical insights for sustainable environmental management and policy development.
Conservationist and non-government organisations
We actively collaborate with conservationists and non-government organisations, including Greening Australia and Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef, to advance environmental goals. These partnerships focus on restoration projects, citizen science programs, and advocacy efforts to promote sustainable practices and protect aquatic ecosystems.
Other universities and research institutions
We collaborate with various universities and research institutions across all our research fields. This includes partnerships with experts in genetics, water quality, e-DNA, and drone-based morphometrics. Our collaborations extend to CSIRO, AIMS, UQ, CQU, CDU, numerous State Government Departments and the CRC for Northern Australia, on diverse environmental projects.
About TropWATER
TropWATER, James Cook University’s Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research, provides science-based solutions to industries, communities, and governments for managing, protecting, and restoring tropical ecosystems.
Bringing together over 150 leading researchers, our research covers water quality, fish and marine mammals, seagrass, coral reefs, mangroves, freshwater, estuarine and marine ecosystems, biosecurity and Indigenous training and capacity-building.
With a strong focus on tropical water systems in Australia and internationally, TropWATER uses the latest technologies and advanced research methods to address key issues, while balancing economic, social, and environmental needs. We take pride in maintaining and developing strong relationships with all levels of communities, governments, industries, landholders, First Nations people, and non-government organisations.
Working together allows us to address the environmental impacts of joint concern and achieve common goals to help create a more sustainable future in tropical environments.
