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Case Studies
Collins –
Belah Valley near Marlborough
Marlborough
grazier Alf Collins Jnr says the Australian Government’s Caring
for our Country Reef Rescue program is improving his property’s
river frontage and boosting productivity.
For his
family’s property ‘Belah Valley’, Mr Collins has received a
substantial Reef Rescue grant administered by Fitzroy River &
Coastal Catchments to fence to land types and add new stock
watering points.
He has also
applied for a second grant for his property ‘Tondara’, bordering
the Bogie River near Bowen, through NQ Dry Tropics.
Reef Rescue
grants pay for half the cost of new infrastructure such as
fencing for gullies, riparian areas and stream banks as well as
other initiatives which reduce sediment entering rivers and
tributaries of the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.
“If we can
improve our assets and save the fish and reef at the same time,
we’re going to do it,” Mr Collins said.
“Tondara is
like all these old properties – they set the water up where it
was, not necessarily where it was best too.
“We had been
doing 12km of pipeline and 15 troughs to improve our stock
watering system and then we found out about the Reef Rescue
funding and decided to apply so we can spread the water even
further.”
The Collins
also undertake a hoard of other innovative grazing practices
such as regularly chisel ploughing paddocks to improve rain
infiltration and pasture.
“On the
coastal country, we get our rain in short bursts and can’t
utilise it all,” Mr Collins said.
“We get a
three inch storm and only use one inch of it, so if we can
utilise all the water we receive by opening up the soil, it will
dramatically improve the pasture.”
Mr Collins was
one of 16 primary producers to attend a property computer
mapping workshop at Marlborough on Thursday.
At the
workshop, delivered by AgForce Projects with support from
Fitzroy River & Coastal Catchments through funding from the
Australian Government’s Caring for our Country Reef Rescue
program, Mr Collins said the technology will assist with
budgeting and providing quality maps to staff.
“We will be
able to work out the areas we plough and budget for diesel and
grass seed, plus the distances of fence lines and a whole lot
more,” he said.
AgForce
Projects Reef Rescue project officer Natalie Schick and Fitzroy
River & Coastal Catchments project officer Lisa Sutton said
it’s
great innovative producers like the Collins family are on board
with Reef Rescue.
O’Sullivans – Glenalpine
near Bowen

Barry and Leanne
O’Sullivan say the Reef Rescue project has made their dream of
sustainable grazing possible.
The O’Sullivans purchased
Glenalpine six years ago
during
the height of drought.
After the
expense of buying water and stocking the 23375 hectare property
west of Bowen, improvements such as a sustainable grazing
management scheme seemed out of reach.
“Financially
we couldn’t do it,” she said.
“We spent a
lot of money sourcing water and we had to buy a lot of cattle,
so we weren’t in a position to put the fencing and pipes in, so
we looked to research funding.”
After speaking
with Natural Resources Management (NRM) group NQ Dry Tropics’
representatives, the O’Sullivans learned of the Australian
Government’s Reef Rescue project.
The
project aims to improve the health of Australia’s iconic Great
Barrier Reef by giving technical and financial incentives to
landholders in order to improve land management practices.
$3.5
million was made available to implement Reef Rescue across the
grazing, sugar and horticulture industries for the first six
months of the Reef Rescue program.…more
information on grants.
The
O’Sullivans were awarded a substantial sum. They will match
each dollar financially or through in-kind contributions.
They plan to
buy water tanks, troughs and poly-pipe to implement the first
stage of their sustainable grazing management scheme.
“Once the
water has been more evenly distributed, it will allow a more
even distribution of cattle throughout the property,” Mrs
O’Sullivan said.
“It will also
provide us with the ability to move cattle around by turning off
troughs. Eventually we’ll fence areas off, but you can’t fence
unless you have the water troughs.
“Ultimately
this will improve land condition and productivity which in turn
will retain sediments, nutrients and organic matter on-property,
instead of entering Sandy Creek.”
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