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Bushfire Habitat Recovery Program
Land managers, landholders, farmers, environmental custodians – it doesn’t matter what you call them, the men and women who live on and work, the land are as diverse and unique as the properties they call home.
What is a common thread amongst most landholders though, especially those in the Southern Queensland (SQ) Landscapes region, is their attitudes towards what they do, and why they do it. Their resilience, pride and passion for land management, environmental protection and recovery, and sustainability is unbridled.
Recently an SQ Landscapes project team worked closely with 17 such regional land managers to kick off the delivery of the Bushfire Habitat Recovery Program. Utilising $100,000 in funding from the Australian Government’s Wildlife and Habitat Bushfire Recovery package, the team reached out to regional land managers in the Main Range area whose properties had been affected by the 2019 bushfires. Their goal was to determine who needed support in recovering vital native landscapes from the rapid post-drought and post-fire regrowth of weeds including lantana, blackberry, African boxthorn and velvety tree pear.
What the team discovered through working with these land managers, whose 17 properties totalled an area of more than 9,000 hectares, is that their experiences over recent seasons have been harrowing, testing their resolve and pushing their resilience to the brink.
As the 2019 fires burned through their region, Mal and Leonie Stacey watched 50-metre-high flames come over the mountains from the national park bordering their land. They fought hard to create firebreaks to protect property that has been in Mal’s family since 1946. As well as being a cattle property, the land is where the couple raised their three sons, instilling in them the farmers’ ethos that hard work builds character.
“It’s not all beer and skittles,” Mal said.
“People often only see the front of house stuff.
“They don’t see the constant effort and work that’s required to maintain and protect the land during times of drought and fire.
“It’s constant, but it can also be good fun.”
Following the fires, their property had an influx of blackberry and lantana. Leonie said funding provided by the program enabled them to conduct management spraying, a task they wouldn’t have been able to do with a reduction in income following the fires and no income with COVID-19 travel restrictions.
“If you don’t get onto them [weeds], they spread and then it’s an uphill battle,” she said.
“I dread the thought of what would have been here at the end of spring without this support, and the subsequent spraying activity.”
Land manager Phil Bowles echoes these sentiments. His circumstances made him ineligible for financial drought or fire support from the government. His monetary priorities had to focus on feeding his livestock and repairing infrastructure post-fire, with weed management moving further down the ‘what can be done with limited funds’ list.
Invasive blackberry is the main concern on his property. Phil says the unyielding regrowth of weeds is a constant, ongoing battle that is sometimes a struggle to get on top of.
“Weed management is just as important as fire prep is for immediate danger and drought prep is for a dry spell,” Phil said.
“If you’re worth your salt you’re doing it anyway but without the funds, there’s no way I could have afforded it.”
In addition to the financial aid from the program, Phil says the continued contact, information and support from the SQ Landscapes team made a big difference.
“As a farmer, you work from daylight to dusk – if it needs doing, you just do it.
“My hands are hard, and I definitely get tired.
“But I eat the best beef, the best pork and lamb, the freshest eggs and the freshest vegetables.
“You’ve got to love what you do because if you don’t, you just won’t do it.”
As well as assisting with weed reduction and management, the Bushfire Habitat Recovery Program also helped increase the area covered by a Southern Downs Regional Council aerial wild dog baiting event in May 2020, and tracked koala sightings pre- and post-bushfire. Of the 17 properties who took part, six land managers said they have seen koalas since the bushfires, most in a healthy condition and at least one with a joey.
SQ Landscapes Senior Project Officer Natasha Mylonas says government funded programs like the Bushfire Habitat Recovery Program enable resources to get to where they are needed.
“The rapid and targeted approach taken by the Australian Government to roll out this support meant we could just get stuck in," Natasha said.
“Working with the farmers, getting to know them and about life on their properties is something special.
"They are all genuine people who take pride in their patch.
“I’m pleased the program has been successful in aiding those in need after the bushfires, and the coordinated pest and weed control has been a huge positive step towards native species recovery in the area.”
The Condamine Headwaters, a critical ecosystem in Southern Queensland, has long faced threats from sedimentation, habitat degradation, and thermal regime changes. The Blackfish Project, dedicated to reversing these impacts, unites scientists, landowners, and the community in a shared mission to restore and protect this vital environment. At its core lies the river blackfish, a sensitive indicator of the overall ecosystem health. Central to the project's success is the unwavering commitment of landowners like Paul Graham. Inspired by the project's vision, Paul reached out to SQ Landscapes seeking support for a solar pump and tank to divert his cattle away from waterways on his property. Paul's deep-rooted love for his land, captured in his humorous quip "I love my land more than I love my wife," is a testament to the powerful connection between people and place that drives conservation efforts.
The Board of Southern Queensland Landscapes recently met in Toowoomba. In addition to the Board meeting, Board and Executive worked through updating SQ Landscapes’ strategy. Company Secretary Pam Murphy highlighted the importance of the latest Board meeting and what it means for the company’s future. “The updated strategy will help SQ Landscapes deliver sustainable natural resource management (NRM) outcomes that improve the lives of people in regional communities now and for the future,” Pam Murphy said. “We’re excited to continue delivering value for our region and build Flourishing Landscapes and Healthy Communities across Southern Queensland under the guidance of the Board,” Mrs Murphy said.
Annual General Meeting When: Wednesday, 13 December 2023 Where: Online via Zoom Time : 9.00am for 9.30am start
When Sophie and Adrian McInnerney began adopting their “paddock to plate” experiment into their lambing business, they quickly discovered how a new and exciting approach to running their enterprise transformed their resilience and soil health. Multi-species cover cropping was the answer, and now their business has become a diverse enterprise that has embraced variations in livestock feed and crop rotation, building riparian fencing, and investing in healthier soils. This has opened the young couple to new opportunities to create new revenue streams, protect their business against natural disasters, drought, and prepare for economic hardships. Their property, “Bellhaven Brook”, located just an hour east of Goondiwindi, was the site of Macintyre Ag Alliance’s latest Multi-Species Cropping Field Day. With the support of Southern Queensland Landscapes (SQ Landscapes), the event aimed to promote the McInnerney family’s new land practices, offering an opportunity to educate land managers in the region of new ways to strengthen their property and enterprise. SQ Landscapes’ Goondiwindi-based Project Delivery Officer Keith Walker joined land managers for the workshop and highlighted how multi-species cover cropping could pave the way to rebuilding healthy soils and farming enterprises. “What was great about visiting ‘Bellhaven Brook’ is that you don’t have to be a scientist to understand this stuff. The idea is to just try and experiment like the McInnerneys did,” Keith Walker said. “These cover cropping systems are all about building your experience, experimenting and slowly developing a healthier and richer soil profile; which is the basis of all businesses; cropping and grazing alike.” Mr Walker said. “It was interesting to see the range of people, the ages from young and old, and the differences in enterprises. It’s a reminder that this genre of agriculture is starting conversations,” he said. “It’s all about implementation on the ground and getting the results for less money and experimenting with what people are doing.”
Cool burns, camels, and funding for local farmers were on the agenda at 'Risdon Stud' as land managers Nick and Liz Suduk hosted the Southern Queensland Landscapes and Department of Resources site visit to showcase the success of the Natural Resources Investment Program 2018-2022 (NRIP). Risdon Stud, south of Warwick, was primarily a high-intensity horse stud, but under new ownership with the Suduk family, the focus has been on restoring productivity and landscape health. “The Suduks participated in the NRIP project, where they received on-site guidance from First Nations fire practitioner Robbie Williams from Fire Lore, for cool burning in native vegetation areas,” Project Delivery Lead Natasha Mylonas said. “This was their first exposure to this type of burning and they have since embarked on a journey towards building their confidence in applying it elsewhere on the property,” Ms Mylonas said. “The NRIP project also supported livestock fencing, largely to exclude cattle from a large patch of remnant vegetation, combined with weed management in that remnant vegetation,” she said. “It is really difficult to muster out of the remnant vegetation, so the fencing has meant easier mustering of the cattle, as well as reduced weed spread and damage to the native vegetation in the patch.” “Outside of the NRIP project, they maintain a herd of agisted camels as part of their weed management strategy and experimented with fire to manage wattle regrowth,” Natasha Mylonas said.
Fire is crucial to maintaining our landscapes. That’s according to fire practitioner Robbie Williams, who accompanied Southern Queensland Landscapes earlier this year to bridge fire practitioner knowledge with First Nations Peoples across the southwest. Robbie has since returned to the region - this time accompanied by members of our Charleville team as he hosted training along the slopes of the culturally significant site of Mt Tabor, just outside Augathella. “This is the continuation of what we achieved last time we were in the southwest,” Robbie Williams said. “Last visit, SQ Landscapes connected me with local First Nations mobs including Kunya, Bidjara, Mardigan, Boonthamurra, Kooma, Kullilli, and Murrawurri,” Mr Williams said. “During this visit, many of these mobs agreed to trial fire practitioner training for young men in the area to bring burning back onto Country; and that is exactly what we’re here to do today!” he said. “It’s really inspiring to see these communities taking on the opportunity to learn about burning and we’re hoping this will develop into businesses the local mobs can build to manage their Country.”
Winners in the Southern Queensland Landscapes and University of Southern Queensland’s 2023 First Nations Art Competition have been announced to a crowd of more than 150 people in Toowoomba. Overall Grand Prize and Digital Medium Category winner has gone to Robert Claude Manns for his piece ‘Mandan’. "I wanted to express the fractured relationship that I have with some of the Mandandanji People. Unfortunately many of us feel connected to our Nation, but not always the people," Robert Manns said. "My piece was assisted through artificial intelligence (AI) art and I found that to be a really powerful tool in discovering how I wanted this art to go," Mr Manns said. "I've always been artistic, and I wanted to explore Indigenous art, but I wasn't great at it and I found the style difficult to personalise. AI and digital art has allowed me to connect with Indigenous art in my own way and explore things the way I wanted," he said. "I'm really glad it worked out and people liked the art!" "In truth, I thought I might only get an encouragement award, but to first see I won the digital art and then the Overall Grand Prize was just spectacular. There were tears in my eyes. I wasn't expecting to get so far!" Robert Manns said. "I want to thank everyone who made Indigenous art through the millenia; otherwise I wouldn't have done it," Mr Manns said. "Shortly before he passed away, my dad put me onto the competition and I thought I'd give it a go. I wish he was here to see it, as he was my inspiration for making this art." he said. "He was my inspiration and my supporter through it all."
By Kellie Stewart When land managers Phil & Anne Donges entertained the idea of retirement they looked to the natural assets of their property located between Yelarbon, Inglewood and Texas to provide the answer. For almost 90-years ‘Glenarbon’ had supported generations of the Donges family; with key crops and land use pivoting numerous times as a result of market demands, economic climates and practice change. “Glenarbon was established back in 1932; our family came out then and it was to grow tobacco, that was in the middle of the depression,” Phil Donges said. “Five years ago we sold our main farm about 10-kilometres down the road and we decided to go into semi-retirement keeping about 100-acres of the original farm along about 1-kilometre of the Dumaresq River,” Mr Donges said. “We’re using Glenarbon now to run a few head of steers and then we’ve also gone into this eco-tourism where people can come and enjoy the environment like we like it ourselves,” he said. “We saw the ecotourism as an opportunity to give us some extra income by going into the camping side of things, but also to diversify our business so that we could in tougher seasons rely less heavily on livestock and more on the natural assets of the farm.”
It’s amazing how quickly a landscape can rebalance itself according to Jarrod and Sam Thomson of ‘Gum Gully’, located some 14 kilometres south of Drillham in Queensland. The couple purchased the 820 hectare property in 2020 and since then have been working to reverse landscape damage caused by years of drought and overgrazing. “Gum Gully is a very diverse farm with a lot of timber ranging from Mallee box to belah, sandalwood and a lot of native pastures,” Jarrod Thomson said. “It’d been really knocked around by the droughts and our main goal was how do we bring back this place to make it a viable enterprise again?” Mr Thomson said. “Quickly realising that we had to rehabilitate the land and rehydrate it fast; desertification had set in and we were struggling to grow galvanised bur,” he said. Rehydration works included some contouring and soft engineering works combined with farm dams to slow the flow and manage water across the property to maximise each rain event regardless of whether it was 10mm or 100mm.
Reconciliation was on the agenda at Gummingurru for National Reconciliation Week. First Nations, local community, and avid gardeners came together for a round of truth telling and tree planting. Located north of Toowoomba, Gummingurru is an ancient and sacred site for Western Wakka Wakka Peoples, serving as a stopping point for First Nations Peoples on their way to the Bunya Mountains. Western Wakka Wakka man Shannon Bauwens, a First Nations man from the Bunya Peoples’ Aboriginal Corporation (BPAC) led the event with a smoking ceremony and a round of truth-telling at the yarning circle near Gummingurru. “Reconciliation is about talking to each other. Coming together and making something positive as a community,” Shannon Bauwens said. “This yarning circle we are standing in now represents thousands of years of storytelling,” Mr Bauwens said. “Today is all about sharing our stories and finding new ways to come together as a community; whether you are Indigenous or not,” he said. “We have people from all different Nations, from Western Wakka Wakka, to Bunjalung, Gomeroi, and more.”