Neighbourhood Catchment Prioritisation

The Federal Government programs influence the working of regional groups in Queensland, and it is not uncommon for all regional groups to have a different business model. CHRRUP currently works with the Fitzroy Basin Association and has recently been contracted to the Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM.

Fitzroy Catchment

In the Fitzroy Basin, we work with a Neighbourhood Catchment model. This means that within the CHRRUP region, the catchment is broken into 42 small creek or river based catchments. This allows for a targeted approach to improvements in NRM, often providing significant cumulative outcomes and building social sustainability in communities.

Each of these catchments is ranked at a strategic planning day in a Prioritisation process to coincide with Federal Government Funding programs. In November 2007, the CHRRUP Board prioritised the region for the period from 2008 – 2011. The catchments were assessed on the following characteristics:

Erosion Riparian Assets Salinity Risk Biodiversity Values Weeds Cultural Heritage Local considerations such as previous work, social groups, mining and proposed developments, and landuse.

From this process, the catchments C14, C28, C5, C17, C11, C29 and C24 were selected for targeted on-ground work from 2008 – 2011.

Burdekin Catchment

CHRRUP has previously worked with the Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM group to devolve on-ground incentives to landholders in the Belyando-Suttor catchment. The project, which began in May 2006 was completed in December 2008. CHRRUP and BDT plan to negotiate a new on-ground incentive project subject to Federal Government funding arrangements.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES

CHRRUP will be working in the following catchments from August 2008:

Upper Theresa (C5)

The Upper Theresa catchment runs along the Drummond Range south west of Clermont.

Billaboo (C14)

The Billaboo catchment is located to the west of Emerald. The catchment runs from slightly north of Boguntungan, southeast to the Willow and to Ducabrook creek in the South. The catchment is predominantly grazing.

Blackboy (C17)

The Blackboy catchment is west of Emerald, and adjoins the Billaboo catchment. The catchment is predominantly grazing.

Retreat (C11)

Retreat catchment adjoins the northern boundary of Blackboy catchment, and takes in the communities of Rubyvale, Sapphire and Anakie.

Belyando-Suttor

The Belyando-Suttor Catchment runs from south of Alpha to Belyando-Crossing in the north. The catchment is made up of approximately 452 landholders and 96% of the catchment area can be described as grazing, 2% dryland farming, with mining and forestry comprising the balance. Projects involving strategic weed control, and fencing to land type were successfully completed in December 2008.

Grains BMP Program

The Grains Best Management Practices program is a joint initiative of the FBA, AgForce Grains and DPI&F. The program is designed to help grain growers identify areas within their enterprise that can be modified to improve farm management and profitability. As part of the Grains BMP pilot, there are opportunities to access incentive funding to help implement changes to farming systems. CHRRUP has appointed a field officer who will be working with farmers in the Gindie, Capella and Rolleston/Orion areas.

Funding Guidelines

Guidelines have been developed to make the task of developing a project budget as simple as possible. For this reason standardised costing incorporating material, labour and equipment have been developed.

Fencing

Fence costs have been standardised to include materials, labour, and equipment. Percentage funding has been developed on the basis of public/private benefit. A standard fence is a permanent (non-electric) stock proof fence. If electric fencing is proposed it must be permanent and stock proof. Funding is available for land type fencing, riparian and wetland, coastal, biodiversity and salinity fencing. Check with your field officer for the amount of funding applicable to your project.

Water Systems

Watering system rates have been standardised to include materials, labour, and equipment. Percentage funding has been developed on the basis of public/private benefit. Pumps are always an in-kind contribution. Funds will go towards percentage costs of poly pipe, tanks and troughs, and are associated with fencing projects mentioned above.

Strategic Weed Control

Strategic weed control targeting Weeds of National Significance and high priority weeds identified in Local Government Pest Management Plans. A condition of funding will be the development of a property pest management plan agreed with relevant Local Government. Funding will go towards a percentage cost of chemical and diesel.

Other projects which may attract funding include machinery modification and planning for cropping enterprises to improve ground cover retention; system improvements for water use efficiency; indigenous cultural heritage; property mapping and technical support.

Landholder Stories

Landtype Fencing on 'Avonmore'

Landholder - Mervyn and Elizabeth Zahl 'Avonmore Station' Alpha

Project - Mervyn and Elizabeth worked with Field Officer Bronwyn Roberts to establish this project. The object was to separate Gum Gully and Camp Oven paddocks to protect the erosive soils of Gum Gully and to better graze the sandy soils of Camp Oven. This was done by landtype fencing and putting in new watering points. The Zahls contributed over $20,000 to the project, with CHRRUP putting in almost $7,000.

Details - Gum Gully paddock is a 437Ha cleared Eucalypt woodland paddock with standing gum along Gum Gully running through the centre into Native Companion Creek which borders the paddock and property along the Western boundary. The area is extremely erosive due to the nature of the soil and surrounding topography and has low ground cover due to preferential grazing from cattle.

Camp Oven paddock is 295 Ha of largely cypress pine re-growth and remnant vegetation on sandy soils. The paddock is in good condition with good ground cover however sometimes dies off before cattle graze due to the preferential grazing of Gum Gully.

Outcome - The fencing has been done, and the project is almost completed, but has been delayed by the difficulty in getting tanks. By separating the paddocks and establishing a watering point in each, the landholders hope to independently graze and spell each paddock at more controlled and opportune times. This should also have the beneficial effects of increasing the ground cover in Gum Gully to help combat the erosion, and maintaining good condition in Camp Oven by grazing before the feed dies off.

Anything that can help the erosion in Gum Gully sounds good to me
- Merv Zahl

Riparian Project on 'Crescendo'

Landholder - David Staal on 'Crescendo'

The junction of three major waterways, Theresa, Retro and Capella Creeks occurs on David Staal's property, 'Crescendo'. David was committed to fencing the waterways as part of the whole property redevelopment plan, but receiving funding was a big incentive to prioritise the work. In 2002, David began working with FBA and CHRRUP on a project which would allow him to fence off the riparian areas and establish off-stream watering points in a bid to protect the three creek systems.

Today, David has completed around 36km of fencing and established 13 off-stream watering points, and the benefits are numerous. Keeping the cattle off the heavy black soil flood plains has allowed the native pastures to regenerate, and assist in the eradication of parthenium and other weeds. Fencing with the topography means stock are not creating cattle pads on erosive soil types, which has led to a measured decrease in sediment in waterholes along the creeks.

Leaving parameters for flooding contribute to a decrease in flood fencing and stock losses, and the extra watering points allow controlled and rotational grazing, making mustering and management easier and more efficient. Since completing the project, the carrying capacity of the property has been increased.

Summing up the experience, David said,

'There were a half a dozen common sense reasons to do the work, but having the funding and support brought it to the forefront of our property plan.'

After these successes, David is now working with CHRRUP on another fencing to land-type project on Theresa Creek.

Weather Station

The scheme to install a network of thirteen fully automated, real time weather stations in the Comet cropping region has been completed, allowing farmers to use current information to optimise spraying and irrigating decisions.

Murray Melville, President of the Comet Sustainable Farming Systems group, spoke about the advantages that the project has provided for the community. Murray said,

'Dryland farmers and irrigators in the Comet area worked with CHRRUP to apply for funding and develop the network. The aim of the project was to provide landholders, their staff and spray applicators with easily accessible, current weather information to help them make informed application decisions.'

Murray said the weather stations have proved to be a very useful management tool.

'I can dial-up or text message to get the exact weather and temperature conditions during the day, and download the information for a permanent record. Supported by climatic modelling, the information is available for all landholders to help agronomic and environmental decision making'

This information can also be used as a main input into climate-based irrigation scheduling tools, or to monitor climate conditions in real-time to give advance warning on disease and insect outbreaks. Other uses for the information could be to drive crop simulation models in real-time, aiding in decision making on nutritional inputs, growth regulant inputs, pest threshold levels and yield goals.

'CHRRUP did most of the groundwork and followed up all of the hassles! Field days and workshops were also organized to provide technical advice, finalise membership of our group and sponsorship, and select appropriate sites for the weather stations.'

The project was a truly collaborative effort between CHRRUP, DPI&F Cropping Extension Staff, IAWM, and the Comet Sustainable Farmers Association. These partnerships will be ongoing as IAWM and DPI&F collate the weather station data to identify trends in data and help farmers develop best management practices. The data will also be integrated into research work on grains and cropping, and water use efficiency systems.

Completed Projects

For further information on completed projects read our Fact Sheet .