A group of Upper Burdekin landholders ventured to Payne’s Lagoon on the Herveys Range today to see the early results of a gully rehabilitation project and hear from the people involved in the process.
Beef producer and property owner David Nicholas was present with his son Will alongside Department of Agriculture and Fisheries extension officers Bob Shepherd and Kate Brown who detailed the work that has been conducted to date and what lies ahead.
Mr Shepherd said the research work being carried in the state regarding water quality and the impact of runoff to the reef is a high priority at present.
“Researchers originally thought the damage to the reef was being caused by sheet erosion, but we now know that gully’s contribute a lot more to erosion and poor sediments,” Mr Shepherd said.
“Gully’s are fed by runoff and the quality of that runoff is determined by stocking rates and herbicide application among other factors.”
This issue has led to DAF conducting a trio of gully management projects in the last five years including the one at Payne’s Lagoon.
DAF approached Mr Nicholas in mid-2015 to see if they could carry out the project on his property purely due to it’s close proximity to Herveys Range Road.
“After looking back at information from 70 years ago we worked out that the gully had expanded eight metres in that time,” Mr Shepherd said.
“There is another gully on the property that has increased in size by 300m over the same timeframe, but the soil there was much more erodeable and has much larger volumes of water running through it which meant the chance of successfully fixing it are much lower.”
When work first commenced the priority was to create a 250m diversion bank which is adjacent to the gully and acts as a channel which will spread rainfall over a wide area before safely entering a drainage line downstream of the gullied area.
The clearing process which began on Saturday involves pushing the timber away from the gully; ripping around the gully margin; stripping the topsoil; deep ripping and shaping the subsoil and then spreading the topsoil back over.
“After that’s all completed we’ll survey and level the ground then sow the area with Keppel Blue Grass which is a variety of Indian Couch, we don’t want to overload it with legumes because that might lead to cattle favouring this section over the rest of the paddock.”
Mr Shepherd predicts that with one or two good wet seasons the section should be fully rehabilitated.
Depending on what the budget allows Mr Nicholas said he plans to fence the paddock to restrict cattle access to the paddock and once the spot is grassed up he’ll have his cattle graze it selectively.
He said biggest issue he’s faced over the course of the project was obtaining a tree clearing permit.
“If it hadn’t been for the DAF staff helping me out with the paperwork to get the permit approved I probably would have given up,” Mr Nicholas said.
“We should have commenced work a while back, but their is a lot of bureaucracy to get through,” he said.
Mr Shepherd said he thinks it will be easier for others who wish to carry out similar tasks to get the permits required now based on Mr Nicholas’ success.
The project is a joint effort between Mr Nicholas and DAF with funding assistance from NQ Dry Tropics through the Australian Government Reef Program that supports the reduction of sediment from grazing properties impacting on the Great Barrier Reef.
“The project budget was $13,500 so it isn’t cheap, but it is a demonstration of what can be done with the type of machinery that many graziers have on their properties.
“It’s selfless work and the only benefit is to the community going forward, the Nicholas family don’t really get much advantage out of it.
“But it will be useful for producers who have gully’s that are threatening infrastructure such as dams, yards and access tracks.
“We hope the rehabilitation demonstration will show others what can be done and inspire them to organise with government to improve the quality of land in their own operations.
Mr Nicholas said he hopes the project ends up proving to be a success.
“We’ve done everything possible to achieve a positive outcome, the end result will be dictated by the intensity and volume of the rainfall we receive over the next several years.
Ms Brown suggested to people who might be interested in carrying out a similar procedure should definitely get an assessment done first.
“If you don’t have a plan in place you could make the problem 10 times worse,” she said.