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Issue 26 - September 2003
The winds of change are blowing through the natural resource management world in Australia and it remains to be seen how much the landscape has changed when the dust has settled.
The Lake Eyre Basin process is working to ensure the significant gains made to date are not left behind by the new system of state-based regional bodies for delivering natural resource management funding from the Commonwealth’s Natural Heritage Trust (Mark2) .
“We have to make sure we don’t go backwards,” says Lake Eyre Basin Coordinating Group Chair, David Lord of Thackaringa Station, Broken Hill.
“There are parts of our process (2 Catchment Committees) that sort of fit the new ‘state-based’ world, and there are parts (Coordinating Group) that don’t.
“We have to ensure cross-border integrated natural resource management continues and we have to find a way of maintaining the whole-of-basin, big picture, strategic view.
“How we’ll achieve this and how it will all fit together is not clear. But what is clear, is that it’s the community, through the Catchment Committees, who must make the ultimate decisions. What is also clear is that we have to make sure our on-ground natural resource management work in the Basin continues and to do that we must give our full support to the new state-based system and do our best to ensure it delivers.”
The Georgina Diamantina and Cooper’s Creek Catchment Committees will be meeting in joint session at Longreach on 20th and 21st November to finalise their framework for the future. They have already resolved to transition their operations to the Queensland regional body, Desert Channels Queensland.
The move was the only option as they were not eligible to receive NHT2 funding under the Lake Eyre Basin Coordinating Group’s incorporation.
Chair of the Cooper’s Creek Catchment Committee, Maree Morton of Innamincka Station is concerned that they will now be Queensland groups instead of cross-border entities. "The Regional Bodies will work well within the individual States but those bodies are not cross-border or whole-of-basin,” she says. “s a community we can work across borders but if our funding is coming from different states and we don’t have a single, cross-border body to pull it together, then we won’t get an integrated approach to our natural resource management issues.
“State Governments have their own agendas and priorities so we need to get some binding agreement or commitment to ensure continuing cross-border work. Such a commitment needs to come from Government,” says Maree Morton.
It has already been made by South Australia with the clause from its Bilateral Agreement with the Commonwealth: ‘National/State investment will address activities that have broadscale, rather than regional or local outcomes, and include investments at the State-wide level, as well as those that are cross-border’. A Queensland Government source says that a similar clause will be in the Queensland bilateral when it is finally signed.
Adding to the chorus of support for the maintenance of close, cross-border relationships is Andrew White, the Executive Officer of South Australia’s Rangelands Integrated Natural Resource Management Group. He says it’s important that the cross-border focus is maintained. "I would like to see a close working relationship between our (INRM) group and Desert Channels Queensland,” he says. "One mechanism for achieving this would be some degree of cross-membership on the two groups.”
“We’ve got to have good communication,” says Desert Channels Queensland (DCQ) Chair, Peter Douglas of Juno Downs, Jundah, “and we’ve got to have mechanisms in place to ensure cross-border ties.
“Currently, the 2 catchment committees of the Lake Eyre Basin hold 50% of the membership on DCQ, so they’re in the right spot to make sure the cross-border perspective is maintained.
“It’s all okay when you’ve got people on each side who are talking to each other but if personnel change and they don’t get on, you’ve got to have something to back it up or the whole thing falls over.”
Funding for natural resource management work in Australia has changed and this presents our process with great challenges.
The reality of the new regional process of Natural Heritage Trust 2 (NHT2) funding delivery is that dollars will flow through newly set up State-based regional bodies to the on-ground implementation groups such as our catchment committees.
The Lake Eyre Basin Coordinating Group is not seen as an implementation group and will get no funding from the State-based system. The end result is that the regionalisation under NHT2 is fragmenting the whole-of-basin, cross-border approach of the Lake Eyre Basin process. To ensure their existence and ongoing work, the Georgina Diamantina and Cooper’s Creek catchment committees have had no choice but to transition their operations to the new Queensland regional body, Desert Channels Queensland. They will then be Queensland committees.
This transition will take effect by 31st of December and involve all staff currently employed by the Coordinating Group.
Therefore, it is up to us to secure those key elements that are central to our unique community process. I believe those key elements are:
o Basin identity (locally, nationally and internationally recognised through the map, website, newsletter and our networks)
o whole-of-basin perspective on natural resource management issues (river flows, wetlands and floodplains, weeds and feral animals are all natural resource management issues that disregard state borders)
o whole-of-basin perspective on the collection, management and dissemination of data and information (Water Information System for the Environment – WISE; the most up-to-date science – Aridflo; Geographic Information System – GIS; website; newsletter)
o community ownership (when the community designs, builds and runs a process, it feels ownership of that process and it is the community ownership that ensures their participation in partnerships with governments)
How we secure these key elements is up to the community to decide in Longreach on 20th and 21st November. To assist us in formulating the best advice for Longreach, Angus Emmott, Mark Kleinschmidt and I met in Canberra on 22nd August with Professor Peter Cullen (Chair of the Lake Eyre Basin Scientific Advisory Panel and former member of the Coordinating Group), Leith Boully (Chair of the Murray Darling Basin Community Advisory Committee) and Kate Andrews (founding coordinator of the Lake Eyre Basin process). Their broad knowledge, wisdom and experience will assist us in framing the best options to take us forward. We greatly appreciate their time and effort.
I would also like to add a note of thanks to the Executive and staff who have continued to work far beyond the call of duty to ensure the Lake Eyre Basin process is maintained. I thank them all very much for their contribution.
Through our networks, the Myer Foundation heard about our community process. At their invitation, Trevor Whitelaw, Kate Andrews (they particularly asked that Kate attend as she was the one who initially pulled the Lake Eyre Basin process together), and I went to Melbourne on 1st July. The presentation was keenly listened to and we fielded questions for some 30 minutes afterwards – they were particularly interested in our community process. We have invited them to come out and have a look around the Basin themselves and have set aside May 2004 as a potential time for that.
It is not drawing a long bow to say our process has a profile on the world stage. According to internationally experienced and respected environmental consultant, Phillip Toyne, the Lake Eyre Basin process is unique in the world – it is, in fact, being studied and used as a model as far away as France. Additionally, Kate Andrews has been invited to Paris to give a paper on the community process that we designed and drive.
The Myer Foundation’s request, Phillip Toyne’s opinion and the French connection give us a very powerful message. What we have designed and drive is not ordinary, the way we do it is not ordinary – it is empowering the community and allowing them to take charge of their destiny. We have built something very, very special and we are here to achieve on-ground outcomes as part of a strategic, long-term vision for the social, environmental and economic integrity of this part of the rangelands.
As a pastoralist, I have noticed that over the last 10 years the scientific community has come to respect our ability as land managers and our knowledge. I believe this bond of trust between the two communities that were, not long ago, poles apart, will lead to great outcomes for this wonderful part of the world we are privileged to live in.
One of the lessons I learnt as a teenager at boarding school in my quest to succeed at sport and my academic career, was to be self-critical and analyse my performance. I think that is one of the fundamentals of success.
Participants in our community process are doing the same thing now. I believe they’ll come to the same conclusion as I did: yes we have got the skills, passion, integrity, commitment and generations of experience to ensure the integrity of the natural resources and the social fabric of the Lake Eyre Basin are maintained.
Kind regards
David Lord
PS. Being the people we are, we tend to go about our work with an absence of fanfare and fuss but I think it’s worth having a bit of a skite about the achievements of the Lake Eyre Basin process over its short life. Have a read of the ‘Feat Sheet’ if you haven’t already.
The Lake Eyre Basin process is all sectors of the Basin community working together for social, economic and environmental sustainability. It rose from the community, was designed by the community, is driven by the community and gets its legitimacy from the community.
In the middle of the last decade, widely diverse interests (pastoral, Indigenous, conservation, scientific, industry, Government, urban and others) came together and designed the Lake Eyre Basin process. They learnt to work effectively toward a shared vision, developed and understanding of each other as well as the depth and breadth of the issues, and have built the capacity to drive the whole thing and achieve on-ground outcomes.
Some of these outcomes of the last 8 years are less tangible than others; some are the foundations for ongoing activities; all provide real benefits for the future management of natural resources in the Lake Eyre Basin and elsewhere.
Over the last 8 years, the Lake Eyre Basin process, among other things, has:
o played a key role in ensuring the Lake Eyre Basin Agreement was finalised and had content of substance. A flow-on from this has been the Community Advisory Committee, the Biennial Community Conference (where community members get the opportunity to talk directly to ministers and vice-versa), the Scientific Advisory Panel, and the State of the Rivers Assessment.
o placed the Lake Eyre Basin firmly on the scientific agenda and forged a linkage between science and community. There is now much more research being conducted in the Lake Eyre Basin e.g. Aridflo, Dryland Refugia (WISE database is a valuable research tool) and the community has input and feels part of it.
o successfully sought funding for the production of a WISE (Water Information System for the Environment) CD-ROM – this research and educational tool on the Cooper catchment provides a wide range of information from a bibliographic database to maps, interviews and images.
o established the Lake Eyre Basin Integrated Information System (LEBIIS) which has provided Geographic Information System (GIS) support (weeds mapping), education and awareness maps, and information and data management (eg Information and Communication Catalogue). LEBIIS has pulled together data from a range of sources and formats across multiple jurisdictions, and manipulated it into a single, whole-of-basin, usable format (cross-border data sets are often not compatible).
o through the work of the 2 catchment committees, developed The Cross-Catchments Weeds Initiative (CCWI) which has attracted $295,000 for parkinsonia survey and devolved grants. This has seen 140 landmanagers come together in 33 groups to manage the parkinsonia problem in a strategic, cross-border approach. CCWI has also gained funding for rubber vine survey and management.
o instigated and run the heritage tourism project, Inland Rivers – Outback Tracks: This vital project has presented the first clear, basin-wide picture of the issues. It deals with a pressing and growing, cross-jurisdictional natural resource management issue and is in the final stage of developing recommendations and strategies for the sustainable management of the Basin’s cultural and natural assets, particularly the central part of the Basin where these assets are most fragile and sought after, infrastructure least developed and there is little in the way of established tourism bodies.
o Communications capability – website with over 30,000 hits in 2002 (PhD students in France are doing a case-study on the Lake Eyre Basin via the website); 4 quarterly newsletters (1,000) going to a wide range of stakeholders; media presence.
o Networks – developed a wide range of networks across all stakeholder groups which allow members to tap into advice from all sectors and levels. Research efforts in the Basin are greatly assisted by being plugged into these large networks.
o Profile – established a local, national and international Basin profile in the scientific, academic, bureaucratic, political, natural resource management, tourism and wider communities.
o Trust – established a depth of mutual respect and trust between land-managers and the scientific and academic communities.
o Capacity – through the experience of 8 years, the community has developed the ability to work together and drive the natural resource management agenda in its area.
o Ownership – through designing, building and driving the process, the community has a true sense of ownership.
o Empowerment – through the ownership of this process, the community now has the sense that it can take charge and shape its own destiny.
Inland Rivers – Outback Tracks, the Lake Basin Heritage Tourism Project, July 2001 to to September 2003 has been a challenging and interesting process. The resulting report, Lake Eyre Basin Heritage Tourism – Future Directions, is in its final stages and will be available in electronic form in late November.
The initial stimulus for the project came from the Lake Eyre Basin community consultations where tourism was identified as a growth activity. Things were happening on the tourism front in the Basin yet no one had a clear idea of the overall picture or the likely implications. The Australian Heritage Commission was interested in relationships between natural and cultural heritage and the increasing number of people seeking to access these assets, especially in regional Australia, so the Lake Eyre Basin Coordinating Group put forward the project proposal. It was funded through the Department of Transport and Regional Services, Regional Solutions Program.
A prime task was a first-hand evaluation of the heritage tourism assets of the Basin, identifying the dynamics and consulting as widely as possible with the many different stakeholders, in and out of the Basin, to determine the issues. Raising tourism awareness and facilitating connections between different parties was an ongoing process and allowed for valuable inputs to many state, Territory and local plans with tourism elements.
Over the two years, thousands of kilometres were travelled following the major tourism flow routes that criss-cross the Basin (see map). The level of activity indicates tourism is here to stay and will be an important aspect of the Basin’s future. The diversity of interests and the four jurisdictions make it unlikely there will ever be a clear and cohesive whole-of-basin approach to tourism.
Central Australia, central west Queensland and South Australia’s Flinders Ranges are clearly established tourism precincts with sound infrastructure, are recognised in the market place and have accepted tourism as a valuable driver in their economies. Outside of these sectors is the essence of Lake Eyre Basin heritage tourism – the ‘Heart of the Basin’ – that area of growing attraction offering, in many visitors’ minds, the quintessential characteristics of the outback.
The project title, ‘Inland Rivers -Outback Tracks’ provides a good description of the classic allure of this region. The Oodnadatta, Finke, Birdsville and Strzelecki Tracks, Cameron Corner, Cooper Creek, Georgina and Diamantina Rivers, the Simpson Desert and the vast expanse of Lake Eyre are all iconic outback destinations.
The majority of the country is pastoral lease, protected areas or Aboriginal lands and there is a growing tourism demand to access the natural and cultural assets in these landscapes – heritage assets now have a commodity as well as interest value. This latest form of land-use presents a major challenge to governments to develop appropriate legislative frameworks that set clear directions and rules to ensure tourism activities are secure and sustainable.
Tourism needs to be considered an integral part of current land management processes and this is still not fully recognised. It is clear from this project that water quality, water supply, habitat degradation, soil erosion, weed transmission, and damage to natural and cultural sites are just some of the environmental issues associated with poorly managed tourism. Conversely, the economic flow-on effects of increasing visitation are an ever more important factor for many remote communities and a valuable adjunct to diversifying traditional land-use practices.
‘Inland Rivers – Outback Tracks’ is the first comprehensive study of the tourism dynamics of the Lake Eyre Basin. The final report, Lake Eyre Basin Heritage Tourism – Future Directions provides the framework for further discussion. It will assist the many current planning initiatives to factor in cohesive actions on how best to protect and develop the unique heritage assets of the Lake Eyre Basin. This report is a collective outcome of widespread and generous community and stakeholder participation that has been integral to the encompassing vision of the Lake Eyre Basin process and is the way forward to getting it right!
On strength to weight ratio, Winton State School Year 10 science students have proved they are more than a match for the rest of Queensland. They were pipped at the post by the much larger Wondai State School, and were the only school to get a ‘Highly Commended’ award.
As part of the recent National Science Week, students across the State were challenged to research local natural resource management and freshwater issues in their local community through the Our Water, our future: A challenge to youth project.
The eight Year 10 students designed, researched, recorded, published and presented a project titled, The Impacts That Winton’s Waterholes Face Every Day. The group monitored 3 waterholes near Winton to see if they were healthy and to identify any natural or human caused environmental issues. Their aim was to inform the community of their findings and present possible solutions to any problems.
Teacher, Gemma Cameron was justifiably proud of her small band of dedicated students. "They did a fantastic job at the presentations," she said. "They spoke clearly and were very professional. Over the whole project they worked extremely hard.”
The presentations were held at the Queensland Natural Resources Sciences precinct at Indooroopilly and the students got to mix with scientists and discuss the methods they used to monitor the waterholes around Winton.
The monitoring project included water analysis, mapping and vegetation surveys. The results showed that the overall water quality was good although the pH in one hole was on the high side; litter was a issue and there was a general lack of riparian vegetation.
Some of the recommendations the students took to the Winton Shire Council were: provision of toilets and rubbish bins, limited camping and access tracks, signage, strategic fencing and revegetation.
Assistance for the project came from many quarters and Gemma Cameron said she was blown away by it. "It was great,” she said. "I’d particularly like to thank Vanessa Bailey (Scientist – Environmental Protection Agency), Ben Kele (Scientist – University of Central Queensland), Peter Klem (Rural Lands Officer – Winton Shire Council), Shane Miller (Groundsman – Winton State School), Ross Wilson (Environmental Superintendent – Cannington Mine) and Shaaron Stevenson and rest of the Georgina Diamantina Catchment Committee for their help and support.
“The kids got a lot out of this project.”
As student, Kristy Walker said, “I used to think that a waterhole just had water in it but this opened my eyes to what is actually there.”
Sam Coxon is a 4th generation sheep and cattle cocky on Kateroy near Longreach in the northern part of the Cooper catchment. There are hundreds like him scattered around the north-east part of the Lake Eyre Basin, but what sets Sam apart from most of his contemporaries is that he also tills the soil.
When Sam set out on the farming track 5 years ago, it wasn’t with a starry-eyed belief that he could make a fortune by pouring water on the soil – he had firm goals in mind and set about achieving them with single-mindedness and scientific precision.
“When you really needed hay,” Sam explains, “it was always at a price you couldn’t afford. So we bought this old dairy that already had an irrigation licence so we could grow hay to drought-proof ourselves.
“Before we started farming we tested our soil to make sure we had both the depth of soil and a decent quality of soil to work with – it’s no good starting with soil that’s going to go either acid or alkaline on you in ten to twenty years.”
Over 5 years of farming, the pH (which was high) and the sodium level in the soil have fallen, the nitrates remained constant and, because the stubble is ploughed in, the organic matter has increased. After each season the soil is tested. This allows fertiliser to be custom-mixed according to the requirements of the soil and crops. Fallowed ground is followed with lucerne, then crops of sorghum or oats in a rotation around the quadrants of the 8 hectare circular track of a centre-pivot irrigator.
The farm came with a travelling irrigator but it was soon apparent to Sam that it was neither effective nor efficient. "You had to pump a lot of pressure to run the nozzle,” he said. "The water sprayed high into the air where the wind got hold of it and you didn’t get an even coverage.”
He went looking for an alternative that was low maintenance, cost effective to operate, and efficient in its water usage. A centre-pivot unit was ultimately installed after underground tape was rejected because of unsuitability for use in heavy clay soils.
“We’re pumping less pressure and less water with this irrigator,” said Sam. "We use about a third of the water because it doesn’t actually spray the water, it just drops it down out of a shower rose, straight onto the crop – we’re not pumping pressure which costs money.
“The centre-pivot also allows us to fertilise or ‘fertigate’ through the water. Folia application of nutrients is a much more efficient method of delivery – you use less and you’re putting it right where it’s needed.”
The proof of the Kateroy drought mitigation exercise is in the pudding of the recent drought. "Our breeding stock held better condition due to the ease of maintaining protein levels and we came out of the drought with our breeding herd in good condition and our country less stressed”
While he firmly believes he is doing all the right things, Sam Coxon is only cautiously optimistic regarding his future as an irrigator on a tributary of Cooper Creek. "We hope we have some certainty but who knows. We’ve stayed within the boundaries of our licences so hopefully they are secure.”
“My bit of farming is part of an overall management strategy – I’d like to leave my country better for my children.
“My family has had this block of dirt for over 100 years and it’s always been left to the next generation in good condition, that’s why we’re still here.”
The arid rangelands take in a swag of country roughly within the 250-350 mm rainfall line around Qld, NSW, SA, WA and the NT. Apart from the low, erratic rainfall that typifies this region and plays havoc with pastoral pursuits, the arid rangelands are known internationally as the home of age-old Aboriginal cultures, huge expanses of uninhabited country, quirky outback characters, and equally unusual desert animals like the bilby and marsupial mole.
These are just two of those desert animals that have undergone massive declines since European settlement of the rangelands, mainly due to changes in fire regimes, feral predator (cats and foxes) numbers, and impacts of introduced herbivores (rabbits, cattle, horses, camels, pigs, donkeys etc.). Mythical-sounding animals like the pig-footed bandicoot, crescent nailtail wallaby, short-tailed hopping mouse, desert rat-kangaroo, central hare-wallaby, desert bandicoot and lesser bilby are now extinct, and another ten species have disappeared from the arid rangelands and survive only on off-shore islands in WA or the NT or in southwest WA. Central Australia holds the dubious world record for mammal extinctions in recent times.
But the story is not completely gloomy and full of doom. Across the arid rangelands there are many land managers and community groups working to help protect the habitat of some of the remaining plants and animals currently threatened with extinction. These people are doing a range of activities from survey and monitoring work to on-ground fire management and feral predator control activities.
South-west of Alice Springs in the Palmer River catchment the Australian Plants Society has been involved in looking after two populations of the vulnerable Latz’s wattle (Acacia latzii) for over 10 years. Recognising that there were only two known locations of this arid zone wattle and that recruitment in this species was a very rare occurrence, the group liaised with the pastoralist who managed land where Latz’s wattle was growing and negotiated to fence off two small areas in order to protect trees from rabbit damage or trampling of seedlings from misplaced cattle hooves.
For the last decade volunteers from the group have been monitoring the rainfall inside these enclosures and following growth and seeding events of the Latz’s wattles. Until 2002 there had been no recorded germination events of this species and it was feared that the existing population would not be able to replace itself over the longer term if no new recruitment occurred. However the big rains of 2000-2001 resulted in some germination and since then a handful of seedlings have survived over a year and the group is monitoring their survival.
The Centralian Land Management Association (CLMA) is the main Landcare group for pastoralists in the southern NT and northern SA. The CLMA assists landholders with a range of natural resource management issues and on-ground projects for erosion control, rabbit eradication and weed management. It has also managed two TSN grant projects – one to survey and monitor populations of a plant (Ptilotus aristatus var. exilis) that only occurs on two pastoral stations north-west of Alice Springs, and another to involve pastoralists in looking for and monitoring populations of the nationally vulnerable black-footed rock-wallaby (Petrogale lateralis lateralis) on pastoral lands within the Lake Eyre Basin.
The black-footed rock-wallaby has become extinct in parts of its former range in the Lake Eyre Basin, most notably in the Davenport Ranges on the western side of Lake Eyre. CLMA’s project ‘Rock-wallaby Watch’ set out to determine the current status of rock-wallaby populations on pastoral lands within the Basin. The project found healthy populations persisting at several sites, despite the presence of considerable numbers of foxes – the main threat for this species. Long term monitoring sites were set up at two locations to monitor trends in populations by counting the number of scats (droppings) within permanent quadrants (see top photograph).
Elsewhere across the arid rangelands TSN is funding project work being done by a number of Aboriginal groups on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands in SA, Ngaanyatjarra Lands and Martu Lands in WA, and in the Tanami Desert region of NT to undertake important survey, patch-burning and feral management work to benefit a range of threatened desert animals such as the bilby, great desert skink, mulgara, marsupial mole, brushtail possum, and malleefowl. The tracking skills and ecological knowledge Aboriginal people bring to these projects are critical to their success, and recovery teams have benefited greatly from Aboriginal people’s input into helping plan recovery for several threatened animals in the region.