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The offensive was mounted to eradicate feral pigs from sensitive wetland habitats such as Coongie Lakes, minimise their impact on the wider environment and pastoral production, and to create a buffer zone in Queensland to control further downstream spread. It was seen as the first of many coordinated, periodic, population knockdowns that would serve as follow-up control in strategic areas.
The Queensland part of the offensive, a partnership of landholders, shire councils, Department of Natural Resources and Mines and the Lake Eyre Basin Group, was timed to coincide with the Marree Soil Conservation Board District Feral Pig Control Program on the South Australian side.
In the 4 days to 1st November 2002, around 12,000 square kilometres of south-west Queensland was aerial baited with 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate). This was done with a specially modified Cessna 186 fitted with a 300 kilogram capacity meat hopper and a Global Positioning System (GPS) that recorded accurate data on flight paths and bait positioning.
A similar area was covered on the South Australian side during the following week by using a chopper with a Parks and Wildlife Service marksman. According to the Project Coordinator for the Rangelands Soil Board Executive, Len Rule, conditions were ideal for the job.
“It was dry and we wanted to knock the pigs while they were concentrated on what water was left,” he said.
“We got about 150 pigs on Innamincka, Gidgealpa and Cordillo Downs, and we covered down as far as Bollards Lagoon and Merty Merty.
“There weren’t many waters left so it was pretty easy to find the pigs. When we got them, we also took blood samples to check for leptospirosis.”
Leptospirosis is found in up to 20% of feral pigs in Queensland and is a threat to domestic livestock production. Lepto’ is a serious bacterial disease that can be transmitted to humans by the contact of blood, urine or raw meat to eyes, mouth, nose, or broken skin. It causes very high temperatures, kidney trouble and jaundice, and can be fatal.
Feral pigs would also be ideal vectors, or carriers, of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). Should FMD ever get into Australia, the estimated feral pig population of 24 million would make control very difficult. Even the immediate eradication of an FMD outbreak would still cost the country in excess of $3 billion in lost exports.
Len Rule said that apart from getting rid of the pigs, the main thing that came out of the program was the high level of cross-border cooperation and coordination.
Land Protection Officer with the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Craig Magnussen was pivotal to the project and was pleased with the outcome. The support from the landholders was the key to the whole thing,” he said, “and they’re all keen to keep at it in the future.
He added that there was more to it than simply killing pigs. We’re going to monitor the success of the program in different situations and landscapes, do a cost/benefit analysis, document the whole thing and incorporate results into the Lake Eyre Basin feral animal scoping paper.”
As well as getting rid of the pigs, this project builds on the cross-border cooperative framework that has already been used in the control of weeds and with other natural resource management issues in the Lake Eyre Basin.
I feel very humbled to have been asked to fill the position of Chair of our organization; it’s a rare privilege to work with this dedicated community, executive and staff.
The integrity, commitment and openness of the people, along with the rich natural and cultural heritage, are what make the Lake Eyre Basin so unique. Our Basin is in a very healthy state and we have to continue our hard work to make sure it stays that way. We also have to make sure that governments, policy makers and funders recognize this and see the merit of continuing to support our whole-of-basin community process.
Since the beginning of the year our staff have been busy writing final reports as well as attending to their normal duties. They have also been called upon by the Executive to help prepare key correspondence and briefing papers. The culmination of this was a visit to Federal Environment Minister, Dr David Kemp by Executive members, Trevor Whitelaw and Maree Morton on the 27th of February.
On behalf of the Basin community, Trevor and Maree urged the Minister to continue the Federal Government’s commitment to the very unique, cross-border, Lake Eyre Basin process. The deputation was very well received by the Minister and we are currently waiting on a response from his office.
Thanks must go to all concerned for their efforts in the preparation for this meeting. I would also like to recognize and thank SANTOS and S. Kidman & Co for their support on this issue.
The immediate challenges before us are:
I will be attending the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council Community Forum on your behalf in Brisbane during the second week in April. There will be 18 Federal and state Ministers present so this is a very important opportunity for us, the community, to voice our concerns and issues straight to the relevant ministers.
Although very patchy, some very useful rain has fallen over much of the Basin. I sincerely hope that those of us who are still waiting for a follow-up, receive it very soon. The rainfall event at the end of February was reported to be the biggest system in 30 years, let’s hope that it’s a sign of good things to come.
Cheers
David Lord
Bill Bode of Prairie rightly pointed out that stopping tree clearing is not the policy of the Lake Eyre Basin Coordinating Group as was suggested in the final article by previous chair, Don Blesing, in the December 2002 issue. Here is Don’s response to Bill’s concern:
“I apologise for any misunderstandings that may have arisen from my final ‘From the Chair’ message that appeared in the December issue. While it most certainly is not the policy of the Lake Eyre Basin Coordinating Group to promote the cessation of land clearing, a key objective of the Group is to promote ecological and economic sustainability in the Basin. This requires, among other things, the careful management of land clearing because of its significant impact on ecological sustainability. My mistake was in trying to be brief, when I should have used the slightly longer phrase ‘managing the clearing of native vegetation’.”
Don Blesing
Under the second phase of the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT2), there is a fundamental shift towards more strategic investment based on regional investments. These investments will be made through an approved regional body with an accredited, integrated natural resource management plan and investment strategy developed by the particular region.
The process is being touted as a shift from an individual project approach to an integrated regional approach to natural resource management.
In view of this, it appears the Lake Eyre Basin process has been well ahead of its time. The Lake Eyre Basin process was conceived, designed and set up by the community in the mid 1990s as a truly regional group, working on integrated catchment management across four state jurisdictions.
The Lake Eyre Basin process doesn’t need to make this shift; it doesn’t need to make this shift because it’s already there.
This ‘new’ regional approach to the delivery of Natural Heritage Trust Mark II money for natural resource management is at varying stages of implementation in the four jurisdictions covering the Lake Eyre Basin.
New South Wales appears to have a healthy head start on the other states in that it is building its regional process on the back of an existing structure.
In the late1980s New South Wales created ‘total catchment management committees’ which were based, as the name suggests, on catchment boundaries. This became a moot point in the far west of the state where the management area, the Western Catchment, was a collection of sub-catchments and part catchments, most of which drain into the Barwon-Darling River.
In early 2000, Catchment Management Boards were established to replace the existing Catchment Management Committees. The new arrangement was designed to increase the integration of natural resource management efforts by the community, industry and government.
Daryl Green, who manages community partnerships out of the Department of Land and Water Conservation in Dubbo, says the Western Catchment Management Board already has a fair amount of work under its belt.
“The Board has completed its Catchment Blueprint,” he says. They’ve also submitted their 10-year investment strategy and have till the end of April to finish their 3-year, rolling investment plan.”
As well as identifying opportunities and threats associated with natural resources use, the Blueprint sets objectives and targets for the sustainable management of those resources, and develops management options, strategies and actions to meet those objectives and targets.
The Board itself is made up of representatives of community, government and industry and are drawn from primary producers, Aboriginal interests, local government, conservation and State Government. Some members are nominated by interest groups, others are drawn from the community through open nomination, and the Chair is appointed on the advice of the Minister. The State Government representation is drawn from the Regional Manager level of five agencies: National Parks and Wildlife Service; Land and Water Conservation; Fisheries; Agriculture; and Environment Protection.
“It’s the ‘Board of Directors’ of the catchment,” says Daryl Green, “and works at the strategic rather than operational level.
“The Board develops the investment strategy and directs where the monies will go but the Department of Land and Water Conservation will handle the actual funding.”
While there is no formal requirement to have complementarity with the plans of the neighbouring regions in either South Australia or Queensland, and no direct mechanism for joint projects, Daryl Green says that some projects will be, in reality, joint or cross-border.
The Queensland regional group, which covers the Queensland portion of the Lake Eyre Basin, is up and running. Desert Channels Queensland (DCQ) was formed at a meeting in Birdsville last October and draws much of its membership from the two existing catchment committees of the Lake Eyre Basin.
There are three members (including one Indigenous) from each of the Georgina Diamantina and Cooper’s Creek catchment committees, two from the Desert Uplands Committee, and one each from the Great Artesian Basin Consultative Council and the Local Government Association of Western Queensland.
In explaining the rationale for the membership, DCQ Chair, Peter Douglas pointed out that about half the Desert Uplands bioregion lies in the DCQ region; the Great Artesian Basin underlies most of the DCQ region; and there are 13 local governments either wholly or partly in the DCQ region.
“I think it’s a pretty fair cross-section of the major interest groups in the region,” he said, “but that’s not to say that others are excluded. Everyone has the right to have their say.”
“Effective communication is the key. If we have that we can avoid misunderstandings and work through the difficult issues.”
And there are already difficulties for DCQ. It is currently operating on minimal funding with in-kind administrative support from Department of Natural Resources and Mines. Peter Douglas admits the fledgling group is hamstrung by funding at the moment and the situation will continue until the bilateral agreement between Queensland and the Commonwealth is signed and Natural Heritage Trust 2 monies begin to flow.
“We’re well behind the other regions in both our planning and our budget,” he said, “but we’ll get there.”
He’s confident that any community misgivings will evaporate when people realise that DCQ is not a government body arbitrarily delivering directives to land managers on what they should be doing, but rather a funding delivery process to assist them in doing what needs to be done to look after the land.
“We’re not another layer of bureaucracy,” he asserts, “we’re a collection of community representatives with the aim of keeping the catchment in good condition, and fostering and assisting existing groups to continue their natural resource management work.
Despite the funding constraints, DCQ has had several meetings to date and recently appointed two staff members. Long-time natural resource management practitioner, Mike Chuk, is the Regional Planner and is joined by the well-credentialed, Steve Wilson, who got the job of Regional Coordinator despite, according to Peter Douglas, being a Carlton AFL supporter.
While the Rangelands Integrated Natural Resource Management Group (Rangelands INRM Group) in South Australia is different to its Queensland cousin in that it will ultimately be a statutory authority, it is clearly being shaped by the same funding environment.
As Group Chair, Chris Reed points out, funding is tight. We’re a bit starved for funds at the moment,” he said, “but we do have a very active Project Officer, Len Rule, on board, and Andrew White from the Northern Territory has just accepted the position of Executive Officer.
“In the eighteen months that we’ve been going, we’ve had considerable administrative support from the Government, and have been able to produce a ‘Foundation Document’ that outlines who we are, where we are at the moment, and is the precursor to our regional plan. The next step is to commence this plan and we’ve applied for funding through the Natural Heritage Trust to do this.”
The Rangelands INRM Group covers all of the rangelands in South Australia which is about half of the State. The sheer size of the area creates difficulties in effectively communicating with, and engaging, the community.
In an effort to ensure success in this area, the Board, which is comprised of people who live or work in the rangelands, has insisted that its staff live within the region. Consequently, Project Officer, Len Rule works out of Hawker and the Executive Officer, Andrew White will be based in Port Augusta.
South Australia’s integrated approach to natural resource management is for streamlining to minimise wastage and duplication. As part of this philosophy, the Rangelands INRM Group will share office space and administrative support in Port Augusta with other groups under the Outback SA umbrella.
According to Chris Reed, the Government is also very committed to a cross-border approach. Our Minister, John Hill, has made it clear that he expects all groups to cooperate across state borders to ensure seamless natural resource management.”
While the Northern Territory is a large chunk of Australia, it has a relatively small population and is, therefore, negotiating to be treated as a single region. They are seeking to have the Landcare Council of the Northern Territory become the regional body responsible for the delivery of Natural Heritage Trust Mark 2 money.
The major problem facing community groups in the Territory is that Federal funding has run out and experienced people have been put off. Across the Territory, facilitator and coordinator positions have been slashed from 33 to 8.
This lack of funding has hamstrung the efforts to roll out a natural resource management plan for the whole of the Northern Territory according to Rod Applegate, Senior Director of the Natural Resource Management Division of the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment.
“Our regional allocation of $3.8 million has to cover Foundation Funding and Priority Projects in addition to Facilitator and Coordinator bids,” he says. That’s not a lot of money when you have to spread it that far.”
Negotiations between the Northern Territory and the Commonwealth on the Bilateral Agreement are ongoing. We hope to have it signed by the end of June,” says Rod Applegate, “but it’s difficult to come to an agreement when the goalposts keep shifting.
Once the regional approach is bedded down he sees a pragmatic, cross-border reality emerging. There will be a natural cross-border focus on a range of natural resource management issues that are common across state borders. The approach to addressing these issues will be similar in the different areas and this should ensure a cross-border reality to the management of our natural resources.
“We, in the Territory, have no problem in taking a multi-lateral approach, but I can see there will be times when funding constraints may prevent or at least restrict it.
“People think we’ll get down to business once the Bilateral is signed but that’s only the beginning. I don’t envisage the roll-out of NHT2 will be without problems.”
As flagged in the last newsletter, there have been several personnel changes in the office. We farewelled Peter McLeod and Bill Haddrill, and were to farewell Alison Bell.
Alison however, chose to stay on and oversee the completion of the final audited reports for the eight projects that finished at the end of 2002. This was greatly appreciated and now that it has been completed, Alison will finish at Easter. She will continue full-time employment as housewife and mother of five.
Peter has settled into his new role as Chief Executive Officer of the Qantas Founders Outback Museum in Longreach and is enjoying the challenges of something totally different to natural resource management. When asked if he missed NHT he said, ‘What’s that?’.
Bill is thriving on the new opportunities of Kangaroo Island not least of all is that of husband-to-be of Ellana. I’m sure everyone who had the pleasure of meeting them when Bill was working for the Georgina Diamantina Catchment Committee will wish them both the very best.
We welcome to our Longreach office, the new coordinator for the Georgina Diamantina, Shaaron Stevenson, from Karratha in Western Australia. Shaaron’s arrival was delayed several weeks by skulking cyclones across the Kimberley but she has already done a familiarisation road trip to Port Augusta and back. Shaaron has a strong background in natural resource management and is looking forward to meeting the people of the Basin.
As mentioned above, the final reports for eight NHT projects that finished at the end of 2002 have been completed. This required a lot of work from all members of staff and consequently, most other work is well behind schedule, including the publication of this newsletter.
Nora Brandli, Coordinator for the Cooper’s Creek Catchment Committee, found time to attend numerous meetings including one on the control of rubber vine at Charters Towers and a feral animal control planning meeting for the rangelands of South Australia at Port Augusta.
On the regional arrangements for the delivery of NHT2 funding, the four regional groups that will cover the Lake Eyre Basin are at various stages of formation (see article on page 3). The Western Catchment Management Board in New South Wales was out of the blocks early; South Australia and Queensland have appointed their boards and staff; while the Northern Territory is at a formative stage.
Shaaron Stevenson is the newly appointed Coordinator for the Georgina Diamantina Catchment Committee. Born and raised in Perth, Shaaron spent several years working in various rural and regional locations throughout Western Australia with PathCentre, the former State Health Laboratory Services. She then returned to study and completed an Honours degree at Murdoch University (Biological and Environmental Science). Shaaron has since worked as an environmental consultant in WA’s mid-west before relocating to the Pilbara for a four year stint as project officer with the Pilbara Land Conservation District Committees.
Shaaron says she enjoys travelling through the vast and ever-changing outback areas of this country and working with its people whose stories, knowledge and experiences form a rich, varied and unique social tapestry.
Lifelong resident, Joe Freckleton has seen a lot of changes to Camooweal during his 70 odd years. When he was born in the north-west Queensland town, the Northern Territory, and indeed much of western Queensland, was still very much frontier country.
According to stories Joe heard when he was a kid, Camooweal came about because: “In the early days it was all teamsters. The teamsters used to bring the loading in from Burketown and take it over the border into what was then South Australia to the big sheep stations like Avon Downs. They camped on permanent waterholes and there was one in the Georgina right here.
“They decided they needed a store, and as it’s rather thirsty country they decided they’d better have a pub, then they decided, well if you have a pub you commit a few sins so you have to have a church.”
The store that Joe now runs was built in 1901. It was known as the Bond Store because Synnot, Murray and Scholes imported their rum from Jamaica and until it went out of bond, they didn’t have to pay any excise on it. Australian’s love that stuff – keeps them going I think. Then after they started the sugar industry in Queensland they went onto Bundy Rum and OP rum.
“We had a customs house here too because (prior to Federation) everything that went across from Queensland had to have taxes paid to the Queensland Government. The manager of Avon (Downs) used to complain to the Queensland Government about how tough it was out there without them ripping him off but I don’t think that made too much impression.”
Joe can remember when they held weekly dances in the Shire Hall. There was always someone who could play some musical instrument – a piano, a mouth-organ or an accordion. Now we have a dance every blue moon. We used to have a picture show too, but TV killed that and the Country Women’s Association has gone.”
Another significant change that Joe can add to his list is the newly completed $21 million high-level road bridge over the Georgina River, on the town’s western outskirts. This eliminates the last major flood-prone river crossing on the National Highway between Brisbane and Darwin – Camooweal will no longer benefit from the patronage of flood-bound travellers waiting for waters to subside.
Camooweal began life as a major teamster camp serving the outback pastoral industry and is now just another spot on the map, somewhere on a long, long road.
The ARIDFLO project, due to finish early this year, has gained additional NHT funds to conduct more research during drought conditions.
Led by South Australia’s Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation, and supported by Queensland’s Environment Protection Agency, Parks and Wildlife Service, and Natural Resources and Mines, ARIDFLO has been investigating the hydrology-ecology relationships in the South Australian and Queensland rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin since 2000.
The impetus for this additional funding came not from the scientists or agencies, but from members of the Lake Eyre Basin community and arose from the October 2002 Lake Eyre Basin Ministerial Forum conference in Birdsville. At the conference, the ARIDFLO team conducted a community workshop to discuss the project’s results. Many people pointed out that the project had, by sheer good luck, been able to sample almost the full range of flow conditions likely to occur in the Lake Eyre Basin, apart from severe drought.
The Cooper Creek and Georgina Diamantina catchment committees along with the Arid Areas Catchment Water Management Board enthusiastically supported an extension to the project with the result that Environment Australia has funded the project to sample the drought conditions, and continue until mid 2003. The level of support from all sectors is gratefully acknowledged by the ARIDFLO team.
So far, 2003 has proved to be as remarkable as 2000 when the project started, although very different. The South Australian field survey ran from late January until late February. It started at a dry and dusty 50-degrees, and ended with being trapped for a week by Neales River floodwaters!
Much of the South Australian trip was spent on the Diamantina and Cooper systems. Many sites sampled on earlier trips were now dry, however, the team managed to survey a number of the regular sites plus some other larger waterholes not sampled before in this project. The information from all these sites will be invaluable in helping understand how the animals of these rivers cope with drought.
Very welcome and fairly widespread rains in the last week of the South Australian survey meant that some waterholes could be sampled twice in the space of a few days – first when the waterholes were almost dry, and then when the river was spilling out over the floodplain. Opportunities like that are very rare and the team found amazing changes.
The Queensland survey occupied most of March and surveyed a mix of Thomson and Diamantina floodplain and main channel sites, some of which had only just started to receive inflow from recent rains. It was a rare opportunity to gauge the ecological response immediately following a severe drought. Many of the sites sampled in Queensland had received flow from upstream, while some only had local runoff. This gave a good comparison to the last survey in March/April 2002 when most of the semi-permanent holes were dry.
The evidence of breeding was clear but much lower than in 2000; there were many more juveniles than adults this time. This indicates that the system will take time to recover and the strength of that recovery will depend on subsequent seasonal conditions.
A really valuable part of the Queensland survey was having traditional owner, Joslin Eatts along to provide an Indigenous perspective. The team members learnt something of Indigenous values, stories and management while Joslin gained a better understanding of the reasons for the survey and the science behind it.
The project has now been lucky enough to sample during huge floods, drought and many smaller, in-between flows. The information from these surveys will help us understand how the plants and animals of the Lake Eyre Basin rivers survive during droughts and then respond to floods.
Highlights of the 2003 survey:
• Cullyamurra Waterhole on the Cooper was still 30 metres deep despite the severity of the drought.
• Seeing the great horseshoe of Lake Constance full and overflowing upstream!
• Getting up close and personal with ten million flies and mosquitoes.
• Traditional owner, Joslin Eatts, sharing dreamtime stories, as well as Indigenous values and heritage of the various survey sites on the Diamantina.
• Boating across the flooded Thomson River to reach a survey site.
• Finding a different suite of species in waterholes like Bluebush Lagoon that had only received local runoff and no river inflow.
• Small waterholes still with water in them were often teeming with fish, pointing to their importance in maintaining fish populations in Lake Eyre Basin rivers over the long term.
• The first ever scientific record of Hyrtl’s catfish in the Neales River.
• Waterholes in the Peake Creek that were ten times saltier that seawater and only had algae living in them, were teeming with shrimps and water beetle larvae just a few days later after the floods!
• Team member, Janet Pritchard, …“seeing Coongie Lakes virtually dry – the contrast of boating everywhere on the 2000 flood with being able to drive across dry lake beds filled with waist-high swaying grasses. Realising that of the thousands of fish we sampled on previous trips, some had retreated and concentrated upstream, but most had likely perished brought home the real boom/bust nature of things.”
The project team will now concentrate on analysing and writing up the results. A draft community report will be available for community comment around the middle of the year.
Contact: Michael Good Ph: 08 8463 6939 Good.Michael@saugov.sa.gov.au or
Vanessa Bailey Ph: 07 4652 7310 Vanessa.Bailey@epa.qld.gov.au
As part of Environment Australia’s five million dollar, four year National Dioxins Program, soil samples are being collected across the remote areas of the Lake Eyre Basin. Dioxins are a broad group of toxic, organic chemicals that remain in the environment for a long time.
Dioxins serve no useful purpose. They are produced by any form of combustion, natural and human induced, are the unintentional by-product of certain types of chemical manufacture, and occur as trace contaminants in water, soils and air throughout the world. It is thought that bushfires may be responsible for as much as 75% of the total dioxins in Australia’s environment.
These compounds are toxic at very low levels; their presence is measured in parts per trillion. They can accumulate in the body fat of humans and other animals and can remain unchanged for long periods, raising concerns about adverse health effects.
The aims of the program are to: establish the ambient environmental level of dioxins; establish the level of dioxins in humans; and assess the relative importance of dioxin emissions.
The resulting data will be used to determine whether a regulatory approach will be required for the management of dioxins.
For further information on the National Dioxin Program, call Environment Australia on Freecall 1800 657 945.