The apparent dissatisfaction with the community consultation aspect of the scientific process looking at river health in the Murray Darling Basin will not be repeated in the Lake Eyre Basin if a recent Longreach meeting is anything to go by.

The Scientific Advisory Panel to the Lake Eyre Basin Ministerial Forum was in Longreach to fulfil an October 2002 pledge by Panel Chair, Professor Peter Cullen to come and talk to community members and see first-hand the issues of land management in the Cooper Creek catchment.

“We’re very conscious that science is only part of the story and we’re keen to engage with the local knowledge of people who live and work in the Basin – that’s why we’re here,” said Professor Cullen at the Longreach meeting on 21st May.

“The Ministers have asked us to look at vegetation thickening issues and we felt we needed to talk to people who know a lot about those issues, to travel through the country and see them. So the next few days are us building our knowledge and understanding of what the local knowledge about those issues (is), and we put that alongside the scientific knowledge and come back to the Ministers with some advice. The community will also get that advice and they’ll be able to make comment on it.”

After their Longreach meeting, the Scientific Advisory Panel travelled to Barcaldine where they met with representatives of the Desert Uplands Strategy Group. The Desert Uplands covers the far north-east of the Cooper Creek catchment and is the part of the catchment where vegetation thickening is of greatest concern.

The following day the Panel headed north to ‘Fortuna’. Owner, Margaret House showed Panel members how development of modest areas of her property through tree clearing, water ponding and improved pasture, enhanced the sustainability of her enterprise. She pointed out that development of eucalypt country on her property was not aimed at removing all trees but rather reaching a happy balance between trees and grass.

According to Margaret, ‘Fortuna’, like a lot of the Desert Uplands, has suffered from reduced carrying capacity due to timber thickening in the past 100 years. “We didn’t push tree-clearing with the panel but wanted them to understand our point of view and to see the country for themselves,” she said.

“The visit was too short to show them much but it made me realise that we speak a different language and we need to spend time together to get to understand each other.”

The next stop was the shores of Lake Dunn where Bernie Dickson described how four generations of his family had made a living off ‘The Lake’. Development of less than 10% of his property to improved pasture has made a big difference in surviving droughts such as the one still gripping much of the Desert Uplands.

Bob and Lesley Marshall of ‘Swanlea’ then took the Panel to their samphire and saltbush areas around Lake Galilee. Bob described how through development of ‘Swanlea’ his family had survived several droughts without any handouts. Lesley showed the panel members how land resource mapping was now at similar standards to other parts of Queensland due to projects funded through the Desert Uplands Strategy.

The final stop for the day was Mike Price’s property ‘Marengo’. Mike has restored the property he purchased in the mid 1990s to productivity through clearing, burning and spelling. He prides himself that these improvements were entirely funded by his enterprise and the sustainable production was beneficial to the whole district. Less than half of ‘Marengo’ has been cleared with extensive shade belts of black gidgee retained.

The party then headed north to Torrens Creek and an enjoyable BBQ dinner with members of the Tower Hill - Torrens Creek Landcare Group. Panel members gave a brief presentation on their areas of expertise and roles on the Panel. There was a good discussion of catchment issues with community members, many of whom felt they had been overlooked in various natural resource management processes such as water planning. Although some of these matters were outside the role of the Panel, there was an appreciation amongst the locals that such a group had come to meet with, and listen to them.