This update represents just a handful of NRM projects among hundreds across Australia, which are made possible through funding from the Australian Government, state governments and others.
Addressing the social impact of drought – South West NRM, Western Australia
South West NRM Manager, Sustainable Agriculture, Peter Clifton is establishing the Community Resilience Network with community leaders and volunteers from a broad range of sectors across six South West shires to champion drought resilience and support services.
South West NRM recently convened the first workshop in a series of six designed to improve capability and collaboration between organisations and groups to meet the socio-economic impact of drought on communities.
Dr Leanne Lester, Centre for Social Impact, University of WA, Research Lead presented findings from the report ‘Understanding the social impacts of drought’ and said, “Drought is not just about a lack of precipitation, but a socio-economic phenomenon.”
According to the South West Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub, drought months in the South West are expected to increase by up to 80 per cent in the next 50 years.
Read the full story here.
Koalas calling out for love – Local Land Services; Central Tablelands, New South Wales
While the guttural bellow of a male koala might not be a sonnet to all ears, it does make them easy to detect, according to Central Tablelands Land Services Officer, Mark Thomas. Around spring, male koalas call to attract females and ward off rivals, making recording male koalas a good way to establish if koalas are in the area.
Working with the NSW Koala Strategy team, LLS officers strategically placed 50 acoustic songmeters around Mount Rockley, south of Bathurst, for 14 nights during spring to record the calls. “The results have been excellent with koalas being detected in areas they had not been seen or heard for many years” Mark said. “It’s great to get a scientific approach to monitor the numbers so we can see if the koala population is increasing or decreasing over time.”.
Read the full story here
Pasture improvements help productivity and the Reef – Terrain NRM, Queensland
Minnamoolka Station, at the headwaters of the Herbert and Burdekin rivers, is undergoing changes to improve cattle production, reduce erosion, and improve the quality of water flowing into the Great Barrier Reef. With support from Terrain NRM, the property’s 28 paddocks will be cut into 60, enabling a switch from set stocking to rotational grazing of smaller paddocks for shorter, more intense periods.
“We’re aiming for better ground cover through the changes we’re making, and that should lead to less topsoil movement in the wet season. Prevention is always better than a cure.” say landholders Margie Atkinson and Greg Jenkins
Terrain NRM project coordinator Duncan Buckle agrees. “Fine-tuning grazing management practices is a big part of the project. Making the land more resilient is the key to reducing erosion in this catchment, which is one of the five highest contributors of fine sediment to the Great Barrier Reef.”
Read the full story here.
Designing culverts for crayfish – NRM North, Tasmania
The NRM North Biodiversity team have recently wrapped up the Giant Freshwater Crayfish Project ,which engaged landholders located within priority stream reaches of the Pipers, Brid and Boobyalla catchments to co-invest in on-ground habitat restoration. The project aimed to reduce threats to the Giant Freshwater Crayfish with livestock exclusion fencing, controlling riverbank weeds, native riverbank revegetation and providing alternative livestock water sources. Community volunteers were involved in habitat planting days and a citizen science program.
Endemic to northern Tasmania and capable of growing over 80cm long and weighing up to 6kgs, the Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish (Astacopsis gouldi) is the largest freshwater invertebrate in the world.
Read more about this initiative and the overall Project. Watch: Recovering Tasmania's Giant Freshwater Crayfish
Wetland to begin drying phase – Murraylands and Riverland Landscapes Board, South Australia
As part of the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board’s Wetlands Program, the permanent lagoon at Martin Bend has been temporarily disconnected from the river in order to start an essential wetland drying phase.
The installation of locks and weirs has significantly altered the natural ebb and flow of water into the river’s wetlands and floodplains, however the drying phase is critical for wetland health.
“Drying is an important part of improving the ecological condition of the lagoon. It allows the wetland bed soils to consolidate, and gives vegetation the opportunity to expand on the newly exposed wetland bed. The drying phase sets up the wetland to flourish with productivity once it’s refilled” said Annie Kriesl, Wetlands Project Officer with the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board.
Read the full story here.
Seawall builds climate resilience – Torres Strait Regional Authority, Queensland
A one-kilometre-long seawall has provided a boost for climate resilience in the Torres Strait community of Poruma (Coconut Island). The $5 million wall will assist the Torres Strait community in mitigating coastal inundation and erosion on the low-lying coral cay island.
Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) Chairperson Napau Pedro Stephen AM said “This is a critical climate initiative for our region, with sea levels rising at about three times the rate of the global average in the Torres Strait.”
Read the full story here.
Discovering Powlett’s aquatic life – West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority, Victoria
The Powlett River Kugerungmome Partnerships project is a joint initiative led by West Gippsland CMA which aims to identify the values and reduce the impact of threats to the area including weeds, pest animals and poor livestock management practices to climate change.
The Powlett River and its six main tributaries has been identified as a priority area in the West Gippsland Regional Catchment Strategy (RCS). The Powlett River terminates into Bass Strait in an intermittently closed estuary system, which is listed as a Nationally Important Wetland in Victoria due to its diverse range of birds, plants, and fish communities, including many listed threatened and endangered species. It also has extensive saltmarsh and wetland communities and high cultural heritage values.
The results from the spring survey of aquatic life across the Powlett catchment area will provide the baseline data for the project.
“Whilst the catchment lies entirely within agricultural land, it was heartening to discover healthy fish populations in some of the waterways,” said Paula Camenzuli, Natural Resource Management Strategic Planner for West Gippsland CMA.
Read more here.
2023 turtle predation down – Cape York NRM, Queensland
The Western Cape Turtle Threat Abatement Alliance (WCTTAA), established with the backing of Cape York NRM, have monitored more than 5000 turtle nests during the 2023 season along the western Cape York Peninsula. On average, only 11-12 per cent have been damaged by predators.
WCTTAA is a partnership of six on-ground Indigenous land and sea owners and managers setup to safeguard turtle nest eggs and hatchlings. Rangers use purpose-built, cages which are installed over nests to prevent feral animals, such as wild pigs, from attacking the eggs.
Cape York NRM’s WCTTAA Coordinator, Dr Manuela Fischer said “Apart from keeping turtle nest predation to a sustainable number of under 30 per cent… we set up a new data collection system, NESTOR, to improve the accuracy of nest monitoring… [and] also trialled a method of checking and reducing nest temperature, which, because of climate change, has been increasing. From the preliminary findings, we are seeing amazing results, so we will be conducting the official study this year, on a broader scale.”
Read the full story here.