National NRM update for June 2022. This update represents just a handful among the hundreds of NRM projects going on across Australia, which are made possible through funding from the Australian Government and from respective State governments.
In partnership with the Australian National University, the ACT Government has been developing and trialling new methods for conserving and establishing wild populations of the critically endangered Northern Corroboree Frog.
Since 2020, over 2,000 individuals have been released from the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve breeding facility to establish wild populations, with some introduced to a site within Namadgi National Park. This year’s monitoring results at the location show that they are in excellent condition and breeding. The population will continue to be monitored and there will be further releases of eggs and adult frogs into suitable habitat. Read more here.
Three Travelling Stock Reserves (TSRs) have been fenced by NSW’s Central West Local Land Services to protect the areas from illegal activity. Gum Bend Reserve on the Lachlan River at Condobolin is home to a stand of inland river Red Gum, has known significant Aboriginal Cultural Heritage sites and is an important recreational spot and was being impacted by 4WD access.
Both located near Dubbo, the Talbragar Reserve contains grassy woodland and is used by locals for fishing and recreation, while the dry sclerophyll forest at Mugga Hill Reserve has long been used by locals to ride horses and birdwatching. These sites were fenced to allow pedestrian traffic, passive recreation and reduce rubbish dumping, four-wheel driving and motorbike riding.
Territory NRM has collaborated with the Central Land Council Tjuwanpa Rangers, Traditional Owners, and the Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security to protect stands of the endangered Central Australian cabbage palm. Only found in the NT’s Finke Gorge National Park, with a few small stands on neighbouring Aboriginal Land, it is under threat from invasive grasses, bush-fire and overgrazing by feral animals.
Over six hectares of invasive grasses has been treated at a number of important palm stands through chemical spraying and manual removal. Territory NRM has supported the procurement of key equipment such as pumps and hoses for the Finke Gorge National Park Rangers. This will allow them to transport large quantities of water across the rugged landscape of Finke Gorge National Park, which will not only aid with fire control across the park, but will also facilitate greater weed control. Read more about the project here.
Victoria’s North East Catchment Management Authority (NECMA) has supported 12 Traditional Owners from the Duduroa Dhargal and Bangerang Aboriginal Corporations to complete an extensive fire training course aimed at giving them enhanced skills in wildfire suppression and controlled fuel reduction burns.
Cultural burning has been gaining traction as a tool to help Government, local authorities and private landholders deal with the threat of bushfire under a rapidly changing climate. The training provides the same formal skills as a trained volunteer firefighter, which helps to meet the insurance requirements to do cultural burning on private and public land.
This training will help continue to build the necessary relationships and trust to safely carry out Cultural Burning within National Parks, Crown Land and on private land. The Fire Safety Training Course for Traditional Owners was supported by NECMA and Trust for Nature through funding from the Australian Government.
Iona Flett (CCA NRM), Eva Knight and Clare Miller (UTAS) taking sediment core samples in the Rubicon River for chemical analysis
Cradle Coast NRM has been undertaking two projects aimed at protecting important saltmarsh ecosystems in the Circular Head and Rubicon estuary areas of northern Tasmania.
The Circular Head project is reducing the threat of the aquatic weed Rice Grass and has been working with private landholders to protect over 47 ha of good quality saltmarsh through conservation covenants. This season, 866 ha of Rice Grass was treated with a selective herbicide (that does not affect native saltmarsh species or seagrasses, quickly breaks down and has very low toxicity to marine animals). Volunteers from the Circular Head Landcare Group contributed a collective 282 volunteer hours to this effort. Rice Grass treatment at the Rubicon site covered around 555 ha.
CCA are also collaborating with a research student from the University of Tasmania to investigate the chemistry of the sediments beneath areas of Rice Grass infestation to provide insight into managing the infestation and understanding what will happen when the Rice Grass is treated.
In the heart of Queensland’s Mitchell Grass Downs north of Muttaburra, a group of interested landholders gathered to discuss the engine room of livestock production: Mitchell Grass. The forum was held on a fenceline that graphically displayed Mitchell Grass country in its natural state, in comparison to the same pastures infested with Prickly Acacia. Discussions at the field day centred around the latest control methods for Prickly Acacia, fast tracking Mitchell Grass recovery following drought or woody weed removal, and practical ways of identifying what pasture seeds exist in seed beds.
This DCQ workshop was funded under the Queensland Governments Natural Resources Investment Program. Take a look at the video from the forum here https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=565091698387357
A combined effort in South Australia from Alinytjara Wilurara, Parks SA, Co-Management, Far West Coast Aboriginal Corporation and Australian Rail Track Corporation has seen a 240km stretch of the railway line from Ooldea to Malbooma treated for invasive buffel grass.
This was the fourth buffel spraying trip this year, treating the weeds along the railway track and the Eyre highway as far as the WA border. So far this year the Alinytjara Wilurara teams have travelled more than 5000km and used 30,500 litres of water ( most of it transported on trailers) to spray thousands of buffel grass plants. This work is supported by the AW Landscape Board with funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program and Australian Rail Track Corporation.
More than 16,000 natives have been planted at about 20 properties in Tasmania’s Northern Midlands and West Tamar regions in the last few months, as efforts to create habitat for eastern barred bandicoots continue. Part of NRM North's Eastern Barred Bandicoot Project, the investment in on-ground works including revegetation and stock-exclusion fencing goes a long way to improving the condition and connectivity of habitat for eastern barred bandicoot and other native species. In the latest effort, more than 23 volunteers planted 400 seedlings along a small stream near Glengarry to enhance the existing vegetation.
Victoria’s Goulburn Broken CMA has launched the world's only livestream of platypus in their native habitat in Hamilton. Platycam was part of a wider project on the Grange Burn in Hamilton which installed habitat for the resident population of platypus in the waterway. The launch of the habitat project and livestream camera captured the attention of local, statewide and national media and is a great showcase of this waterway and biodiversity project.
Watch the platycam livestream at the link https://www.ghcma.vic.gov.au/platycam/
The project was delivered by the CMA, funded by the Victorian Government, and supported by Southern Grampians Shire Council and the Arthur Rylah Institute.
Landholders in WA’s Hotham Williams have recently completed fencing for their Numbat Neighbourhood Community Environment Grant Projects. The Peel Harvey Catchment Council have supported landholders implement stock exclusion fencing to protect over 80 ha of on-farm habitat this year. Stock degrade can degrade bushland by grazing on and trampling native vegetation, compacting the soil and spreading weed seeds. Removing stock from on-farm patches of bushland allows the vegetation to regenerate and enhances this habitat for threatened species such as numbats.
PHCC is in its fifth year of the Numbat Neighbourhood Project and to date have supported landholders to fence to protect 600ha of on farm habitat through over 50km of fencing. They will continue to support landholders to further enhance habitats through direct seedling, monitoring and habitat supplementation.
This project is supported by the Peel-Harvey Catchment Council through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program, Newmont Australia and South32 Worsley Alumina.