LandsCAPE is a magazine about the environment and sustainable living, published by Cape York Natural Resource Management. It is free to read online or download as a PDF.
Agriculture
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Over the past several months, community members in south-east Cape York have come together during five interactive workshops to develop the Cape York Reef Community Action Plan (CAP).
The workshops included community events held in Wujal Wujal, Cooktown and Hope Vale, as well as a school workshop at Endeavour Christian College and a school holiday session with young Reef enthusiasts, and were well attended by a range of community members including Traditional Owner Groups, land managers, scientists, local council members and ranger groups.
The Normanby Rangers mustered feral cattle on Normanby Station earlier this year as part of their Reef Trust IV Gully project.
It’s been an eventful month of property visits as part of the Grazing Resilience and Sustainable Solutions (GRASS) program.
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) is conducting a survey on pest animal and weed management. They are seeking assistance from owners/managers of agricultural properties to provide vital information about pest animal and weed management in Australia.
You are invited to complete the survey by 15 July 2019.
It’s been a busy time since the last edition of the Cape York Healthy Country Newsletter. The relaxed COVID- 19 travel restrictions and dry season weather has meant that we’ve been busy out on ground making up for lost time in delivery of projects. We’re continuing to respond to the challenges that COVID-19 has created, and with extra safety in place we’ve managed to get projects underway. Although it’s only September, it feels like the race to the end of the year has begun.
Cape York NRM have installed the last of three internet – enabled weather stations in Lakeland in order to provide the local producers with more reliable weather information to help them make important decisions around nutrient and water use.
Regional Extension Coordinator Oliver McConnachie, who is leading the initiative, said gathering weather information accurately at the local level and integrating it with Bureau of Meteorology data will lead to more reliable weather predictions.
The Land Condition Assessment Tool is a rapid science-based method used to score the health of grazing land from A to D.
Words Juliana Foxlee | Photo provided
Farmers across Far North Queensland are digging into a range of soils management programs to help secure their futures against changing climate conditions.
Ninda Creek is a 3567 hectare grazing property near Lakeland in southern Cape York, owned by Peter and Annette Marriott.
Some great things have been happening on the land in Cape York during 2019–2020. Projects continued to roll out across the Cape despite the disruption of COVID-19 border closures and travel restrictions.
Cape York NRM’s Sustainable Agriculture and Water Quality team supports Cape York people to enhance agricultural practices and improve the quality of fresh and marine water. The team and its partners have worked across a variety of projects during 2019–2020 including hazard reduction burns, gully remediation and streambank stabilisation.
Cape York NRM and Terrain NRM Enhanced Extension Coordination in Reef Catchments project aims to change land management practice in order to improve the water quality of the northern Great Barrier Reef.
Words Abbey Ernst and Robyn May | Photo Robyn May
2019 marks a decade of successful operation for the Paddock to Reef Integrated Monitoring, Modelling and Reporting Program (Paddock to Reef program).
It is through the Paddock to Reef program that Cape York NRM has effectively continued its work with landholders in the Normanby catchment of the Great Barrier Reef.
The day’s task is to push a lot of dirt around. The end result, however, will be a complete transformation of the landscape.
At Beefwood Park, a 102-hectare property 20 kilometres west of Lakeland, Cape York NRM has supported the land manager’s challenge of turning an eroding mass of gullies into a productive landscape.
Why? To restore the country to a healthy condition, to further the owner’s land management skills, and to keep the soil where it is supposed to be—on the land and not muddying up waterways.
Cape York NRM hosted a Soils and Weed Solutions Field Day in Cooktown on 29 February.
The hands-on event, aimed at growers and graziers, explored the latest thinking on sustainable solutions to the ongoing challenge of weed and soil management.
The event brought together members of two Cape York agriculture and grazing networks—the Endeavour and Normanby Mixed Farming and Grazing communities.
Automated sampling and new testing sites are among the latest innovations being introduced at Lakeland to improve the detail of water quality information in the local area. Cape York NRM has been working with landholders and the Department of Environment and Science to ensure real-time information on just how healthy the waterways are.
As part of this project, the Department will be installing an autosampling station, which will be maintained by Cape York NRM, on the Laura River.
Words Juliana Foxlee | Photo provided
A Cape York NRM project is asking farmers what changes should be made on their properties to support them and their businesses, and funding a number of their suggestions.
Regional Extension Coordinator Oliver McConnachie explains:
‘I’m running a project to help farmers and land managers learn from each other through regular get-togethers, meetings and workshops.
Under the shade of a tree at Pinnacle Station, graziers sat down for a conversation with Dr Geoffry Fordyce.
Welcome to our first newsletter for 2021. Some people will be glad to see the back of 2020, but there were many good things to come out of the previous 12 months. During 2020 Cape York NRM was able to restructure its operations and program support so that we are able to deliver the best on ground projects possible and we have an incredibly busy year planned for 2021. We welcome four new staff to the team and the Cooktown office is now bursting at the seams.
Words Juliana Foxlee | Photo Robyn May
Cape York NRM and Terrain NRM are working together to help farmers learn from each other and bring greater coordination to personal farming support services, also known as extension services.
Known as the Enhanced Extension Coordination project, the three - year initiative is designed
to improve coordination, collaboration and communication between extension networks and farmers within the Wet Tropics and Cape York catchment areas to increase efficiency, reduce duplication and improve environmental outcomes.
Beefing up your business was the focus of seven business workshops for graziers.
Strategic Cropping in Cape York – what is to be locked away in the draft Strategic Environmental Areas
A 2040 vision to double agricultural production
The plan represents a workable pest management program which identifies, combats and eradicates declared environmental pest plants and feral animals for Julery Pastoral. The goal of the pest management plan is to guarantee the land is managed in a sustainable way which ensures economical and environment viability.