Words and photo Jessie Price-Decle

Late season fires can destroy habitat, threaten property and livestock, and scorch groundcover leaving country vulnerable to erosion. Fighting fires is also a significant drain on people’s time and resources.

Words Jessie Price-Decle and Juliana Foxlee | Photo Jessie Price-Decle

The three-year project saw graziers make changes to their land and grazing practices to improve land condition and water quality outcomes.

The project team, made up of Cape York NRM, South Cape York Catchments, and Department of Agriculture and Fisheries staff, worked across 20 properties over the life of the project.

South Cape York Catchments Grazing Project Officer Jessie Price-Decle said the project made a difference to water quality and land condition.

Words and photo Robyn May

Many of these women have never taken a day, let alone three days, away from their roles as land managers, mothers, wives, teachers, accountants and the rest, to focus on themselves.

Some of the women attending have overcome or are still experiencing seemingly insurmountable challenges during their lives on the land. Outside their comfort zone, many shared their stories in the comfort of others who understand.

Words Juliana Foxlee | Photo James Donaldson

Cape York NRM is partnering with Northern Gulf Resource Management Group to facilitate opportunities for Australian Indigenous people to showcase and share their cultural fire knowledge, establish a network of Indigenous fire practitioners and protect the habitat of threatened species.

In May, Northern Gulf RMG coordinated an on- country fire workshop at Talaroo Station in the northern Gulf area. The three - day event was hosted by the Ewamian Aboriginal Corporation.

‘This project aims to substantially reduce the amount of sediment flowing into the Normanby, and as a result, improve water quality in the Northern Great Barrier Reef,’

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.

Normanby catchment ‘Peer to Peer Grazing Group’ activities may have stalled during the coronavirus travel restriction period, but its Focus Farm initiative is going strong.

The Focus Farm initiative aims to assist land managers to achieve their goals with the assistance of a peer support group of farmers, and specialist service providers.

Cape York NRM will commence consultation on the revised Cape York Regional NRM Plan in March–April 2021.

You may be asking yourself, why is the plan important and why should I be involved?

The challenge on Cape York is the enormous diversity of views, and often conflicting views, on what is important from a natural resource perspective.

People of Cape York all have their own plans for Country, some based on thousands of years of cultural occupation and obligation, some with newer aspirations on economic development.

Ninda Creek is a 3567 hectare grazing property near Lakeland in southern Cape York, owned by Peter and Annette Marriott.

There are positive outcomes to carbon farming in addition to emissions avoided or carbon stored.