History
compiled by bob shepherd
The History of the Dalrymple Landcare Committee 30 Years 1988 – 2018
The 1980s like all decades beforehand had good and bad years. However the 1982/83 drought was the worst across Australia since the Federation Drought of 1900 to 1902. The ‘82/83 drought was severe in the Upper Burdekin country, and although followed by a few reasonable years, by 1987/88 the region was again in drought. In late 1987, one could drive from Mt Garnet to the Belyando Crossing and Townsville to Hughenden and struggle to find a paddock with any residual pasture cover – the landscape was “flogged bare”!
In January 1988 the Charters Towers branch of the Cattlemen’s Union of Australia, formed a Land Degradation Subcommittee after Bill Carter (Felspar), Peter Black (Pajingo), Gordon Landsberg (Trafalgar) and Tom Mann (Hillgrove) expressed concern about the degraded state of the grazing land in the Dalrymple Shire. Three of these four visionary men, have since passed away, except Tom Mann, but their recognition of the need for a sustainable future for the beef industry was the seed that started the ball rolling to form a local landcare committee.
After the failed 1987/88 wet season, which was worse to the north of the Flinders Highway, the Charters Towers branch of the CU with Roger Landsberg of Trafalgar as branch president, organised a Landcare Forum on the 20th June 1988. The forum at Thornburgh College was attended by 140+ people, the vast majority of whom were graziers. Professor Brian Roberts (Dean of Applied Science, USQ Toowoomba), Dr John Williams (Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Townsville) and Dr Tony Pressland (Senior Rangelands Scientist, DPI Ayr) presented science-based research findings about the degraded state of the grazing lands of the then Dalrymple Shire. Homan Industries was the major sponsor of the forum with the Dalrymple Shire Council, ANZ Bank, Selected Seeds, Felspar Pastoral Company and QDPI also contributing funds.
Local grazier Bruce Rea (Powlathanga) gave his views on long-term land and cattle management while Belyando Crossing grazier David Corr (Illamahta) provided an overview of the forum, including a mention of the formation of similar groups at Waggamba Shire (Goondiwindi) and Inglewood Shires.
Graziers at the forum voted to form the Dalrymple Landcare Committee (DLC) with only one grazier expressing opposition. Roger Landsberg (Trafalgar), David Black (Pajingo), Eugene Matthews (Blue Range), Geoff Jackson (Mountain View) and John Lyons (Wambiana) were nominated to form the DLC.
At the inaugural DLC meeting in August 1988 Roger Landsberg was elected chairman with Peter Smith (DPI Charters Towers) as secretary. At subsequent meetings in 1988, Chris Allingham (Fletcher Vale), Tony Alford (Grass Hut), Peter Black (Dalrymple Shire Council), Harry Jackson (Charters Towers City Council), Jeff Price (mining industry representative) and Bruce Lawrie (Qld Parks & Wildlife Service) joined the committee, with Richard Moneypenny (JCU) providing a lot of support with landcare submissions to government.
The DPI moved quickly to further support the DLC with additional staff appointed to Charters Towers in the fields of agricultural economics, grazing land management research and soil conservation extension. A team of four additional land resource surveyors (DPI & CSIRO) commenced a detailed four year-long soil survey of the Dalrymple Shire. This report was instigated at the request of the DLC and produced two valuable reports – “Dalrymple Shire Land Degradation Statement” and “Land Resources of the Dalrymple Shire” which have guided much of the research and extension programs, and individual property management planning ever since. Many other projects commenced or were expanded at this time, including:
· A case study-based project that showed the links between land degradation and profitability was produced by Andrew Hinton, DPI agricultural economist.
· Land management options in the semi-arid tropics published by John McIvor, CSIRO scientist.
· The effect of pasture cover on runoff and soil loss was reported by Joe Scanlan & Tony Pressland, DPI scientists.
· Salinity management in the Balfes Creek Catchment was produced by Jason Keys, DPI groundwater hydrologist.
The first priority for the DLC was increasing awareness of the land degradation challenge. A DLC logo which has endured for 30 years, was designed by Eugene Matthews from Blue Range. This features a beef animal in a natural setting of grass, trees and soil inside a raindrop (not a teardrop as someone suggested!) Newsletters were commenced as soon as the committee formed, with postage covered by Mt Leyshon Mine. Large on-property field-days were held with the support of the local DPI, Tropical Weeds Research Centre and CSIRO in Townsville, between 1989 and 1994 at:
· Wambiana (the role of ponded pastures)
· Powlathanga (management of eucalypt country
· Hillgrove (management of basalt country)
· Mt Hope (management of acacia scrub country)
· Trafalgar (managing the beef business)
· Larkspur (management of rubber vine)
The first two of these field-days attracted a Brisbane based reporter resulting in a double page coverage in the Sunday Mail. To better understand how pastures work, a series of pasture species identification workshop were held at Mingela, Fletcher Vale and Thalanga. This resulted in the DLC sponsoring the production of a glovebox guide “Is your pasture past it?” by Joe Rolfe DPI extension officer which has since been widely used across north Qld.
The first change of a Qld state government in nearly 30 years occurred during Roger Landsberg’s term as chair, but it was during Chris Allingham’s and Rob Rebgetz’s terms as DLC chairs that the committee was inundated with green papers and white papers as new legislative changes occurred. Some of these documents were 200+ pages and unreadable! This along with the very dry period from 1991 to 1995 was a difficult time for the DLC, as people were very flat at home where survival and dealing with wildfires were the priority.
To commence the next phase of addressing the land degradation challenge, donation of two drum seeders and the purchase of a crocodile seeder by the DLC provided graziers with the ability to hire this equipment at minimal cost to rehabilitate degraded land. This was enhanced by the generous subsidy of the cost of on-property land reclamation activities by the Dalrymple Shire Council using council plant and equipment. Two projects were funded in 1994/95 to control weeds under the Drought Landcare Program and Drought Regional Initiative. In conjunction with technical support from the Tropical Weeds Research Centre and administrative support from the Dalrymple Shire Council, these two projects were instrumental in many graziers starting a concerted weed management program on their properties.
The big increase in landcare activities commenced when funding became available under the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) in 1996. This allowed the DLC to recruit a new graduate, Tania Dahl as Landcare Coordinator. With some input from local DPI extension officer Bob Shepherd, Tania and her successor Marie Vitelli were instrumental in the formation of 19 local land care groups under the umbrella of the DLC. These Landcare Coordinators were prolific at writing project applications and in 2002 there were 33 projects running with a combined government contribution of $2.7M. These projects covered the shire from top to bottom. This was not a free ride for graziers, as an evaluation of the largest of these projects to fence the riparian areas in the Cape River Catchment, resulted in grazier expenditure of $3.80 for every dollar received from the federal and Qld government programs. To counter misguided public perceptions about graziers and the beef industry, Marie Vitelli ran an Urban myths project by compiling digital “Place stories” on the internet which featured four local grazier families.
During these years due to lobbying by the DLC (particularly under Colin Healing’s chairmanship) the DPI allocated $3M to the “Burdekin Rangelands to Reef Initiative”. The then Minister for Primary Industries Henry Palaszczuk went back to DPI Head Office after meeting a DLC delegation in Charters Towers and told the Deputy Director General to find $3M in the budget for this program – apparently the screams could be heard from Primary Industries Building in Ann Street to Parliament House in George Street! This was a lot of money to find in an existing departmental budget.
Approximately 60% of this funding went to continue the weed control activities across the Upper Burdekin with the support of Rural Industries Training & Extension (RITE), Tropical Weeds Research Centre and the Qld Dept of Employment to employ 16 long-term unemployed people from March to June year from 2000 to 2002. The feedback from the station owners was very good and the weed spraying workers stated that they had never had such good food or big helpings in their lives! This project was also matched at least $ for $ by the graziers. The balance of the funding was allocated to other projects in Charters Towers and in the Lower Burdekin area.
Lobbying for sensible provisions to be included in the Vegetation Management Act to allow for the mechanical reclamation of degraded land during Sue Bennetto’s time as Chair was finally successful several years later in 2013. These common sense changes have endured through subsequent legislative changes.
With the creation of regional NRM groups across Australia in the early 2000s funding began to be allocated to individual landholders rather than landholder groups, so the 19 groups in the Dalrymple Shire declined dramatically. This was a pity as many government departments, particularly DPI worked with them to deliver a wide range of extension programs. But some large on-ground works projects were still obtained during John Nicholas and June Brundell’s time as Landcare Coordinators with DLC. Due to the development of a Regional NRM plan by Burdekin Dry Tropics (later NQ Dry Tropics), these projects were more targeted to sub-catchments where high sediment loads were leaving the land and causing water quality problems downstream. Successfully implemented projects with a strong property planning and water quality focus; the initiation of the DLC’s annual City-Country Day and organising a series of “3Cs” (carbon, cattle & climate) field-days were instrumental in John Nicholas receiving the National Landcare Coordinator Award in 2010. The year before, the inaugural DLC chairman Roger Landsberg received the 2009 Landcare Australia Primary Producer of the Year Award for Qld.
The Charters Towers Bushcare Group is the only one of the local landcare groups to continue since its formation in the mid 1990s. They have established and maintained an area of softwood scrub and other native trees on the westerns side of Towers Hill in an area that was severely disturbed during the early days of mining. This is a refuge of shade and quiet; a place to sit and reflect. The project to establish this site included many Charters Towers youth groups, including scouts, school kids and people with special needs. It is a credit to a small band of dedicated town-based landcarers.
The very popular City-Country Day which is held on the last Sunday in May, has taken about 50 townspeople from Charters Towers (and in recent years Townsville) to commercial cattle stations, research stations and intensive irrigation properties in the Charters Towers region each year since 2009. This has given the urban community an in-depth understanding of how local food and produce is grown and raised in an environment that is well managed.
With the introduction of Reef Regulations, the DLC supported the Charters Towers branch of AgForce in lobbying and meeting with the then premier to adopt an extension and education approach to improving water quality leaving grazing land. The DLC obtained funding to continue with the employment of a Landcare Coordinator which under current arrangements will continue via the Qld Dept of Environment & Science to at least 2021.
The employment of Raymond Stacey as Landcare Coordinator brought a new approach as Raymond had walked the walk, not just talked the talk. Being a successful grazier in NW Qld with a track record of good land and beef business management, Raymond developed an innovative program of offering a forage budgeting service for graziers. Matching stocking rates to carrying capacity has been the mantra of DPI personnel, agricultural consultants and switched-on graziers for decades. It is one of the key means of ensuring that country goes into each wet season with adequate levels of pasture cover and that the land responds to it potential to grow pasture for the next dry season. From small numbers in the first year, the number of participating graziers has slowly grown.
The Grazing BMP program was trialled with several DLC grazier members as pilot participants during this time. Raymond also managed to obtain additional funding for weed control projects and coordinated a project with ASSG School to rehabilitate an area that used to be under a mine tailings heap, a legacy of the early gold days of Charters Towers.
Not all activities have been solely for the large commercial cattle stations, the DLC has conducted three field-days for the owners of small holdings; these were hosted by Darryl & Lenore Musk (Chesterfield), Geoffry & Linda Fordyce (Cassabella) and Michael & Linda Bethel (Leahton Park).
Kirsty McBryde the Landcare Coordinator after Raymond, continued and expanded the forage budgeting service with federal and Qld government funding via NQ Dry tropics to the point where Jamie Gordon (Mt Pleasant Collinsville) and Jane Weir (Amelia Downs) were recruited to work 1 on 1 and on-property with other graziers. Kirsty also brought the DLC into the 21st century by using social media to promote the aims and projects that were underway.
Two major chital deer control projects at a time of severe drought saw the population of this feral animal decline to very low levels. The involvement and sponsorship of the very successful Beef Industry Field-days by the DLC in recent years was also Kirsty’s initiative. The DLC revamped its mission and simplified its objectives during Kirsty’s time as Landcare Coordinator. The mission is “Advocating sustainable, profitable agriculture by fostering innovation, sharing ideas and increasing knowledge throughout the north Qld Region.” The DLC objectives are to: improve the environment, increase the resilience of people and businesses, strengthen the community and foster innovation.”
With a strong environmental background and PhD to match, Helene Aubault the next Landcare Coordinator, was successful in having several environmental projects approved including the rehabilitation of the Big Bend Reserve which will be run in conjunction with the Charters Towers Regional Council; how grazing BMP can enhance wildlife on-property and the use of a hand held NDVI instrument to determine pasture quality and yield. Helene managed several other projects that were still running such as the chital deer work, pasture budgeting and the annual City-Country Day at Margaret Creek on the coast near Giru.
Heather Jonsson, who was recently appointed to the Landcare Coordinator’s position, brings strong social media skills to the role. Heather was runner up at the 2018 Qld Strong Women Leadership Awards for her “Bindis n Bulldust” podcasts. Heather is continuing the management of six existing and newly approved DLC projects – particularly the forage budgeting project that has been funded for three years. A third grazier Alistair Costello (Fanning Downs) will work with Jamie Gordon and Jane Weir to provide this service. A field-day at a black basalt rehabilitation site on Basalt River station site is a possibility for 2019.
DLC meetings have been hosted on numerous cattle properties over the years, plus the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville Field Training Area, Mt Leyshon & Pajingo Mines and the Tropical Weeds Research Centre. The range of interesting and stimulating guest speakers has been impressive, however the standout for consistency and presenting new science at most meetings was in our own back yard – the scientists at the Tropical Weeds Research Centre in Charters Towers, from Dr Bruce Wilson to Dr Shane Campbell, Dr Jim Mitchell and Dr Wayne Vogler and others. Their science has been relevant and highly useful in the fight against weeds and vertebrate pests.
A strong emphasis on training has been a highlight of the DLC over the 30 years. This has included, ag chemical application licences, GPS & Computer mapping workshops with AgForce & NQ Dry Tropics, Business EDGE, “The Right Mind” and the use of Google Earth to name a few. Publicity via mass media, the annual Charters Towers Show and more recently via social media, has been pursued by the DLC since its inception in 1988. Support from the local Northern Miner has always been available to get the landcare message out.
There have been many mutually beneficial partnerships over the 30 years including the Charters Towers Regional Council (and its predecessors), Tropical Weeds Research Centre, AgForce (and its predecessors), NQ Dry Tropics (and its predecessors), TropWater at JCU, CSIRO, QDPI/DAFQ, RCS, all the schools in Charters Towers & region and the GBRMPA. The DLC has maintained a position on the NQ Dry Tropics board with Peter Bahr (Greenvale Station), Noelene Ferguson (Cardigan) and Julia Broad (Low Holm) fulfilling this role.
The last word on the history if the DLC must go to the people who have capably taken on the executive positions, particularly the Chairpersons – Roger Landsberg (1988 – 90), Chris Allingham (1991 – 93), Rob Rebgetz (1994 – 96); Colin Healing (1997 – 01), Shane Meteyard (2002 – 04), Sue Bennetto (2005 – 07), Phil Cook (2008 – 10), Paul De Wiljes (2011) and current chair Doug O’Neill (2012 – 18); and the three secretaries and five treasurers that supported them. The nine people who accepted the role of chairperson each brought their own management style and priorities to the DLC and have each left a legacy of achievement. They say that a busy person is the best to ask to take on greater responsibilities; has been very much the case with the current and longest serving DLC Chair Doug O’Neill. The O’Neill family has weathered the drought like many other families, but Doug has remained a passionate supporter of the DLC, despite having important roles on several other community groups. The vice-chair Michael Penna, long serving treasurer Ernest Bassingthwaite and secretary Bob Shepherd round out the current DLC executive.
(Compiled and written for the DLC’s 30 year celebration in November 2018)