NQ Dry Tropics Senior Project Officer Lisa Hutchinson and Whitsunday Regional Council Works Supervisor Collinsville Lindsay Mackie.

Jessie Norman, Mt Aberdeen, Meghan Blackburn, OGBR.

We value your feedback

Landholders Driving Change is a three-year project that runs to the end of August 2020. From August to December 2020, the team will collate data and results to report back to the Queensland Government.

The design of the project, including each of the five activity areas, evolved through landholder workshops and input.

The project has passed the halfway point, so I have spent the past few weeks touching base directly with all the properties in the Bowen Broken Bogie (BBB) to get feedback from landholders as to how they believe the project is progressing.

During these discussions, landholders were also given the opportunity to provide grass roots suggestions and advice on what the LDC project activity areas should target during the second half of the project. 

I was really impressed with the enthusiasm, and would like to thank everybody who participated, freely giving their time to talk with me.

Some really creative suggestions have come through, and common themes are emerging in the landholder feedback.

This feedback will help the LDC team tailor programs for maximum benefit to the grazing community, and ultimately, for the land and our water too. 

Several landholders identified weed management as being a significant issue.  One idea to help tackle the issue was to have backpackers who are travelling through the catchment and looking for work, supporting landholders to tackle weeds as part of a catchment-wide treatment plan. This is just one of many ideas that are worth exploring.

More than two-thirds of landholders representing 765,000ha of the catchment have spoken with me.  For those who haven’t had a chance to provide feedback or offer suggestions, chances are there is a message or two on your answering machines. 

Please, call me any time on 0448 629 9332 or email barbara.colls@nqdrytropics.com.au

Exevale Station graziers Darcy (left) and Buster O’Loughlin (right) discuss the reef regulations with Office of the Great Barrier Reef Director Scott Robinson and DES Principal Policy Advisor Rae Schlecht.