Support available for gully remediation action

Remediated gullies can help control water movement to stay on property to improve soil and pasture health and to reduce fine sediment from flowing into local waterways. This photo shows a remediated gully, left, and what happens without intervention at the control site, right.

Bowen Broken Bogie (BBB) catchment graziers are eligible to apply for a grant of up to $20,000 to fix problem small-scale gullies.

These projects focus on delivering a reduction of fine sediment into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. 

Sediment savings are determined using the CSIRO and Department of Resources Sediment Calculator Tool, and on-site sediment savings will be dependent on the specific actions and practices implemented. 

Graziers can undertake small-scale gullies and erosion features works that will reduce sediment loss through a range of remediation options, including:

  • rock chutes for gully head protection;
  • diversion banks and water spreading structures to control and manage water flow across paddocks at, before, or after, erosion features;
  • ripping for scald rehabilitation;
  • sediment or silt traps to slow water flow and collect sediment;
  • farm road and track works – constructing whoa boys, rehabilitation or re-siting roads;
  • repair degraded areas or preferentially-grazed area through reseeding pasture (can also require fencing or ripping); 
  • new fences to allow for control of seasonal overgrazing on re-establishing pastures; and
  • water distribution to better control grazing and improve land condition.

For further information about infrastructure options for grazing, see Land Management Actions.

A wide range of knowledge and skill-building training is available when you get involved in a project.  

We want to make the application process as straight forward as possible. 

An LDC team member will help graziers complete the application and advise on applicable remediation methods to meet the assessment criteria laid out by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

Remediated gullies can help control water movement to stay on property to improve soil and pasture health and to reduce fine sediment from flowing into local waterways. This photo shows a remediated gully, left, and what happens without intervention at the control site, right.

 

Reef regulations - grazing, standard conditions

  1. For land in good or fair condition (more than 50 per cent ground cover at 30 September), continue using measures to maintain land condition.
  2. For land in poor condition (less than 50 per cent ground cover at 30 September), steps must be taken to improve land condition.
  3. For land in degraded condition (less than 20 per cent ground cover at 30 September), steps must be taken to improve land condition OR prevent areas from further degrading or expanding.
  4. Keep records of measures taken and also of agricultural chemicals, fertiliser and mill mud or mill ash applied to land.
KEQ #8

KEQ #7
KEQ #6

KEQ #5

KEQ #4

The LDC project monitors four gully sites (represented in this table) with gold standard equipment and analysis, carried out by CSIRO.

Results have been compiled in a preliminary report from Bartley et al (2020), with the final report expected to be released by the end of 2020. The preliminary report shows all four sites have indicators of improvements, notably the Strathbogie and Mt Wickham sites.

KEQ #3

*The Exploring New Incentives activity area has provided an opportunity for graziers to adopt improved land management practices through a range of activities. For some of these properties, it was the first time they signed contracts for on-ground works.

KEQ #1

Figure 1. Total fine sediment reduction by project type and erosion source. Inset shows the proportion of the total project area for each project type.

These estimates have been calculated using two methods: 

1) The pollutant reduction component of the Alluvium/Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF) investment tool for hillslope and streambank erosion management projects; 

2) The Reef Trust Gully Toolbox method for gully erosion management projects. The LDC Water Quality Report 2020 (Waterhouse et al., 2020) highlights that a number of assumptions underlay these calculations, therefore these figures should be treated as the best available estimate of sediment reductions to date.

Preventing sediment from reaching the Great Barrier Reef

Each wet season sediment is washed into local waterways and out to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). 

Most sediment is very fine, and can stay suspended for a long time and can travel great distances. Valuable topsoil is lost from production, and increased concentrations on the reef can be harmful to seagrasses and corals. 

Landholders in the BBB have completed 69 on-ground water quality practice changes, and it is estimated that these have contributed a fine sediment reduction of 6,154 tonnes per year from reaching the GBR. 

Of this, approximately half of the sediment savings are attributable to grazing land management changes on hillslopes and streambanks, and the other half as a result of gully remediation treatments across a broad range of scales, as shown in the graphs above. 

The table below also highlights the relatively small area of intervention in the gully management projects compared to the large sediment savings that these can achieve - 60 per cent of the sediment savings over only 4 per cent of the project area.

Table 1. Estimated sediment reductions (tonnes) from projects completed in the LDC Project to date.

KEQ #2

*GLMWW = Grazing Land Management Wire and Water

Published by four titlesCirculation - 8,780

Published by four titlesCirculation - 8,780

Published by four titlesCirculation - 8, 780

 

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Published by four titlesCirculation - 8,780

 

 

 

 

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Published in The Northern MinerCirculation - 2,041