Landscape remediation update | Landholders Driving Change

LANDSCAPE REMEDIATION

SMALL-SCALE GULLIES

If you have gullies encroaching on your:

high quality native pasture areas;
creek frontages and riparian corridors;
existing fencing; or
access tracks,

CALL US!

BBB landholders are eligible to apply for a grant of up to $20,000 to fix problem gullies.

Gully projects will focus on implementing best management erosion and sediment control techniques.

Technical experts are available to visit properties and conduct assessments to determine the most appropriate on-ground solutions. They can work alongside landholders to design and deliver treatments that fit in with existing planning, using local contractors where possible.

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.

These videos produced by NRM group Fitzroy Basin Association (FBA) provide an excellent overview about the factors that influence gully erosion, and property planning for gully erosion prevention.

Gully erosion on your property: Part 1.
Gully erosion on your property: Part 2.

Get in touch with one of LDC’s team members, contact details below.

GBRF funding to build on LDC achievements

NQ Dry Tropics has secured a $5 million funding boost to build on and continue the efforts of the LDC project.

The funding comes through the Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s partnership with the Australian Government’s Reef Trust.

The financial injection is supporting a sediment reduction program to improve water quality in the BBB catchment by delivering:

Accelerated grazing support (extension) to encourage adoption of improved land management practices; and
Large and small-scale gully remediation.

The three year project runs from December 2020 to November 2023.

Focus on problem gullies

Problem gullies are the focus of LDC’s Landscape Remediation activity area.

The LDC project team is keen to assess problem gullies in the BBB – large and small. The aim is to remediate actively eroding gullies to reduce sediment in the water that flows into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.

The criteria for choosing remediation sites the amount of sediment that potentially can be prevented from entering local waterways.

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

These projects will focus on implementing best management erosion and sediment control techniques.

LARGE-SCALE GULLIES

A large-scale gully at Havilah Station… there will be a series of three field days (the first is on 14 December) at Havilah Station to explain the causes, remedies and ongoing treatments for gullies.

Large gully repair will benefit two properties

Through LDC’s Landscape Remediation activity area, Havilah Station is being used as a site to showcase large-scale gully remediation techniques to restore eroding gullies.

It’s LDC’s fifth large-scale gully remediation site, and works are expected to start in 2022.

This photo shows down wearing in the gully during the 2020-2021 wet season. Down wearing is where the ground level lowers and the slope decreases due to a combination of downhill soil creep, rain splash and sheet wash.

The Havilah gully site has been selected as a priority project, based on the work completed by the Griffith University project team as part of the LDC project to characterise and prioritise gully remediation across the BBB catchment.

The works consist of two main gully systems within the gully site and bounded by a proposed fenced area about 1800m long (west-east) and 650m wide (north-south). A proposed 5km fence boundary will enclose 110ha of the revegetation plan.

The majority of the site is on Havilah Station, with a portion to the east on Gattonvale Station.

This partnership between the two properties will mean the effort on one property to halt the gully expansion will be of benefit to both. The technical designs have been prepared by engineering firms Alluvium and Veterra, and Veterra will project-manage the works. Local contractors will carry out the work.

Three field days

Three field days will be held on site at Havilah Station (pictured, left) during the next 12 months so graziers can see how a large-scale gully is remediated.

The field days will be: Before and After the Wet season and the third will be Post-Remediation.

The first field event is on 14 December. Click here for the details.

LANDSCAPE REHYDRATION

Weetalaba Station – LDC’s third landscape rehydration site

The LDC project and The Mulloon Institute is teaming up again to roll out LDC’s third landscape rehydration site.

The Mulloon Institute is designing a cost-effective way to address an erosion hotspot on Weetalaba Station to help hold and keep water on the property.

The long-term benefits of the works will include increased water infiltration, healthier soils, more diverse pastures, increased grazing capacity, reduced erosion, and improved water quality.

The erosion site that is being treated is an active alluvial fan that has incised and cut a shortened path to nearby Rosella Creek. Large active black soil gullies from overland water flows are now dropping into the feature.

The interventions will spread water across the landscape, increase inundation and infiltration across the plain, increase deposition of sediments, and slow subsurface moisture movements.

A grazing management plan will be implemented to combat erosion and to improve landscape function, specifically ground cover.