Land & environment

Scenic Rim Regional Council is appealing to Tamborine Mountain residents to stop feeding and interacting with wild dogs, which are becoming a problem to the local community. As well as being illegal under the Biosecurity Act 2014, feeding wild dogs and encouraging them into community spaces poses a threat to residents, their pets and other wildlife by increasing the risk of attacks.

Landline’s segment about koalas last Sunday, "Need for Trees: Charity plants half-a-million trees to help save koalas" would have been better directed at the need for common sense. It referred to the preordained finding from the NSW Inquiry in 2020 that koalas were headed for extinction by 2050. This finding was ridiculous because koalas were invisible when Europeans arrived. Now there are many more koalas over a much wider area ... ARR.News asked a few questions of Vic too.

The future of Australia’s koalas is being reshaped in Port Stephens, with groundbreaking, world-leading research now underway at the Port Stephens Koala Hospital ... the investment is powering a three-year research program that will study a cohort of 100 koalas using advanced diagnostic technology – including CT, X-Ray, ultrasound and qPCR blood analysis.

The first of the migrating humpback whales have been spotted off the Central Coast but the best is still to come, says Marine Mammal Specialist with Marine Wildlife Rescue Central Coast Ronny Ling ... "The first whales to start travelling are the juvenile males, then the pregnant ones and the mothers with calves from the last few years. The big breeding males then leave and are the fastest travellers."

This year’s projected opening allocation for South Australian River Murray water users has reinforced the importance of a healthy and flowing Basin – and ensuring parties representing River communities put local interests ahead of upstream states.

Greater Shepparton City Council is intensifying its advocacy and engagement efforts to ensure local community and industry voices are heard as part of the Murray Darling Basin Plan (MDBP) review, with public submissions closing on 1 May 2026. As part of its water advocacy program, Council is undertaking targeted engagement activities to encourage community and stakeholder participation in the review process...

Sebastian Calderon. Riverland farmers are being urged to look closely at South Australia's newly opened drought loan scheme, with Riverland Lending Services agribusiness (RLS) senior manager Jeff McDonald warning the concessional finance could bring both short term relief and long-term complications.

A new machine designed and exhaustively tested at a field-scale over 15 years and 32 sites in Western Australia, Queensland and Pakistan has been shown to increase crop yields by 25 per cent, on average (range 10 to 40 per cent).

Caitlin Menadue. Algal bloom levels are shifting along northern Yorke Peninsula, with concerns growing for local marine life — including the region's well-known stingrays. Recent footage captured in Moonta Bay showed a large fever of rays moving through shallow waters late last month, with locals suggesting they may be trying to escape the bloom.

A lizard known to Wiimpatja Aboriginal Owners as Kungaka “the Hidden One” has been formally described as a new species, acknowledged in research published today in Zootaxa. With fewer than 20 individuals of the species known to exist, the Kungaka is also now one of Australia's most threatened reptiles.

Miriam Torzillo. Just when we thought the Reconstruction Authority (RA) had got the message that the Big Scrub homes should be deconstructed, salvaged or relocated, reports are coming in from residents about the ramping up of demolition in Lismore. Locals have been recording the destruction and sharing it on social media. The community is not happy.

On today's No Drama Farmer with James Blundell and Carzo......... Fiona L Fox (ARR.News) talks about potentially turning Canola to Diesel, plus some other potential fuel sources...

Allora’s picturesque trees in Herbert Street attracted this chattering of noisy but beautiful Rainbow Lorikeets to feast on the mass of seeds that drop onto the footpath for easy picking.

The Nationals Member for Euroa, Annabelle Cleeland, has slammed the Allan Labor Government after it was revealed a key review into Victoria’s 2026 bushfires will be delayed until after the November state election. Despite the scale of the disaster, which claimed a life, destroyed hundreds of homes and burnt vast areas of land, Inspector-General for Emergency Management Emily Phillips has confirmed the review has not yet commenced.

The recent Snow Gum Summit in Jindabyne has drawn attention to the health of this notable tree of the Australian alps. The causes or primary cause of widespread snow gum decline, with a particular focus on fire regimes, climate change and insects, and the appropriate response to this problem, are the subject of a considered exchange of differing views here between two experts from different generations but not entirely different schools or schools of thought.

In CFA's 75th year supporting the Good Friday Appeal, the generosity of Victorians right across the state has exceeded expectations, helping us raise an incredible $2,150,000 for The Royal Children's Hospital. Once again, CFA volunteers were out in force both on their fire trucks and on foot, making their way around local streets rattling tins all morning to raise vital funds in their communities for a much-loved and well-respected cause.

They may look cute and cuddly, but these highly trained sniffer dogs mean business. Fire ant odour detection dogs and their handlers were mobilised in the Lockyer Valley last month to search for the highly invasive pest.

Patricia Gill. Bernard Wong hopes to inspire a shared custodial ownership of the submarine world at Greens Pool. "When people have a strong, intimate connection with a place, they will work hard to look after it," he says. Since 1990 he has observed the movement of rays and their flotilla of cleaner fish, giant blue groper, camouflaged wobbegongs, conspiring old wives and much more submerged among the granite pillars.

A forum highlighting the negative impacts of the basin plan on rural communities was held in Barham recently – hundreds were in attendance or have watched the forum online. Southern Riverina Irrigators (SRI) joined the Central Murray Environmental Floodplain Group, The Bridge Newspaper and Upper Goulburn Catchment Alliance to organise the event which included a variety of speakers across industry, science and agriculture.

Regional Cities New South Wales (RCNSW) says the Minns Government’s final Budget before the election is a defining moment to address the growing inequity facing regional communities, inequity now being accelerated by the growing national fuel crisis ... RCNSW’s 2026–27 Pre-Budget Submission highlights a widening gap between rapid regional population growth and the infrastructure needed to support it.

The first major project unveiled by the Australasian Space Innovation Institute, the National Digital Twin for Australian Agriculture holds immense potential for the agricultural industry to harness existing national datasets and observation systems to model scenarios, test options and inform discussions and decisions, including at scale. Australian Rural & Regional News found out a good deal through an in depth interview with Andrew Beveridge, Director of the National Digital Twin for Australian Agriculture.