Land & environment

Gingin council went behind closed doors this week to consider entering a deed of agreement relating to Lot 601 Brockman St, which is prime land with residential, town centre and parks and recreation reserve zonings. What proposal was put forward by the applicant Acumen Development Solutions for the 17.7ha lot owned by George Gifford has not been made public but after the confidential session the shire said the councillors had given in-principle support for what had been proposed in relation to public open space.

Two South-East Queensland councils are joining forces in their fight against Fireweed, as the invasive pest carpets their regions. Adding to the regular treatments to the councils’ roads and reserves, Somerset Regional Council and Lockyer Valley Regional Council are banding together, actively encouraging landholders to identify and treat Fireweed on their property to reduce its spread.

Overcast skies and cold dismal weather did not deter the public from celebrating Narrandera’s free-ranging koalas at the inaugural Koala Festival on Saturday. The indoor/outdoor event was held at the Narrandera Showground with families arriving en mass to participate in the festivities, all of which were free, courtesy of a NSW Government grant. Almost 1000 festival-goers attended the event.

I was unexpectedly, and in the end pleasantly, surprised to find a story that is as much about 1950s and 1960s Australia as it is about one young woman’s experiences. It is the north-west Western Australia of Aboriginal missions, of cultural clashes, of extremes in temperature and of distance, of hardships tempered by moments of joy, of connections made and still treasured more than half a century later.

After the release of OBE Organic's Sustainability Report 2022 earlier this year, Australian Rural & Regional News found out a little more about what's involved in farming organic beef in the vast Channel Country and how it came to be Australia's oldest organic beef company from OBE Organic's Managing Director, Dalene Wray.

During the next few months, many Queensland property owners will be conducting hazard reduction burns to reduce the fuel load to minimise the risk to their properties ahead of fire season ... “In my roles, both with Ergon Energy and also as a volunteer rural firefighter I get to see a lot of examples where fire and electrical assets don’t mix”: Ergon Energy Group Leader, Craig Maddy.

The flowers are blooming and the birds are chirping as we experience a green (and rather wet) start to spring here in the Central Downs. With the end of September fast approaching, if you are yet to do so there is still time to see the colourful flower arrays in Laurel Bank Park, Queens Park and elsewhere in the city.

Farmers in the state’s south say water authorities are failing to prepare for severe flood risks in the Murray Valley as La Nina conditions threaten to fill major dams and rivers. NSW Farmers Conservation and Resource Management Committee chair Louise Burge said while authorities may not be able to prevent all risks of flooding this year, they should “absolutely” avoid making flooding conditions even more extreme.

Motorists are urged to take care on the roads, particularly at dawn and dusk, following a horror spate of koala deaths and injuries so far this active season. Since mid-July,  at least 30 koalas have been reported to have been hit by cars or attacked by dogs across the Northern Rivers.

After hovering around 99% capacity for 4 weeks, the largest water storage in the Murray–Darling Basin is expected to be flowing over the spillway tomorrow thanks to inflows from last weekend's rain. MDBA Senior Director of River Management, Joe Davis said water would begin flowing over the Dartmouth Dam spillway at low rates and contribute minor flows to the Mitta Mitta River downstream, with water also still being released through the valves at the base of the dam.

Victorian citizen scientists are helping to keep our waterways clean and healthy with an innovative new program using insects to stop nutrient run-off from farms ... The breeding program was established 12 months ago and includes a network of 16 dung beetle ‘nurseries’ on Landcare and farming properties in the Macedon Ranges, Nillumbik Shire, Western Port and the Mornington  Peninsula.

Growers and graziers are angry their livelihoods could be placed at risk after the state government said it was reviewing the future of the Cape York Biosecurity Centre. “They should be looking at opening it 24 hours, not shutting it down”: Merluna Station’s Cameron MacLean ... “It’s absolute insanity if they close it. It would be madness”: Warren Entsch, Member for Leichhardt.

A pilot program in Mapoon has implemented climate-resilient drinking water technology. The council has partnered with Source Global to deliver a resilient, sustainable, and off-grid drinking water solution for locals. Ten hydropanels were installed behind the new cultural centre to make clean, safe drinking water.

Tiny solar-powered, satellite backpacks are tracking one of Australia’s rarest bird species after they were released for only the second time ever in NSW as part of a conservation effort between the NSW, SA and Victorian Governments. Fifteen critically endangered Plains-wanderers have been released into Oolambeyan National Park in the NSW Riverina, which was protected in perpetuity in 2002 due to its high conservation value in protecting critical habitat for the Plains-wanderer.

‘The NSW Coalition and the Shooters Fishers Farmers Party have condemned the Darling/Baaka to longer periods of dry riverbed with stagnant slimy pools. This decline in river health started when floodplain harvesting exploded upstream during the 1990’s. The NSW Government has rewarded decades of unsustainable and unregulated water use with new licences while conducting no assessment of the downstream impacts on Darling/Baaka communities, native fish populations, groundwater recharge and important wetland areas’: Brian Stevens, spokesperson for Inland Rivers Network.

New fishery management arrangements for Spanish mackerel will be introduced from October this year, helping to restore depleted stocks and protect good jobs in the fishing industry for generations to come. The changes will mean two three-week closed seasons in waters off the state’s north starting in October 2022, and two three-week closed seasons in southern waters starting in February 2023.

Health leaders gathered on 16 September for an emergency health summit in Lismore to urge the State and Federal Governments to immediately support healthcare services in the region ... “It’s been more than six months since the floods devastated the region and many healthcare service providers have yet to recover”: AMA President, Professor Steve Robson.

Botanists have stumbled across a new and unexplored field of carnivorous plants along with multiple new species of the animal-eating flora at the remote Charnley River-Artesian Range Wildlife Sanctuary in the Kimberley. The new site, aptly named Sundew Spring, was discovered by Curtin University PhD candidate and botanist Thilo Krueger, his academic co-supervisor Dr Andreas Fleischmann and Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) Wildlife Ecologist Dr Tom Sayers while conducting research at the AWC managed sanctuary.  

Logging contractors in Central and West Gippsland with virtually no work, a large mill in Orbost running out of log supply, while a new poll shows Victorians overwhelmingly support home grown timber for housing. Welcome to the paradox and crisis facing Victoria’s forest industry; the native forest sector, largely based in Gippsland, is at a virtual standstill due to legal action by environmentalists and decisions by the Supreme Court, as demand for native hardwood because of its beauty, strength and durability remains high.

An entrancing, informative book filled with answers to many of the common questions we ask about birds and their lives. For thousands of years birds have fascinated us. We've observed what they do - their behaviours, their characteristics, their survival skills, the food they eat and their habitats - and wondered why they do it.

Kate Foran. How many people get to say “I tickled the toes of an echidna at work today”? Local neighbouring households recently observed an echidna burrowing around their back yards ... Echidnas are tricky creatures to pick up, digging their spikes into the surrounding dirt and anchoring themselves solidly to the ground, to protect their soft underbelly.