Land & environment

A major expansion of the Gippsland Water’s Regional Organics facility will increase capacity to turn food and garden organics into high-quality compost to boost the productivity of Victorian farms thanks to the Allan Labor and Albanese Labor Government. Minister for Environment Steve Dimopoulus announced the completion of a $12.9 million upgrade to the Gippsland Regional Organics Facility...

The Murray–Darling Basin Authority’s 2025 assurance report on the Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism (SDLAM) has found that significant work remains to deliver a number of outstanding SDLAM projects, and many projects will not be delivered in time or at all. The SDLAM has a strict deadline of 31 December 2026 under the Basin Plan, and for any projects to be counted they must be complete and operational.

The Victorian Farmers Federation has welcomed the Victorian Government’s decision to freeze the Emergency Services Volunteer Levy for a further 2 years and increase the property value threshold for volunteer exemptions from $5m to $10m.

The owner-operator of the Union Hill Gold Mine and nearby gold processing plant, Kaiser Reef Ltd, held an information session for Maldon residents ... to advise of current and future works planned for its Maldon sites. ... Kaiser Reef Ltd, which is listed on the ASX, has operated in Maldon since 2021 after an acquisition agreement with Golden River Resources Pty Ltd.

The Cook Government’s demersal “reform” package is not fisheries management. It’s fishing for votes at the expense of the two and a half million West Aussies who never step onto a sports-fishing boat loaded with the latest eco sounders. And, like most of this Government’s environmental crusades, the rhetoric is heroic, the delivery is sloppy, and the consequences fall squarely on the people who don’t have a big boat parked in their driveway.

Leader of The Nationals WA Shane Love MLA has called out the Cook Labor Government for its failure to provide clear answers or decisive action following revelations that asbestos has been discovered in the lift brake pads of wind turbines imported into Australia from China.

OzFish, Australia’s only fish habitat restoration charity, is set to launch the nation’s first dedicated River Repair Boat at a special public event at Faulks Reserve Boat Ramp, Ballina, at 3 pm on Friday, 5 December 2025.

Organisations with emergency management responsibilities must be capable of preparing and managing severe to catastrophic disasters. Practice Note 3: Capability maturity: assessments and targets for severe to catastrophic disasters presents a capability assessment tool that organisations can use to assess their capability maturity to adequately prepare for and manage severe to catastrophic disasters.

Carey Brennan. District farmers are resolute in their intention to deny access to Vicgrid and TCV employees trying to access their privately owned farm land along the VNI West 500 KV transmission line corridor. In the last two weeks, TCV badged employees have asked landowners for permission to enter farmland at Bungaluke, Glenloth, Teddywaddy, Wooroonook, Greens Creek, Wallaloo, Gre Gre and Normanville. All claim the right to access under Section 93 of the Essential Services Act but they are still required to have landowner permission to enter.

Farmers have warned the state’s national parks have become ticking time bombs for bushfires this summer. As authorities continued to confiscate large swathes of land to form national parks, NSW Farmers’ President Xavier Martin said vital resources to properly manage bushfire risks on public land had failed to follow.

Big, healthy eucalypt trees in Roe Creek are falling victim to sand mining, according to two members of the public who have contacted the Alice Springs News. The mines are either side of the Temple Bar Gap, south of the Ilparpa Road.

Rock lobsters are active now in waters off Two Rocks with the annual whites run expected to ramp up any day now. Earlier this week Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) scientists predicted the annual whites run of three-and-a-half to four-year-old western rock lobsters would occur at the usual time from about Friday, November 28.

Mine Free Glenaladale ... A spokesperson for Mine Free Glenaladale, Ms Robyn Grant, said she was surprised at Mr Harrington’s comments ... “He is simply parroting the same unscientific misinformation and spin that the community has been asked to swallow for the past 12 months, as the failed Kalbar project is rescoped."

Hamish McIntyre. Farmers have been left bitterly disappointed by the deal between the Government and the Greens on environmental reform ... the NFF has supported genuine reform, but not this deal. Our key concern is the announcement of ‘closer controls’ of ‘high risk land clearing’. The specifics of this remain unclear, and we are urgently calling for clarity.

The Murray–Darling Basin is virtually certain to become hotter, rainfall likely to become more variable, and droughts very likely to become more frequent and severe, a new publication from the Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) has found. The MDBA ... released the 2025 Murray–Darling Basin Outlook — a forward-looking assessment...

The world’s farms could become one of the most powerful tools in the fight against climate change according to a new international study led by QUT. Published in Plant Physiology, the paper lays out a framework to assess how plant agriculture and synthetic biology innovations can help mitigate climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon storage.

A concerned conversation on flies spoiling glasses of Chardonnay in WA’s world-renowned Margaret River wine region has unexpectedly inspired a ground-breaking soil health project hundreds of kilometres away - and the results are already reshaping how WA’s wheatbelt landholders/farmers manage their landscapes.

In the David vs Goliath battle of farmers and industrial renewables, Colin Fenton didn't mince his words in a showdown with a Transmission Company Victoria attempting to gain access to the family's 102-year family farming legacy at Dingwell. "We've been through wars, floods and fire, by hell we're a bloody resilient group," stated Colin, who, in his 80s, stood firm with his wife Mary and a group of supporters, who had rushed to their side for one of two attempted property entries this week.

Western Australians love two things: arguing about politics and arguing about fishing — and not necessarily in that order ...