Land & environment

Lismore City Council has delivered a $7 million wastewater project, unlocking development opportunity for up to 600 new housing lots in Goonellabah. Completed in partnership with BASEC Engineering, DGP Water and Ledonne Constructions, the Pineapple Road Sewerage Scheme involved the installation of a new pump station and over four kilometres of pipeline, creating 30 local jobs.

In a mission to develop a long-term sustainability program for the Rubus Berry industry, Hort Innovation and Lifecycles are embarking on a Life cycle assessment (LCA) project aimed at generating comprehensive information and metrics about the environmental performance of raspberry and blackberry production in Australia.

During floods and fires not being able to communicate is scary and dangerous ... A new fleet of technology from the State Government will help communities be more prepared for disasters and better able to respond to bushfires, floods and other severe weather events.

Demersal fishing is back on in the West Coast bioregion with fishing for species like WA dhufish and pink snapper permitted from September 16 to October 14. The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) said from Augusta through to Kalbarri, demersal fishing from boats is allowed in three open seasons throughout the year as part of a management strategy...

Cattle Australia (CA) has launched its Land Management Commitment (LMC) strategic policy, which emphasises the primacy of agricultural land and includes definitions of deforestation and forest in the Australian context, along with four recommendations for implementation.

Gavin Butcher. Forest sustainability has taken on different meanings in Western Australia – changing depending on the audience. In one corner the Minister for Forestry, Jackie Jarvis, has repeatedly claimed the closure of the native forest industry was necessary because it was unsustainable. In the other corner is Stuart West, the General Manager of the Minister’s agency, the Forest Products Commission, overseeing harvesting operations in the jarrah and karri forests which have been independently certified as being sustainable.

The Miles Government is investing $8.7 million to restore crucial habitat and address a key disease threat to the iconic koala. Two organisations - Queensland Trust for Nature and Healthy Land & Water - will share in $8.5 million for habitat restoration while Queensland University of Technology and the University of the Sunshine Coast will share in $200,000 for research into koala chlamydia.

In its latest update, Snowy Hydro has advised that a new tunnel boring machine (TBM) will be deployed to help keep the Snowy 2.0 project on its delivery timeline. New ground testing techniques have provided a better understanding of the full extent of a complex fault zone on the route of the 17km tunnel that will connect Snowy 2.0’s upper reservoir to its underground power station.

Sebastian Calderon, Hugh Schuitemaker. A senior local wine industry figure says some Riverland grape growers will experience "devastating" damage to vineyards from frost conditions. The Riverland recorded its lowest-ever Spring temperatures on Monday night and Tuesday morning, after near-zero temperatures were also seen last week.

Logging has been stopped by the NSW Forestry Corporation in a Clarence Valley state forest after eggs found in an endangered Coastal Emu nest hatched last week, prompting calls for a wider exclusion zone to protect the species ... The FCNSW spokesperson said SoS program team members have seen the male emu and the chicks in the state forest.

We are a collective of CFA Brigades in Districts 16 and 18 who have taken a position where our Brigade will not commit to operating on or around electricity generation and transmission infrastructure by taking a perimeter only defence position except for where lives or safety of public is threatened. Specifically, this is Renewable Energy Infrastructure (REI) being wind turbines, large-scale solar and battery installations, high voltage (220 kva plus) transmission lines and connection hubs.

Number 8 Bio has successfully raised $7 million in its seed round, marking a significant milestone in its mission to dramatically reduce methane emissions in the livestock sector. ARR.News asked some questions of Dr Tom Williams, CEO and Co-Founder of Number 8 about 90 per cent reductions in stock emissions and, goodness, even carbon negative cattle.

An independent audit into the Federal Government’s compliance with the Basin Plan 2012 and water resource plans has exposed significant shortcomings in its systems and processes, according to the National Farmers’ Federation. NFF Water Committee Chair Malcolm Holm said the audit into the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water's (DCCEEW) confirmed concerns about the Government’s ability to manage Basin resources effectively.

Joanna Tucker. "Our primary mission was to utilise our skills and existing expertise to provide assistance to US teams who have been battling these fire complexes since July. Our secondary mission was to provide learning opportunities, and to understand how (the US experience) may improve our existing capabilities and strategies when managing fires in SA": Kadina CFS volunteer Justin Baxter.

The figures are in, and the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) delivered the second highest amount of water for the environment on record, in 2023-24. The CEWH, Dr Simon Banks, said around 1800 gigalitres of commonwealth water for the environment had been used to maintain or improve conditions in river and wetland systems across the Murray–Darling Basin.

Antoinette O’Brien. On Wednesday 21st August the community in North Lismore and beyond was hit with another wave of destruction and devastation as the house at 13 Wotherspoon Street was demolished without notification ... Luke had been given 12 months to organise the relocation of his beloved home and was looking at land in Tenterfield.

Leaders from eleven community groups across Australia have shared their stories about the projects their communities embarked on in the depths of the drought that affected so much of Australia over the last decade. The stories can be heard on FRRR’s new Tackling Tough Times Together podcast.

Recently an episode of Radio National’s ‘The History Listen’ discussed the kangaroo dogs that were first bred about 1800 in Sydney by crossing Scottish deerhounds with greyhounds. Their ability to hunt and kill kangaroos provided early colonists with a plentiful supply of fresh meat.

It's not even Fire Season yet and already there are many fires across the State. In the MIA this week there were numerous grass and structure fires ... These fires highlighted that even though the weather was cooler and the environment wet with a lot of green growth, fires are still possible.