Land & environment

Toowoomba Regional Council's (TRC) $40 million major upgrades to the Mt Kynoch water treatment plant were officially opened on Monday, supporting water needs into the next decade. Toowoomba Region Mayor Geoff McDonald said TRC had invested $40 million in the Stage 4 upgrade to implement modern water treatment processes.

Experts warn a lack of regulation in the garden industry is seeing weedy plants, that can easily be bought in nurseries or online, ‘suffocate’ our native waterways and bushland, with urgent calls for action to prevent more irreversible damage ... Invasive Species Council Advocacy Director Jack Gough said an incredible three-quarters of all listed weeds in Australia are escaped garden plants and every year the problem gets worse.

The silent and devastating toll of people stealing wood from Victoria’s forests and parks has been revealed as public land authorities announce a crackdown on escalating illegal firewood take and habitat destruction threatening the survival of native wildlife and Aboriginal cultural heritage. In 2023 alone, firewood thieves damaged or destroyed more than 9,200 native trees or cleared roughly 462 hectares of public land in Victoria ...

A renewed agreement between WaterNSW and Murray Irrigation Limited (MIL) will help to move water around the Barmah Choke for the 2024–25 water year. MDBA Senior Director River Modernisation Joe Davis said the arrangement with MIL would ensure water delivery to downstream users whilst protecting the river environment and community values.  

Stopping cane toads with a Toad Containment Zone (TCZ) before they reach the Pilbara in Western Australia will protect 27 million hectares of sensitive habitat, significant Aboriginal cultural heritage, and a trove of native Australian animals from population decline … the TCZ was created to halt a toad invasion with a landscape level strategy – effectively, a ‘toad-break’ - on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert.

Madison Eastmond, Hugh Schuitemaker ... The Federal Government yesterday announced $25m worth of funding to support flood recovery efforts. However, Chaffey MP Tim Whetstone said the repair of damaged local infrastructure needed to be a higher priority ... "Some are unsafe, and councils are left swinging in the breeze wondering if funding will eventuate to repair the flood impacted road network."

“Imagine shifting gear from being just pig chasers to becoming field staff in the world's biggest wild pig research project.” That’s the message the Australian Pig Doggers and Hunters Association (APDHA) is sending to pig hunters across Australia. The bold plan by the national hunting group aims to collect 10,000 feral pigs' ears as part of a study of the animals...

Michelle Daw. Yorke Peninsula commercial fishers say they are being discriminated against by a new fees regime that took effect this month, which has been described as a "kick in the guts" that could send them out of business. The fees are based on a quota system aimed at making fishers pay the full cost of government management for King George whiting, garfish and calamari, in Gulf St Vincent and Spencer Gulf only.

Lismore City Council is investing $1 million in important remediation work on two water reservoirs after a scheduled in-depth health check on the system's condition. The two identified for repairs are the Esmonde Street and Wyreema Avenue reservoirs.

Reopening its doors this week with colourful, fresh new surroundings, Mossman families are celebrating the reopening of St Augustine’s Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) after a six-month flood recovery program.  With extensive damage caused by flood inundation following Tropical Cyclone Jasper,  Catholic Early Learning and Care—Diocese of Cairns Director Alison Forster said it is great to be back delivering outside-hours care for Mossman families and carers...

Over the years, Australia has experienced several large scale bushfires, with many of these fires and 90 per cent of the associated fatalities caused by faulty power lines in rural areas, according to Professor Alan Wong, Founder and CEO of IND Technology ... The early fault detection (EFD) system acts like a smoke alarm for the power network, enabling the prediction and locating of potential fires through this Australian-made innovation.

You have to hand it to the Russians; they are a resilient mob. I had started to write a story back in May about how drought, frost, labour, and parts shortages were about to combine and smash their next grain harvest but luckily, I didn’t, as my predictions would have been way off the mark. As it turns out, despite what all the global grain experts said at the time, about Russia facing a difficult year, it seems they are on track for another big crop.

It wasn’t my best day. Revisiting your old neighbourhood can be a bittersweet experience. It's amazing how many memories come flooding back, and how different things can seem at the same time.

In a night filled with nostalgia, gratitude, and camaraderie, the Tennant Creek Branch of Bushfires NT marked a significant milestone on Saturday night at the Sporties Club as they celebrated 25 years of dedicated service to the local community. Members, both past and present, as well as invited guests gathered to commemorate this remarkable achievement.

A leading Charles Sturt University researcher co-led a multi-discipline team investigating the origins of dingoes, when they arrived in Australia, and how they changed over nearly three thousand years. Professor of Evolution and Environmental Change Alan Cooper … analysed genomes from skeletons and mummies of dingoes found in the many caves of the giant Nullarbor Plain across southern Australia.

The project will support the 64,000 hectare  expansion of the Crystalvale Nature Refuge, about 15km south-west of Coen, and  establish the new 244,000 hectare Abingdon Downs North Nature Refuge, about 85km north-west of Georgetown ... Abingdon Downs North and Crystalvale make up the largest dedication of private protected area in the past six years.

Landowners whose property joins the mouth of the Sleeman River have been asked to dismantle the remnants of a disintegrating weir which has been in place for more than 30 years. The weir was built to block salt water from entering the river so landowners could exercise their riparian rights.

After a sudden fire tore through the former Kurrajong Laundry Service building last month, the team at Kurrajong has remained resilient. To continue providing their services, the laundry services are currently operating across multiple locations to take care of clients’ needs more efficiently.

From the Western Australian deserts to the NSW rainforests, the new projects combined will protect 7.5 million hectares of land and 450,000 hectares of sea Country – bigger than the size of Tasmania. This is on top of existing IPAs which currently cover 87 million hectares of land and over five million hectares of sea Country – the majority of Australia’s national estate.

Jan Beer. The Feasibility of Relaxing Constraints in Northern Victoria Final Report has been released by Victorian Water Minister Shing. The report recommends proceeding to the next phase of the Constraints Measures Project, which will involve the development of a detailed business case. This will be the third attempt by the Victorian Government to provide a workable business case.

150 Murray crayfish were released in Barham on Friday after many of the iconic species were relocated during the 2022 and early 2023 blackwater events. During the flood event, blackwater poured out of forests that had already had long periods of inundation with environmental water, contributing to poor water quality within the river system.