On The Land
24 January, 2025
Farmers help protect land, reef and the rainforest
THE benefits of ongoing funding of landscape restoration on the Atherton Tablelands is helping farmers improve their land, while also protecting the upper catchment of the Great Barrier Reef and building resilience into the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.
The Wet Tropics Management Authority’s (WTMA) fourth year of delivering part of the Queensland Government’s $33.5 million Reef Assist Program, funded under the Queensland Reef Water Quality Program, has resulted in streambank restoration of tributaries in the Barron River catchment.
Situated on Tableland Yidinji and Ngadjon-Jii Country, the work is improving water quality flowing out to the reef.
“The work we have been doing with landowners of the Atherton Tablelands since 2020 thanks to the Reef Assist Program is testament to the power of collaboration,” WTMA executive director Scott Buchanan said.
“In this project, government, farmers and landscape restoration experts have worked closely together over time to create an outcome that is good for the Reef, good for the rainforest and good for the community.
“Farmers are the environmental stewards of their land and caretakers of our precious environment, and by working closely with them we have been able to replant Mabi forest species in places that were problem areas for farmers, such as gullies and streambanks.”
Cane farmer Adrian Gallo, on whose land part of the authority’s most recent Reef Assist project on the Tablelands was completed, said: “It’s been a really positive experience seeing these areas replanted is improving my land.
“We are looking at expanding the revegetation area, perhaps looking at ways to claim carbon credits to get more trees in the ground and creating other income streams for the farm that have a more positive impact on our land for future generations.”
The WTMA project partner, NQ Land Management Services, has successfully planted 23 hectares across two sites with more than 46,000 trees, made up of more than 30 endemic species, while creating five full-time field positions.
The new work is helping stabilise streambanks in the upper catchment of the Great Barrier Reef, while also creating wildlife corridors and enhancing the boundary of the World Heritage Area.
Projects like this have also created socioeconomic opportunities in the region, where since 2020 NQ Land Management Services has created nine permanent full-time positions, including Heather Grant, who started as a trainee in 2020 and is now a field supervisor.
“Through my journey, I’ve learnt which trees go in which areas, which has allowed me to gain a supervisor position...it gives young women, like myself, a lot of confidence.” Heather said.
Throughout the year, the new NQ Land Management Services field staff have been upskilling, completing a Certificate III in Conservation and Ecosystem Management.
CEO of NQ Land Management Services Geoff Onus said: “This initiative by the Queensland Government’s Reef Assist program has been successful in our region because government and industry have worked together and continued the work over several years.
“Landscape restoration takes time, expertise and dedication, and because funding has been ongoing, the benefits are as clear as day. For example, planting forest corridors in awkward areas, like steep eroding gullies of little economic value, provide win-win outcomes for the environment and farmers.”
“I have been doing landscape restoration a long time and it’s great to see government seeing the value of ongoing funding support. It creates skilled jobs, improves our agricultural land and protects our two irreplaceable World Heritage Areas, the reef and the rainforest.”
