Promote your activity
The BDTNRM website has a spot dedicated for community
input. If you have an activity coming up, updates on ongoing
work, promotion of a past success or other item of interest then
why not post it on the BDTNRM website!
The section is called Community Activities and is found under
the Engagement and Knowledge programme. Upcoming events will
also be posted on the “Notice Board” part of the
site. To have your item included on the BDTNRM website
contact the Manager Community and Engagement Judy Warner on ph.
4724 3544 or email judy.warner@bdtnrm.org.au.
Date
claimer – Wetland train-the-trainer
A training workshop, aimed to update extension and natural
resource management staff (including industry, agency,
agri-business and community groups) on Farm Management Systems and
the risk based approach to managing wetlands, both natural and
artificial, in intensive farming situations will be held.
The free workshop is one-and-a half days long and will be run on
17-18 November 2008 at a location still to be finalised in the
Burdekin area. For more information contact Amber Webster from
WetlandCare Australia based at BDTNRM. Phone 4724 3544 or email
amber.webster@bdtnrm.org.au.
Eel Passage Over Large Dams Forum – 26 November
2008
What impact are large dams in this region having on eel passage?
BDTNRM and Alluvium Consulting are hosting a forum to discuss the
issue and explore ideas for eel passage. A full day is planned to
include expert presentations, discussion and ideas for a plan of
action.
The forum runs from 9am to 4pm and will be held at Riverway Art
Centre, Townsville. For more information please contact Diana
O’Donnell or Paul Duncanson at BDTNRM on phone 4724 3544 or
email diana.odonnell@bdtnrm.org.au
or paul.duncanson@bdtnrm.org.au.
Aerial spray application and technology workshop first
for the Burdekin
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A demonstration of the aircraft’s spray pattern.
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Eight Burdekin pilots enjoyed the opportunity of getting
together in mid-October at the Brandon Aero Club to learn about
spray pattern testing and calibration of their aircraft;
responsibilities in respect to changes to chemical labeling and
legislation; and to swap aviation stories.
Through support from the Department of Primary Industries and
Fisheries (DPI&F FutureCane), BDTNRM, the Cotton Research
Development Corporation and Burdekin Productivity Services, Bill
Gordon Consulting was employed to conduct workshops with local
pilots, including analysis of their aircraft spray pattern
outcomes, discussion and information on chemical drift management
strategies, spray quality, nozzle models and much more.
Evaluation of on-ground incentive schemes in BDTNRM funded
projects
Since 2006, BDTNRM and our partners has directly or indirectly
funded over 200 land managers in the region to undertake on-ground
action to achieve natural resource outcomes for the region.
As we move forward into the future, BDTNRM wishes to ensure that
we are efficiently and effectively achieving outcomes for our
natural resources on behalf of the Australian Government.
To evaluate all of the BDTNRM on-ground programs, we have
engaged a team headed by Dr Jeff Coutts of Toowoomba to evaluate
each of the on-ground incentive projects that have been delivered
in the region. Therefore, the team is independent of BDTNRM
and its partners. The information held by the team will remain
confidential and will only be reported as aggregated information
for both projects and the region.
As part of this project, we are trying to contact all land
managers who have received incentive grants, land managers who did
not receive grants and people involved in delivery and managing the
grants processes throughout the region to determine how the process
to allocate grants worked, obtain some suggestions for improvements
and how the incentive grants allowed changes to land management to
improve the region’s natural resources, that is, land
condition, water quality or biodiversity or other natural resource
outcome.
If you have any questions, please contact the Land, Soils and
Agriculture team at BDTNRM - Linda Hygate (Programme Coordinator)
or Amanda Laurie (Programme Support Officer) on 07 4724 3544 or by
email – linda.hygate@bdtnrm.org.au
/ amanda.laurie@bdtnrm.org.au. It
is envisaged that a copy of the final report will be available on
the BDTNRM website in January 2009.
Queens Beach is a Clean Beach
On Wednesday 15 September Rachel Allan and Peter Arthofer from
BDTNRM attended the judging of the Queens Beach entry in the Keep
Australia Beautiful Clean Beach Challenge. The Queens Beach Action
Group (QBAG), and the Queens Beach School have been working hard
with partners the Whitsunday Regional Council and Queens Beach Surf
Club to keep the beach tidy and undertake weeding and revegetation
projects. Both year seven classes attended the judging and would
have made quite an impression on the judge. Now we await the
judge’s decision!
BDTNRM excels at triathlon
On Sunday the 12th of October BDTNRM had three teams
participating in the 2008 Corporate Triathlon, at
Townsville. The race included a 400 m swim in Ross River, 16
km bike ride and a 4 km run.
Competitors doing BDTNRM proud were Doug Willis, Paul Duncanson,
Leonie Maddigan, Rochae Cameron from the Regional Groups Collective
hosted by BDTNRM, Amber Webster from WetlandCare Australia hosted
by BDTNRM, Rachel Allan, Rhiannon Passfield, Jenni Edmonds and Judy
Warner.
Family and staff support were there to encourage participants
across the finishing line. Overall a great day was had by all and
money was raised for The Cancer Council Queensland.
Results are on the Corporate Triathlon website http://www.corporatetriathlon.com.au.
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The BDTNRM teams that competed (from left to right), Rhiannon
Passfield, Jenni Edmonds Judy Warner, Paul Duncanson , Doug Willis,
Leonie Maddigan, Rochae Cameron, Rachel Allan and Amber
Webster.
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Landscape Linkages project wins Landcare Innovation
Award
Congratulations to the Desert Uplands Build-Up and Development
Strategy Committee for winning the SKM Innovation Award at the 2008
QLD Landcare Awards held recently in Monto. The Committee was
awarded the prize for the Landscape Linkages project which uses an
innovative tender based approach to reward land managers for good
natural resource management.
The project funded by BDTNRM currently involves 15 properties
covering 85,000 hectares in the southern Desert Uplands undertaking
two year management agreements to maintain or improve their land,
keeping it in good condition.
The SKM Landcare Innovation Award was sponsored by Sinclair
Knight Merz consulting group who will provide $12,000 worth of
consultancy services to the Desert Uplands Build-Up and Development
Strategy Committee.
Grazing for Profit School at
Townsville
Resource Consultancy Services (RCS) will be holding a Grazing
for Profit School in Townsville from the 19 to 25 November 2008.
This training covers many aspects of the grazing business and has
proven to be highly successful in working with producers to examine
their business from a social, environmental and economic
perspective. BDTNRM will subsidise the cost for several graziers
within the region to participate (conditions apply). For more
information contact Toni Allen, RCS on phone 1800 356 004; email
tallen@rcs.au.com or visit
the RCS website at www.rcs.au.com.
Pixel project expands to schools
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Adam Connell and Jude Robinson from BBIFMAC
provide students with a demonstration.
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Children in the Lower Burdekin are being educated on the
importance of water quality through the Burdekin Bowen Integrated
Floodplain Management Advisory Committee’s (BBIFMAC) WQ Pixel
Project (funded by BDTNRM). The success of the WQ Pixel Project
with Lower Burdekin farmers has flowed over to local schools.
Project Officers Adam Connell and Jude Robinson visited Maidavale
State School to educate students on the importance of good water
quality and its effect on the local and wider environment.
The students participated in a hands-on demonstration, where
they were taught how to monitor water quality using simple
techniques. The school was provided with a test kit, similar to
those given to farmers, which will allow students to monitor the
local lagoon and the school’s bore water on a weekly basis.
BBIFMAC will provide ongoing support to the school by collecting
samples for lab analysis and interpreting results. “We are
planning to visit more schools in the future to provide education
on water quality issues specific to the local area,” Adam
Connell said.
School declares war on tilapia
Parents and Friends of the Charters Towers All Souls St Gabriels
School are holding a fishing weekend at Fletcher Creek in an effort
to control the pest fish tilapia. Tilapia, a native of Africa, is
rapidly invading the rivers of Queensland to the detriment of our
native fish.
All Souls St Gabriels has obtained a permit from the Department
of Primary Industries and Fisheries and in return will be gathering
important information on the tilapia catch.
The weekend kicks off on Saturday morning 1 November with a
briefing on the rules and procedures. Prizes will be awarded for
the largest and the most number of tilapia caught. It should be a
great family day for the school. For further information contact
Ann McKenzie, BDTNRM on phone 4761 5166.
Cane growers fine tune their spray
techniques
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Learning how to get the best outcome when using
pesticides.
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Burdekin cane growers were last week visited by the popular
pesticide application expert, Graham Betts, who shared his
knowledge on improving pesticide cost-efficiency and reducing
chemical loss on farm.
Every application issue was addressed to help growers get the
best out of their herbicide by learning about the mode of action of
each chemical family, how to manage weather conditions to avoid
spray loss, ensuring correct nozzle selection for optimum droplet
size, pressure and litres per hectare output and understanding the
efficiency of water quality and filtration, plus boom height and
stability.
The two workshops were organised by BSES, BDTNRM and DPI&F
with added support from NuFarm.
Caring for our Country - Outcomes
2008-2013
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts Peter
Garrett and Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Tony
Burke announced the targets for Caring for our Country, saying it
would provide unprecedented transparency for natural resource
management funding.
Minister Garrett formally launched the Caring for our Country -
Outcomes 2008-2013 with the Member for Newcastle, Sharon Grierson,
at Kooragang Island, near Newcastle.
Specific five-year outcomes have been identified across the six
national priority areas for the program including:
- increase the size of the protected-area estate under the
National Reserve System to 125
million hectares - a 25% increase;
- increase the area of native habitat and vegetation managed
to reduce critical threats to
biodiversity by at least one million hectares;
- reduce the impact of invasive species including rabbits and
rodents on Macquarie Island,
Tasmania and cane toads; and maintain viable Tasmanian
Devil populations;
- assist at least 30% of Australian farmers to adopt
sustainable land management practices;
and
- contribute to at least 30 partnerships with Indigenous
groups and at least five major regional
partnerships.
See the source
media release for more information.
Burdekin Solutions AGM – 28 November
2008
Burdekin Solutions Ltd, the company operating as Burdekin Dry
Tropics Natural Resource Management (BDTNRM) is holding its Annual
General Meeting in Townsville on 28 November. Company members will
receive their meeting notices and invitations to attend by mail in
the near future. Company membership is open to anyone who lives in
or who is a landholder in the region. Membership is $11.00 per
year. Further information and application forms are available on
our web site http://www.bdtnrm.org.au/about/membership.html.
National indicators for natural resource
condition
Wondering how to monitor condition of a natural resource at a
project or regional level? Wondering which indicators to use? The
Monitoring & Evaluation section of the Australian Government
NRM website has some handy documents -
http://www.nrm.gov.au/publications/factsheets/me-indicators/index.html#esis
For each 'matter for target' identified in the current
National Framework for Natural Resource Management Standards
and Targets an overall indicator is provided, called a
'heading indicator'. These heading indicators each list recommended
indicators (also known as resource condition indicators) that
suggest how to measure the various dimensions related to each
heading indicator. The hierarchy of what is provided is:
Matter for target
If you click on
- A “heading indicator” (in bold under each matter
for target) then it takes you to a page where you can download a
PDF containing information on that heading indicator.
- A “recommended indicator” (under a heading
indicator) then it takes you to a page where you can download a PDF
containing detailed info on that recommended indicator e.g. site
selection, mapping scale, data sampling & analysis, proposed
responsibilities.
Use of these national indicators makes it easier for data to be
collated at local, regional, state and federal levels – for
resource assessments and looking at performance of investments
(i.e. your own purposes plus those of others).
The current matters for target include land salinity; soil
condition; integrity and significance of natural communities and
ecosystems; nutrients and particulate in aquatic environments;
surface water salinity in freshwater aquatic environments; and
ecologically significant invasive species.
Dreamtimetracks.com launched
Dreamtime Tracks, an initiative bringing together a number of
Indigenous tourism enterprises in North Queensland, publicly
launched its website (www.dreamtimetracks.com), book
and displays at the Cultural Centre, Townsville last Saturday, 25
October. BDTNRM, Townsville City Council and a range of other
sponsors are providing support to this initiative which is
contributing to the economic viability of traditional owner land
use in north Queensland.
Wild dog management review
Biosecurity Queensland, DPI&F is seeking residents’
feedback on wild dog issues such as controlling wild dogs, the
Queensland wild dog strategy’s effectiveness in protecting
grazing industries, and the impact of wild dogs on
Queensland’s economy, lifestyle and environment.
An issue paper has been developed and public meetings held to
stimulate discussion about what the objectives for wild dog
management in Queensland should be, and the role of Biosecurity
Queensland and other stakeholders in achieving them.
Closing date for submissions is 20 November
2008. For more information visit the DPI&F
website www.dpi.qld.gov.au.
AgForward workshop update
The AgForward team present a range of workshops to landholders,
including GPS essentials, computer mapping, vegetation management,
and AgForest's native forest field days. Upcoming workshops
include:
- 3 November Byrne
Valley GPS Essentials
- 11 November
Eidsvold
AgForests Field Day
- 13 November Mt
Garnet GPS
Essentials
To register for the workshops contact AgForward on 3238 6039.
More information can be found at www.agforward.org.au
Australian Indigenous Tourism Conference
– Townsville, March 2009
The call is out for papers for the Australian Indigenous Tourism
Conference. The conference themed Many Tribes, One Country
is to be held 24-27 March 2009 in Townsville. “The conference
focus for 2009 is on the environment, our young people, business
opportunities and maintaining our culture” (from the
conference website www.aitc2009.com). Abstract
submissions close 28 November 2008.
Qld Weeds Symposium – Yeppoon, July
2009
For those wishing to submit papers or posters for the 10th
Queensland Weed Symposium the deadline for abstracts is the 15
December 2008. For more information on the symposium visit the
website: www.wsq.org.au/10thWeedSymposium/
For more information on the events above and more, go to
www.bdtnrm.org.au/events/
Your feedback and contributions are welcome.
Please forward contributions to the Acting Editor – Ann
McKenzie em: ann.mckenzie@bdtnrm.org.au.
This edition as well as past Burdekin Bites can be found on our
website:
www.bdtnrm.org.au/news/burdekinbites/index.html
Burdekin Bites is produced by BDTNRM, compiled and edited
by Ann McKenzie.
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