An innovative project has
just concluded where cane growers and graziers received $605,000 in
an incentive scheme designed to improve water quality on their
properties.
Landholders were invited to provide a description of actions
they would take to improve water quality, as well as the cost of
these actions. The tender was open to all canegrowers in the lower
Burdekin and to graziers in the Haughton River, Barratta Creek, and
Stone and Landers Creek catchments.
Over 85 applications were received for the project, with total
bids of nearly $2.2 million. From this, 37 applications were
selected for $605,000 with an additional $891,000 worth of
landholder contributions.
Some of the works that were completed as part of the project
were the installation of trickle irrigation systems, tail water
recycle pits, GPS guidance systems, legume planters and rotation
grazing infrastructure.
The project resulted in a number of significant reductions in
the volumes of fertiliser, pesticide and sediment
runoff.
Fertiliser loads were estimated to have been reduced by 101,976
kilograms at a cost of $4.95 per kilo. This figure is 1.7 per cent
of the total catchment load.
Pesticides were estimated to have been reduced by 58.9
kilograms at a cost of $965 per kilo. This accounts for .04 per
cent of the total usage in the region.
Sediment was estimated to have been reduced by 491.8 tonnes at
a cost of $89 per tonne. This is approximately .04 per cent of the
total catchment load.
Research
Component
The project also had a research component whereby scientists at
Central Queensland University, the University of Western Australia,
and River Consulting developed a complex scoring system to predict
the volumes of sediment, nutrient and pesticide loads prevented
from entering the Great Barrier Reef.
It
also incorporated a best management practice scoring system which
provided scientists with a snapshot of what was happening on the
farms. This was developed by Futurecane and the
Burdekin Bowen Integrated Floodplain Management Advisory Committee
(BBIFMAC).
Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM worked in partnership with BSES and
the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries to deliver the
project which was jointly funded by the Australian Government and
Central Queensland University.
