The wet weather on Valentines Day may have been a good day for staying in bed and snuggling, but not for the keen Cadarga district landholders who braved the wet, slippery roads to attend a Better Burnett update session at Monogorilby Hall.The session saw the Better Burnett project management team update the enthused landholders on the preliminary monitoring and evaluation results of the sixteen funded projects in the Cadarga Creek Subcatchment.
The projects were part of the BCCA’s Better Burnett catchment recovery pilot and involved financial assistance in the implementation of sustainable grazing practices such as the installation of additional fencing and watering points to improve pasture utilisation and management.
The landholders particularly enjoyed the interactive session where they were presented with a hypothetical property determined by collating and averaging landtype, paddock and water information of the properties involved in the pilot, and were asked to determine what they believed the “average” Cadarga Creek landholder did do with the funding.
All the landholders spent their fictional money very wisely and similarly to how the real funding was utilised, investing in additional watering points, fencing to allow paddock resting and rotation and fencing of erosive country.
Sean Ryan and Ken Matthews of Private Forestry Southern Queensland (PFSQ) were guest presenters at the update session gauging interest from landholders in establishing partnerships between all important stakeholders in the native forest management industry, including millers, natural resource management groups and the government, and were delighted by the keen interest they received.
Overall, both the landholders and the Better Burnett team feel the on ground projects have been progressing well, despite the dry and now wet weather delaying landholders and contractors getting on the paddock.
Picture: Crowd at Monogorilby Hall for Better Burnett Update Session