27 July: BDT Public Information Seminar,
Collinsville.
29 July: National Tree Day
31 July: WWF International Smart Gear Competition
31 July: Applications close for NFPN Awards for Nonprofits
6 August: Fish Barrier Community Consultation, Charters Towers
06-10 August: Keep It Real – EMS in Agriculture and Food
Safety and Quality Assurance Conference
09 August: International Day of the World’s Indigenous
Peoples
12 August: Standard registrations close for Landcare conference, 22
– 25 August, Mackay
13 -17 August: RGC Training on GIS and GPS, Collinsville
14 August: CHRRUP Board Meeting
16 August: Kids "Caring for Country" Day, Riverway, Thuringowa
Recent additions to our “What’s On”
web page:
27 July: BDT Public Information Seminar, Collinsville
30 July Applications close, YARN Content Manager Grant
30 July: Funding submissions round closes, Our Place, Our Future:
resourcing rural capacity
31 July: Entries close, Environs Australia 2007 Sustainability
Awards
06–07 August: Vegetation Management Workshop, Collinsville
Workers Club
07–09 August: Grazing Land Management Workshop, Clermont
14 August: GPS training, Collinsville Workers Club
15–16 August: GIS/ ARCVIEW training
01 September: Entries close, Clean Beach Challenge
05 October: Round Two applications close, Lifestyle WaterWise
Grants
22 October: Funding submissions round closes, Our Place, Our
Future: resourcing rural capacity
29–30 October: North Queensland Economic Development
Conference
For more information on the events above and
more, go to www.bdtnrm.org.au/news/on/index.html
- BDT Public Information Seminar, Collinsville,
Friday, 27 July
- Presentation, Assessment of the Freshwater Fish
Passages, Charters Towers, 6 August
- Vegetation Management Workshop, Collinsville
Workers Club, 06– 07 August
- Grazing Land Management Workshop, Clermont, 07
– 09 August
- Lucky Five off to Queensland Landcare
Conference
- Two new projects in the Bowen, Broken and Bogie
subcatchments
- Tackling Degraded Lands Workshops
- Dalrymple Digital Landcare Awards
- BDTNRM Out and About
- BDTNRM staff changes
- Local Government Project Officer
position
- NAPSWQ and NHT3 Programmes
- Envirofund Rounds for Coastal and
Marine
- Survey of Participation in Natural
Resources Management, Burdekin Catchment
- Kids "Caring for Country" Day, 16 August,
Riverway
- Added to our news links page: Condamine
Conduit
- Desert Uplands Website
- Drought Aid – Local Government Rates
rebates
- Burdekin Coastal Values survey
- GIS Software Information
BDT Public Information Seminar, Collinsville, Friday, 27
July
The seminar will highlight NRM work in the area, and introduce
the Tackling Degraded Lands in the Bowen, Broken and Bogie
Subcatchments project (see below).
For more information call Peter Arthofer on mob: 0407 317 463,
or email: p.arthofer@bdtnrm.org.au
Presentation, Assessment of the Freshwater Fish Passages,
Charters Towers, 6 August
BDTNRM in partnership with Alluvium Consulting invites the
community of Charters Towers and surrounding districts to a
presentation on the Assessment of the Freshwater Fish Passages to
assist in helping to identify the range of fish species and the
potential barriers to their movement through our rivers and
creeks.
A light dinner will be provided, starting at 6pm in the Gold and
Beef Room, Dalrymple Shire Council Office, 14 Mosman Street,
Charters Towers, followed by the project presentation and feedback
session. Interested attendees are welcome to attend the fish
restocking group’s regular meeting which will conclude the
evening.
If you are unable to attend, but would like to provide
information, your comments would also be most welcome.
For further information, please contact Jenni Edmonds on 47243
544 or jenni.edmonds@bdtnrm.org.au
Vegetation Management Workshop, Collinsville Workers
Club, 06– 07 August
This workshop will be delivered by AgForward’s Brenda
Walhain.
For more information please call Peter Arthofer on mob: 0407 317
463, or email p.arthofer@bdtnrm.org.au
Grazing Land Management Workshop, Clermont, 07
– 09 August
This workshop will be held at the Grand Hotel/Motel. For more
information contact Bronwyn Roberts: 0428 776 249 or bronwyn@chrrup.org
Lucky Five off to Queensland Landcare
Conference
Five passionate Landcare members from the Burdekin catchment
will be heading for Mackay in August for the 18 th
Queensland Landcare Conference through the BDTNRM Landcare
Conference Sponsorship Program 2007. Congratulations to Wendy
Willcox, Leigh O’Neil, Ron Gordon, Brian Strathdee and Lisa
Baynes.
Two new projects in the Bowen, Broken and Bogie
sub-catchments
This month saw the start of two major projects in the Bowen,
Broken and Bogie sub-catchments. During the planning phase, land
managers in the Bowen, Broken and Bogie sub-catchments identified
community capacity and extension followed by declining land
condition and sustainability of primary production as their highest
priorities.
Through a partnership with Mackay Whitsunday NRM, the
Sustainable Landscapes Program (SLP) is being extended into these
three sub-catchments of the Burdekin to facilitate/accelerate the
adoption of sustainable practices by land managers with a primary
focus on grazing practices, native vegetation, riparian zones and
biodiversity. The SLP project will address riparian fencing, river
bank erosion, ground cover, weed control, land type fencing and
riparian and landscape revegetation issues. For more information,
go to www.burdekindrytropics.org.au/projects/sl.html
The second project, titled ‘Tackling Degraded Lands’
has been funded in part from the 2007/08 Australian
Government’s National Landcare Program. This project will
provide opportunity in areas where erosion has been identified as a
priority issue for land managers to develop strategies through a
Property Management Planning framework to halt the loss of soil. As
part of these projects, a number of workshops and field days will
be held in the sub-catchments on a range of issues with partnering
organisations such as AgForward (see items below and above).
Tackling Degraded Lands Workshops
This new project in the will address the water quality issues
and build capacity of land managers in regard to sustainable
resource management as these sub-catchments of the Burdekin River
have been recognised as contributing a significant amount of
sediment to the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon.
The project in the Bowen, Broken and Bogie Sub-catchments
consists of a series of workshops for land managers to be delivered
by external service providers. Workshop topics include Computer
mapping, Vegetation Management, Regional Ecosystems and Land
Management implications, GPS/GIS workshops, Landscape function
analysis, and Soils. Outcomes of the workshop series will be
building capacity of the land managers, and greater technical and
financial support. Upon completion of the workshop, participants
will produce a property management plan which will facilitate
application for funding on ground works through the Sustainable
Landscapes Project.
The first workshop will be on 6– 7 August at the
Collinsville Workers Club. It will address Vegetation Management
and will be delivered by AgForward’s Brenda Walhain.
The second workshop is on GPS and GIS/ARCVIEW training and will
be delivered by Dustin Edge from the Queensland Regional NRM Groups
Collective. GPS training will be held at the Collinsville Workers
Club on the 14 August, and GIS/ ARCVIEW training will be held on
15–16 August.
For more information, contact Peter Arthofer on mobile 0407 317
463, or p.arthofer@bdtnrm.org.au
Dalrymple Digital Landcare Awards
Following earlier information in the Bites on these awards you
can now follow the links to find out the stories behind the winners
(note that the bulk of the information is in the “Desc”
portion on each web page)
Rural Blockholder Award:
Barry Cook : http://www.placestoriesdemo.com/app/story_view.php?id=205&projectId=200®ionId=4
Tarinda Park: http://www.placestoriesdemo.com/app/story_view.php?id=211&projectId=200®ionId=4
Effective Weed Management Award:
Homeview: http://www.placestoriesdemo.com/app/story_view.php?id=208&projectId=200®ionId=4
Innovative Landholder Award:
Cuba Plains: http://www.placestoriesdemo.com/app/story_view.php?id=208&projectId=200®ionId=4
Landcare Group Activity Awards:
70 Mile Range Landcare Group: http://www.placestoriesdemo.com/app/story_view.php?id=204&projectId=200®ionId=4
Three Rivers Landcare Group: http://www.placestoriesdemo.com/app/story_view.php?id=209&projectId=200®ionId=4
Out and About
- After a two week holiday exploring Undara, Cooktown and Cape
Tribulation, Gale Duell , our
Regional Landcare Facilitator, is back - but you
won’t find her at her desk. Over the next few weeks, Gale
will be on the road attending Landcare meetings, helping to
organise vegetation management and GPS/GIS workshops and the roll
out of a new NLP project in the Bowen, Broken and Bogie
subcatchments (see above).
- Bronwyn Houlden went to the ARC/ Girringun
Cultural Heritage Mapping Project presentation Friday 13 July,
along with lots of other BDTNRM staff - it was fantastic. She will
be attending a Regional Pest Management Strategy working group
meeting in Townsville this week and Chloe
Schauble ’s “spatial data”
workshop on August7-8. She is currently involved in planning the
next Biodiversity Adaptive Management Group meeting (closed) and
will shortly be involved in interviewing applicants for the
recently advertised Regional Pest Management Strategy
Coordinator’s position.
- Kate Masters left in late June to take up the
position of Program Development Officer with Southern Gulf
Catchments. Amanda Laurie is currently acting as
Land Soils and Agriculture Programme Coordinator.
She started in November 2005 and worked hard on developing the LSA
programme. Highlights of Kate’s time were the LMAG group,
getting key projects up and running, and working with the various
catchments. We wish her all the best in her new role.
- BDTNRM sponsored the second prize in the Reef Beat wetlands
scrapbook competition run by the Townsville Bulletin, which also
involved GBRMPA. BDTNRM was involved in judging of the scrap books
on 19 July and is look forward to taking the runner-up
student’s class on a local wetland guided bus tour followed
by a celebratory BBQ. This event will run by Conservation
Volunteers Australia.
- The Programme Coordinator for Coastal and Marine,
Rachel Allan , will take part in a workshop put
together by AIMS and JCU on 26 July at DPI&F about the adoption
of senior networks by coastal managers. The overall goal of this
one-day workshop is to extend and deepen the discussion on the
need, challenges and options for an adaptive deployment of senior
networks and its potential delivery of timely and useful real time
spatial data for managers and decision makers.
- Jenni Edmonds attended the Industry Engagement
Workshop facilitated by Rural Development Services Pty Ltd for the
National Landcare Programme which was recently held in Brisbane.
The workshop was most informative equipping us with skills and
knowledge to engage with landholders in sustainable primary
industry practices. It gave us great opportunity to meet people
from advocate Landcare landholders, industry representatives and
Landcare coordinators from a regional, state and national level.
The workshop assisted us in developing effective project planning
skills and the workshop enabled us to draw upon the more
experienced participants whilst the newer participants were able to
provide inspiration and fresh ideas. Participants are now required
to design, deliver and evaluate an industry engagement project and
participate in monthly phone link updates with a final deliverance
and review to be held in December.
- Deborah Cavanagh , Amanda
Laurie and Leonie Maddigan gave
presentations about BDTNRM to a group of final-year students in
agricultural science, environmental science and management, and
natural resource economics from University of Queensland on Monday
16 July. These students (many last year were international) are
looking to be out in the workforce in the near future – many
will seek work with Regional Boards. As in the past, presentations
have focused on our work, role of graduates etc., and a number of
our younger staff members have spoken to this group about their
work and the challenges faced in putting theory into practice.
- Amanda Laurie , Doug Willis ,
Peter Arthofur and Deb Cavanagh
visited MacKay Whitsunday NRM staffers Jon Graftdyk and Peter Alden
at Eungella to talk about the Bowen, Broken and Bogie subcatchments
projects. To find out more go to http://www.burdekindrytropics.org.au/projects/sl.html
BDTNRM staff changes
BDTNRM currently has around 20 staff (plus hosted positions
funded by the Australian and State Governments and other
organisations) and runs at the best staffing ratio (to work and
funding dollar) for NRM groups of its type. BDTNRM currently only
works with minimal staff, and we are able to do this as we have
adopted the approach of delivery through community based NRM
groups, industry bodies and other providers, rather than employing
additional people to do this work on the ground.
Judy Warner has accepted the role of
Community and Engagement Manager and will take
over regional NRM facilitator responsibilities
from Rachel Allan at the end of July. Rachel
enjoyed her 8 months in the role, being part of the state wide
facilitator network reporting to the federal government, and can
now spend 100% of her time on her new role as Programme
Coordinator of the Coastal and Marine programme .
David Reid has now finished with BDTNRM and tells
everyone he is planning to complete his round Australia trip. Judy
will be profiled in a later issue of the Bites and we look forward
to her joining the BDTNRM team.
Perry Langeberg has joined AgForce and
Juelisa Nash is working as a GIS trainee with
Doug Willis .
We are pleased to advise that Leonie Maddigan
has been appointed as the Coastal Local Government Project
Officer (formerly LGA Coastal Planning Officer) position
for the Townsville/Thuringowa/Palm Island area. Until recently,
Leonie was the Coastal Planning Officer for the Burdekin Local
Government Association
Local Government Project Officer
position
A coastal Local Government Project Officer position is now
advertised at BDTNRM. In short, the role will support Local
Government to manage their coast by developing negotiated
agreements with BDTNRM for on-ground works investments in the
coastal zone. Also the role offers capacity to Local Governments to
liaise with State and commonwealth agencies regarding the
development of relevant planning documents and support for the
development of these. The position will be responsible for managing
the OGW’s agreements, liaising with relevant coastal
stakeholders such as EPA, DPI&F, GBRMPA and aims to facilitate
a greater awareness of tools and funds available to local
Government for coastal management.
Please check our web site if you are interested
www.burdekindrytropics.org.au/opportunities/employment/employment.html
or contact Rachel Allan if you require any additional information
on 4724 3544, mobile 0428163232, or Rachel.allan@bdtnrm.org.au
NAPSWQ and NHT3 Programmes
The National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAPSWQ)
Programme has now ended and will not be replaced. The Australian
Government has funded NHT3 for a 5 year period, 2008-2013. NHT3
funding is roughly equivalent to NHT2 and NAP programmes combined,
so there will be no loss of funding across Australia, however,
funding allocation will be different for individual NRM bodies. It
is expected that this will result in a reduction of funding to the
Burdekin region, as past funding for BDTNRM was approximately 50/50
NHT and NAP. Details of NHT3 are available from http://www.nrm.gov.au/funding/pubs/nht-questions.pdf
BDTNRM currently has 12 million dollars worth of projects
underway and/or about to start. Many of these are in the
Burdekin.
Envirofund Rounds for Coastal and
Marine
Envirofund Round 10 for Coastal and Marine applications closed
Friday 20 July and we thank all Coastal community groups who
attended the forum on how to write applications. It was extremely
successful and an opportunity to recognize the wealth of committed
community volunteers passionate about coastal issues, whether they
be marine stingers, sea turtles, coral reefs, dune vegetation,
keeping vehicles off the dunes, local bird species and many more
specialist areas. As a result we are now endeavoring to repeat the
forum and develop a Coastal and Marine web site and email network
to keep the communication channels open so everyone can keep
abreast the latest funding opportunities and projects in the
Burdekin area.
The Envirofund facilitator Greg Willcox will be available for
advice for Round 11 Envirofund applications which will be announced
in another 6 months or so, so keep thinking about projects. He can
be contacted at Conservation Volunteers Australia on 47214077,
mobile 0429334481, or gwillcox@cva.org.au
Survey of Participation in Natural Resources
Management, Burdekin Catchment
James Cook University’s School of Earth and Environmental
Sciences (supported by Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM), has designed a
survey about 'Public Participation and use of Spatial Information
and GIS in the Burdekin Dry Tropic Coast'. The survey is part of a
research project which aims to identify the drivers and barriers of
people's participation in natural resources management (i.e. water
quality monitoring, on-farm nutrient management) in the Burdekin
Catchment. They are particularly interested in the role of spatial
information (mapping data) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
in facilitating access to information and building knowledge to
support more informed decisions.
Note that 'participation' means any activities (e.g. meetings,
forums, workshops, internet discussion groups, surveys) that may
used for involvement in and awareness of natural resources
management (i.e. water quality monitoring).
Your assistance would be much appreciated in filling out the
short online survey to gather information on experience and
interest in community involvement in natural resources management
(takes 15-25 minutes).
The survey can be found at:
www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=sjAHO65HMLgtY87azz6vxg_3d_3d
For further information, please contact Débora De Freitas
on 4781 4705 or
debora.defreitas@jcu.edu.au
Kids "Caring for Country" Day, 16 August,
Riverway
Leah Saltner is helping coordinate this event
which will provide the opportunity for mid-primary school students
to participate in various Indigenous cultural and natural resource
activities, including delivery of the Gudjuda Education Cultural
Awareness Program. Partners in this project are BDTNRM, Gudjuda
Reference Group Aboriginal Corporation, Community Partnerships
Office (Townsville District Office, Education Queensland), Kelso
School, Rasmussen School, Vincent School, Weir School, Learning
& Engagement Centre.
Added to our news links page
News Links: www.bdtnrm.org.au/news/links/index.html
The latest issue includes information on: a $210,000 project for
the Condamine Alliance to evaluate the effectiveness of
“distributor” agronomists in coordinating environmental
programs with their farmer clients; Landholders being encouraged to
minimise environmental damage by actively maintaining their on-site
effluent systems; and a project to investigate the impact of
salinity on built infrastructure in key at-risk shires in the
Condamine catchment.
Desert Uplands Website
The Desert Uplands Committee, have recently launched their
website www.desertuplands.org.au
The site features an enquiry form that gives land managers the
opportunity to submit queries straight to the Desert Uplands staff
and an events calendar which allows online registration for
workshops and events.
Drought Aid – Local Government Rates
rebates
This scheme, offered by the Queensland Government for the
2006-07 and 2007-08 local government rates periods, is available to
primary producers in an Exceptional Circumstance (EC) declared area
of Queensland who have received EC Relief Payments at any time
during the 90 days before receiving the rates notice. Around 3500
producers are eligible for a 50 per cent rebate on their local
government rates.
Contact QRAA on 1800 623 946 or visit QRAA website to
obtain the Drought Rate Rebate Scheme Application Form and
eligibility terms and conditions.
Visit the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries website
or call on 13 25 23 for information on drought financial assistance
services.
Burdekin Coastal Values survey
130 people took the time to complete the Burdekin Coastal Values
survey on how the coast should be managed as part of the
development process for the Burdekin Coastal Management Plan.
Waste, dune erosion and amenities were the top concerns.
Recreational fishing was the most popular activity followed by
boating, relaxing and walking.
GIS Software Information
Information on how property owners can get hold of GIS software
at heavily discounted rates through the ESRI NRM Conservation Grant
can be found on: www.bdtnrm.org.au/gisweb/software/index.html
Privacy Policy
BDTNRM assures you that your personal information will not be
given or sold to any individual or organisation. The Privacy Act
entitles you to access information about yourself held by
BDTNRM.
If you consider this information to be incorrect, incomplete or
in need of adjustment, you may request that it be adjusted. Unless
the information is required to be held for statutory reasons, you
may request that it be removed.
For more information or to access your information, please
contact our office (07) 4724-3544 or Deb.Cavanagh@bdtnrm.org.au
To unsubscribe to this newsletter contact Deb.Cavanagh@bdtnrm.org.au
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Bark newsletter go to our website www.bdtnrm.org.au .