In November we hosted our first field day in quite a while! We welcomed over 80 guests, many of whom had not visited the farm or were new to Mulloon, as well as new staff and Board members.
Soil Land Food’s David Hardwick deftly rolled the soil, water, climate story together with a compelling opening talk that built on the previous day’s excellent Soil Blitz. We then dabbled in the data with ANU Emeritus Professor Steve Dovers, who shared what the Mulloon Creek monitoring is revealing about the hydrological function of the floodplain.
We launched The Regenerative Power of Water publication – what a milestone. WaterNSW’s Stuart Naylor and scientific illustrator Tilda Joy, joined Laura, Erin and Carolyn to celebrate this collaborative effort to create a book that shares how water-focused nature repair really works! The methods it describes are being put into practice by communities across the Sydney Catchment area who are taking part in the pilot phase our Water Stewardship Program, and we got to hear about them as well. A candid Q&A attested to how many people in the room are working hard to keep our agri–enterprises, ecosystems and rural communities healthy and able to adapt to constant change. Mulloon Institute’s other fresh grant-funded projects – LiFT and TIMME – were also on show.
Pictured at right: Laura, Stuart, Carolyn and Erin launched The Regenerative Power of Water on the day.
All photos on this page by NVIRO Media.
After lunch things got interactive in the dappled outdoors. Soil Land Food David and Simon Mattsson, along with Ryan (pictured right) and Brooke demonstrated the fantastic Holistic Assessment of Soil Health (HASH) Kit. Culinary artist Marnee Fox enlisted our tastebuds to help our minds gain deeper soil literacy, yum (see photo in banner, top of page). Holistic farmer and artist Erika Watson laid out her luxurious ‘Grazing Blankets’, inviting close engagement with soil, the precious litter layer and the plant-herbivore relationship. And the silt models, ably demonstrated by Sharni, Mitch and Tam, captured attention as audiences could see clearly how water builds and erodes landforms over time, in miniature. We then hopped over to Duralla to see an in-stream structure up close and climb the hill to get perspective on the floodplain.
Perhaps the best part of the day was the hum of many conversations as this wonderful crowd mingled and got to know each other. Thank you to everyone who made the effort to attend, ‘eat dirt’, ask questions and take part, it really means a lot to the Mulloon team that you all joined us!
LiFT is funded by the Australian Government under the National Heritage Trust’s Climate-Smart Agriculture Program.
TIMME is funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry through the Future Drought Fund (Resilient Landscapes Program).
The Water Stewardship Program is supported by The Ian Potter Foundation.
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge more photos by NVIRO Media of the day.
