Healing hydrographs with The Scots College

Revegetation planting on the hilltop contour at ‘Duralla’, Mulloon Creek Natural Farms.

Education team Tam Connor and Laura Fisher had a blast recently hosting the Year 12 Agriculture class camp from The Scots College. The students were a fantastic bunch: engaged, questioning and with much knowledge of their own to share. 

The students investigated Landscape Rehydration strategies across the Home Farm, including contours, grazing management, weirs and riparian zone restoration. They planted Lomandra grass on the breezy Duralla hilltop, practiced assessing soil health, analysed phases of gully erosion and repair, and talked with Farm Manager Matt Narracott around the campfire about Mulloon Creek Natural Farms.  

This was all tied together with a ‘Heal your Hydrograph’ modeling exercise with model-maker Gary McGuigan, who had prepared a new prototype utilising fine silt material. When sprayed with water, this model displayed creek meandering, erosion and alluvial fan formation in fine detail. The students interacted with a miniature version of the Home Farm landscape, adding the Landscape Rehydration strategies they’d learnt about during the day. They then measured how long it took for the water to move through the catchment as it progressively slowed the flow.

The Modelling Landscape Rehydration for Catchments, Communities and Curriculum project received grant funding from the Australian Government. Led by Research Officer Laura Fisher, the project will generate models of all kinds to catalyse learning about landscape rehydration.

The Mulloon experience opened my eyes to applying the methods we learned in class surrounding Regenerative Agriculture. I realise now that it is of key importance that in the future the regenerative way of agriculture is practised and taught to producers across Australia. Using scale models and visiting sites on-farm, we were able to visualise and see the regenerative agriculture technologies being applied today and it was great to recall the aspects of the theory we knew, and learn about new and exciting techniques in the field. The changing landscape of modern Agriculture is ongoing and producers need to adapt to the climate, for the future success of the industry. - William Farquhar

Landscape modelling exercise using Gary’s fine silt prototype.