Chair update, Winter 2024
When Tony Coote established the Mulloon Institute in 2011, he placed science and evidence at the heart of everything we do.
From the beginning of the organisation, we funded scientific studies and scientists. Scientific study is hard, expensive and takes a lot of time, but this was a visionary decision that is now bearing fruit.
Tony had the foresight to know that when proposing a radical change in how we care for and manage our country, we needed to change attitudes amongst a naturally conservative and cynical audience (being regional landowners – who are conservative and cynical for good reason). To change the attitudes of professional farmers we needed sound scientific arguments backed by solid scientific evidence. Once that hurdle is crossed (and we are crossing it as we speak), we can then make the economic case as to why this spend is worthwhile for the long-term financial health of the landowner.
We presented our scientific data from the Mulloon Rehydration Initiative at our inaugural Conference earlier this month. Some of this data goes back to 2006.
The data is now forming the backbone of our arguments and evidence as to why our techniques should be instituted across Australia.
This data allows us to confidently say to farmers, academics and government that, based on scientific evidence, a repaired catchment containing our leaky weirs:
increases the volume of water that flows down a catchment;
improves the quality of water in the catchment;
increases the biodiversity of the catchment (birds, frogs, fish and invertebrates);
increases the amount of carbon stored in our soils (hydrated soils are excellent carbon sinks);
improves agricultural productivity and land carrying capacity;
decreases flood power and damage; and
decreases water stress for landholders.
The scientific evidence presented at the Mulloon Rehydration Conference by Peter Hazell and his scientists provides the whole organisation – the Mulloon educators, lobbyists and consultants – with the intellectual and moral firepower to press our case across Australia.
We are using the evidence in several fields including approaching Water authorities to make the case that their water quality and filtration budget should be spent not in the dams, but in installing leaky weirs in their catchments.
So, congratulations to our nerds in gumboots. Our scientists continue to lead and inform our organisation and the success of the recent conference was their success.