Boots on Ground mentoring day
The inaugural muddying of the boots for this groundbreaking project was the culmination of community effort for CoPP mentorship participant Codie Law. As one of nine properties receiving mentoring, Codie is a member of the vibrant and active GWYMAC Landcare community.
For the last six months Codie has been working with landscape mentors Erin Healy and Peter Hazell, GWYMAC Landcare’s Byron Norman, and community leader in landscape rehydration Johannes Meier, propelling this project from concept to construction.
Peter Hazell and land managers discussing the project plan
As a second-generation farmer in a livestock grazing enterprise and with the next generation fast coming up the ranks, Codie was eager to undertake his first landscape rehydration project that integrated with his broader regenerative vision across the property. Codie’s vision is to manage water more effectively, improve water reliability and quality, and reduce run-off from cultivated paddocks which are causing the active erosion of waterways and threatening a dam structure.
Guidance and support were aplenty throughout the program to assist Codie in identifying and prioritising locations for project sites using desktop and field-based assessment tools. When it came to selecting nature-based structures, the community pitched in to find locally sourced rocks, logs, branches and equipment.
Under a perfect blue sky in May, the community gathered to learn, share and help. The morning was spent refreshing collective knowledge of landscape observation skills and best-practice design for natural infrastructure. Before long, the group was well underway overseeing and participating in the construction of four different types of structures.
The build crew was led by Peter Hazell who shared his knowledge of structure design, purpose and the Mulloon construction process. Peter was joined by Mulloon’s Manager of Learning and Development, Tam Connor. It was fantastic to have her out in the field with ‘boots on ground’, engaging in the wonderful program she has worked so hard on to develop with her team.
The build team pitching in to move rock, soil and peg stakes
Pin weir and Log sill structures
When it was time to begin, local machinery operators were eager to volunteer on the tools and move earth and rock. Others donned boots and gloves to help with the final stages. Then, together, the group got down to the muddy fun of setting rocks in a log sill ramp, weaving branches in a pin weir, setting out coir rolls and transplanting cumbungi in the ponds, before hearing how to retrofit old soil banks to reinstate overland flow.
Looking back on the excitement and enthusiasm of the ‘Boots on Ground’ day, it was a clear showcase of the community momentum that has been gathering in the Swan Brook catchment and wider Northern Tablelands. The community of land managers and NRM professionals banding together to make landscape rehydration widespread practice, is a bright and hopeful window into a sustainable and resilient future, for environment, farming and community.
Log sill pond with planted cumbungi to kick start plant growth
This project received funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.
Project plan