This case study was derived from: Weatherstone J (2003) ‘Lyndfield Park: Looking back, moving forward.’ Greening Australia and Land & Water Australia, Canberra, ACT.
In the early 1980s Lyndfield Park was a typical grazing property in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales. Its main enterprise was fine-wool Merino sheep with a few head of beef cattle and some cereal grains. In 1982, it faced environmental problems such as salinity, acid soils, erosion, weeds, lack of shelter of livestock, eucalypt dieback and declining biodiversity. During the 1982–83 drought, the worst in living memory, other environmental problems were unintentionally introduced. These included loss of soil structure, low soil organic matter levels, and increasing problems with new pests and diseases. These problems were brought about by practices such as intensive cultivation, stubble burning, heavy fertiliser applications and intensive grazing. Figure 14: Lyndfield Park (Christmas Eve 1982) – “There was just no grass, and the drought winds were blowing away what vestige of organic matter and topsoil was left.”
Source: Weatherstone J (2003) ‘Lyndfield Park: Looking back, moving forward.’ Greening Australia ACT & SE NSW and Land & Water Australia, Canberra ACT.
The drought represented a turning point for Lyndfield Park’s owners, the Weatherstones. When it broke in 1983, John Weatherstone began to make fundamental changes to how the property was managed. He decided to move away from traditional farming practices as these were placing significant stresses on the land and limiting its ability to cope with environmental stress such as drought. The changes involved reducing the pressures placed on the land and caring for assets on which the productivity of the farm was based. John explains: “I may have looked like a greenie to some people but at heart I was still a farmer looking to work the land. I was just working it in a different way.” The farm business diversified into four separate but inter-related enterprises: sheep, cattle, native plants and native seed. Then John decided to remove sheep altogether and diversify the work with trees and shrubs into seed orchards and farm forestry. The emphasis with the farm forestry enterprise is for low volume, high value, furniture and specialty timber. A number of species have been trialled and shown good potential. The range of activities undertaken to improve the property, and their associated actions and results, is detailed in Table 8.
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| | Consider how the management changes implemented at Lyndfield Park have improved degrading land and diversified production | | | COST |  | | | TIME |  | | | COMPLEXITY |  | | | | |
The property has essentially evolved from a sheep farm into a native plant and seed farm with a beef cattle enterprise. When the project description Lyndfield Park: Looking back, moving forward was written (Summer 2003), the property was experiencing a period of drought and bushfires. By this time, however, most of the property was protected by trees, shrubs and perennial grasses. The topsoil is protected from wind erosion, carrying comparatively good stock numbers and when the rains come, John expects the farm to recover quickly. “Our land is worth more, my work is happier and healthier, and my family has a more secure future.” Table 8: A list of changes (activities) made on Lyndfield Park, on-ground changes and the results
Source: Compiled from Weatherstone J (2003) ‘Lyndfield Park: Looking back, moving forward.’ Greening Australia ACT & SE NSW and Land & Water Australia, Canberra ACT.
Figure 15: Lyndfield Park before and after management changes (Top photo: drought 1982; bottom left: good conditions 2000; bottom right: drought 2003
Source: Weatherstone J (2003) ‘Lyndfield Park: Looking back, moving forward.’ Greening Australia ACT & SE NSW and Land & Water Australia, Canberra ACT.
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