This case study was derived from Curry C (unpub) ‘Gregory Downs Station Information Sheet’. Greening Australia Queensland, Brisbane Qld., and Jenny White (pers. com.) of Australian Agricultural Company.
Gregory Downs Pastoral Station is a large pastoral property (266,425 ha) 100km south of Burketown in the Southern Gulf region of Australia’s north (Figure 31). Gregory Downs runs approximately 24,000 predominantly Brahman cattle. It operates as an overall breeding property, sending steers and cull heifers to growing out properties. The property is a good mix of land and soil types (Figure 32) so can handle most seasons wet or dry. The Brahman herds thrive on good quality Mitchell grass, Bluegrasses, Flinders grass and native legumes found in the downs country. The station is owned and operated by the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo). Established as a land development company in 1824, the AACo is one of the oldest companies in Australia with over 180 years of continuous operation. Today, it runs about 500,000 beef cattle on 24 cattle stations in Queensland and the Northern Territory covering an area of 7.9 million hectares (about 1 per cent of Australia’s land mass). Over 99 per cent of AACo land holdings are managed to maximize the protection of native vegetation and has never been subject to broadscale tree clearing. The remaining 1 per cent is improved pasture and cropped land, maintained for the production of beef cattle. With spatially diversified and integrated properties, including two feedlots, the company is in a position to move stock around and therefore adjust stocking rates to achieve targeted growth rates from safe stocking rates. AACo stations have established pasture-monitoring sites in order to determine trends in rangeland condition and assist in determining feed availability. The company has an environmental policy that aims to balance production, soil, water and biodiversity values. To support this policy, AACo is developing an Environmental Management System (EMS), which will allow it to measure and report on how well it is performing in terms of environmental management. Figure 32: Land types on Gregory Downs Pastoral Station and fencing for the riparian protection project
Source: Australian Agricultural Company (AACo).
As part of the EMS, the AACo is developing holistic Natural Resource Management Plans for all of its stations, of which Gregory Downs is complete. These Natural Resource Management Plans include a risk assessment, prioritisation of hazards, action and monitoring programs. Natural resource management hazards identified by the property manager (Gregory Downs Station) and AACo Rangelands Manager include invasive exotic woody weeds, over-utilisation of pastures, trampling effects of livestock on susceptible land types (such as riparian areas), erosion, feral animals, wildfire, vegetation thickening, and unregulated bush camping (and littering) along the river banks. On-ground projects at Gregory Downs Station have sought to better manage native vegetation and biodiversity over the whole property as well as afford greater protection to riparian ecosystems, frontage woodland and floodout areas. This involves: - fencing off all perennial streams (often to widths of 1-2 km);
- provision of additional watering points to achieve more even grazing distribution over more of the property;
- control of invasive weed species, namely, calotrope (Calotropis gigantea and C procera), parkinsonia (Parkinsonia aculeata), bellyache bush (Jatropha gossypifolia) and rubber vine (Cryptostegia grandiflora) on the riverine frontages; and
- control of tourist access to camping sites along the river.
In addition Gregory Downs has developed co-operative landcare and weed management relationships with neighbouring, upstream and downstream property owners and managers. Figure 33: Riparian zone, Gregory River
Source: Curry C (2004) Gregory Downs Station information sheet. (available from Charles Curry, GAQ Programs Development Officer for Southern Gulf Catchments at ccurry@southerngulfcatchments.com.au)
The Gregory River is recognised as significant in the region in terms of its strategic conservation value. The AACo Gregory Downs - Gregory River Riparian Protection project serves as a practical demonstration for best practice management of native vegetation on river banks, alluvial plains and frontage woodland along the Gregory River and associated systems. Those involved in the project hope to demonstrate the management ‘pay back’ associated with undertaking these works as a way of encouraging others in the catchment to contribute to further advances in sustainable land management. Management has classified and described each land type (Figure 32) according to their erosiveness, productivity and resilience to grazing. This is used as a guide for all fencing management decisions, including that of the Gregory River Riparian Protection project/s. Fencing on the Gregory River and associated tributaries will enable differential management of an estimated 1,500 hectares of the Gregory River/Beames Brook and adjacent frontage, floodout and wetland country. Previous projects have allowed for better management of cattle within riparian zones of over 3,000 hectares. These on-ground works will be combined with a package of management actions including the construction of alternative watering facilities in paddocks and a program of weed control (and eradication where possible) in vulnerable riparian areas. Exotic woody weeds pose a considerable threat to the environmental health of river systems of northern Australia, and one that is very real on the Gregory River. A weed management plan has been instigated within and external to the project area. The fencing projects have complemented this weed plan by enabling a controlled situation for flexible weed control and management activities. The weed plan activities undertaken on Gregory Downs include the control and management of rubber vine, bellyache bush, parkinsonia and calotrope within the project area. Figure 34: Rubber vine: a serious weed along rivers in northern Australia
Source: Curry C (2004) Gregory Downs Station information sheet. (available from Charles Curry, GAQ Programs Development Officer for Southern Gulf Catchments at ccurry@southerngulfcatchments.com.au)
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