Outback landscape restoration

Louise Turner has taken on a large scale landscape restoration project on the 36,420-hectare Goodwood Station near White Cliffs in outback western NSW with the help of seed nurseries.

The property has been in her husband Zane’s family for 72 years and, like much of the surrounding area, has suffered from overgrazing.

“There was a lack of knowledge about how to graze it,” Louise said.

“No one really understood the landscape at the time because it’s very different on the western side of the Great Diving Range.”

But Louise says with new best-practice information, they have been able to take significant steps to improve land management in their Merino/Dohne ewe flock (wool & meat production) business.

Louise, who is a member of the NSW Farmers Wilcannia/White Cliffs branch, has taken a Landcare-led approach to restoring Goodwood Station, using seed nurseries as a method of improving environmental condition. By fencing off one-hectare sections of her property using 2.1m high animal proof exclusion fencing, she has created a number of seed nurseries where locally native plants, such as Speargrass (Austrostipa sp.), Wiregrass (Aristida sp.) and Lantern Bush (Abutilon sp.) can thrive.

Already there is an abundance of native seed, which Louise has used for propagation and creating native groundcover through both direct planting and natural dispersion from the seed nurseries themselves.

To find out more about seed nurseries contact Louise Turner at Western Landcare NSW at [email protected], visit the National Landcare Directory or get in touch with your local State or Territory Landcare Organisation.