Queensland Trust For Nature

Author: Michael Beaumont

  • Rainy Mountain Nature Refuge

    Rainy Mountain Nature Refuge

    Di and Philip Daniels are in the final stage of having 94 acres of their 97-acre property at the base of Rainy Mountain in Kuranda declared as a nature refuge.

    After purchasing the property three years ago and retiring there in 2019, Di and Philip knew they wanted to look after and conserve the abundant flora and fauna they now live amongst including their regular visitor, a female cassowary.

    The Daniels worked with QTFN to establish a nature refuge agreement. In the process, they have learned more and more about the ecological value of their property and how to care for it.

    This includes providing habitat for critically endangered Kuranda treefrog (Litoria myola) living in their creek, a fact discovered during QTFN’s nature refuge assessment.

    “We feel it is a privilege to be living here in the rainforest. Ensuring the land and its flora and fauna are protected under a nature refuge agreement is our way of preserving it for future generations. It is exactly what we wanted and QTFN has been fantastic.”

    Di Daniels, Owner, Rainy Mountain Nature Refuge

  • Supporting WWF to explore biodiversity co-benefits in Central Queensland

    Supporting WWF to explore biodiversity co-benefits in Central Queensland

    QTFN is supporting another initiative funded by the Queensland Government as part of the Pilot Projects Program of the Land Restoration Fund. The World Wildlife Fund for Nature Australia’s (WWF) Protecting Threatened Species and Restoring Grazing Land project in Central Queensland is helping to kickstart the biodiversity co-benefits market in Queensland.

    Like our Counting the Co-Benefits project at Aroona Station, the project is exploring how carbon abatement can be delivered alongside measurable environmental, social, economic and First Nations co-benefits.

    WWF has identified priority areas for vegetation protection and restoration in Great Barrier Reef Catchments. Beef producers within those priority areas were invited to participate in a pilot project to examine carbon farming using Human Induced Regeneration with biodiversity co-benefits on grazing land.

    Three producer families in Central Queensland joined the project and agreed to collaborate to examine carbon and biodiversity opportunities on their properties.

    During 2020, our experienced ecologists were engaged by WWF to conduct field assessments on three privately held grazing properties in the catchment to determine their ecological value.

    Working closely with the landowners, we established a baseline of each property’s ecology, and provided recommendations for how land management and conservation techniques could be deployed to improve ecological value.

    Already using sustainable, best management practices on their cattle properties, the landholders are highly motivated to do more to protect and enhance their land’s biodiversity and tap into environmental markets that reward their conservation efforts and outcomes.

    The ecological assessments conducted by QTFN highlighted previously unknown populations of vulnerable greater glider (Petauroides Volans) on two of the properties surveyed, including Murray and Wendy Gibson’s cattle property Coonabar, north of Rolleston, which they manage in partnership with their son Cameron and his wife, Kristy.

    For 22 years, the Gibsons have been using cell grazing – matching stocking rates to carrying capacity – to maximise ecosystem health and business profitability.

    Their considered approach to land management has included allowing regrowth to grow back in strips, with a time-controlled grazing system to manage pasture in-between the naturally regenerating strips.

    This unique style of property management has increased the strength and resilience of their grazing land as well as their property’s natural capital.

    The first time a comprehensive ecological assessment has been carried out on the property, Cameron and Kristy and their three sons were thrilled to have the opportunity to better understand the flora, fauna and ecosystems they support.

    This includes threatened poplar box (Eucalyptus populnea) and brigalow (Acacia harpophylla) ecosystems, threatened species such as greater glider, koala and the vulnerable ornamental snake (Denisonia maculate), as well as abundant birdlife and a host of frogs.

  • Accounting for Nature

    Accounting for Nature

    In 2020, QTFN moved to implement the Accounting for Nature® Framework model at Aroona Station – a scientifically credible and trusted natural capital accounting standard used to measure the condition of environmental assets and inform investment and management decisions.

    As an approved provider of co-benefit verification under the Land Restoration Fund, Accounting for Nature® is a critical element of the Counting the Co-Benefits project.

    The collation of data for Aroona Station is underway, and we expect to have our first verified Environmental Condition Index (EcondTM) score for the property in March 2021, providing us with an overall picture of the impact of our habitat restoration and land management activities to date.

    A trial roll-out of the award-winning Accounting for Nature® Framework is already underway at Koala Crossing providing an initial EcondTM score for the property.

    “We are currently experiencing the next evolution of environmental markets where consumers and investors are seeking sustainable food and fibre products that support biodiversity conservation, carbon emissions reductions and regional livelihoods. Quantifying, verifying and communicating the environmental impact of their land management through the use of Accounting for Nature® will unlock new sources of finance for organisations like QTFN and new economic opportunities for Queensland farmers and regional communities. QTFN’s strategy to tap into healthy natural capital-oriented public and private sector investment is very forward-thinking.”

    Dr Adrian Ward, CEO, Accounting for Nature

     

  • Refuge habitat for the brush-tailed rock-wallaby

    Refuge habitat for the brush-tailed rock-wallaby

    Aroona Station features around 200 hectares of core habitat for the vulnerable brush-tailed rock-wallaby.

     In 2020, as part of our ongoing research into these unique Aroona residents, we completed our third year of breeding season monitoring programs using motion-sensitive wildlife cameras strategically positioned in known brush-tailed rock-wallaby hang outs.

    The monitoring program again showed Aroona Station’s three rock-wallaby colonies are healthy and breeding, safe and protected amongst the dense rainforest gullies, open eucalypt forests and rocky outcrops found on the property.

    In 2021, QTFN will partner with the University of Queensland to extend this research to survey and map the distribution of brush-tailed rock-wallaby and spotted-tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus maculatus) on a regional scale.

    The project, supported by a Queensland Government Community Sustainability Action grant, will be carried out across at least five locations within Main Range and Little Liverpool Range including Aroona Station.

  • Counting the Co-Benefits

    Counting the Co-Benefits

    As the carbon offset or carbon farming market grows in its maturity, there is considerable interest in how biodiversity co-benefits can be harnessed and developed as a complementary market.

    QTFN’s Counting the Co-Benefits project will demonstrate how landholders can create a sustainable agribusiness by leveraging environmental markets to diversify their revenue streams. This initiative is supported by the Queensland Government as part of the Pilot Projects Program of the Land Restoration Fund.

    Managed as a low-intensity grazing property, conservation, research and education area, Aroona Station is ideally positioned to provide a real-life demonstration of how carbon farming activities can sequester or abate greenhouse gas emissions and at the same time, deliver valuable environmental, economic, social and First Nations co-benefits.

    The project will combine revegetation and assisted regeneration techniques to increase koala habitat and habitat for other threatened species such as the brush-tailed rock-wallaby, with carbon offset outcomes and co-benefits.

    In the project’s start-up phase, QTFN and our project partners Greencollar and Firesticks Alliance have been working to develop the project plan and establish a baseline for defining and measuring the environmental co-benefits of the carbon offset project using the Accounting for Nature® Framework.

  • Walking the island together

    Walking the island together

    In November last year, Traditional Owner Samarla Deshong spent a week on Avoid Island with QTFN’s Dr Renee Rossini.

    Samarla and Renee spent time walking the island, which is on Koinmerburra saltwater country, identifying plants and setting up direct seeding experiments across the island.

    Samarla shared her knowledge of traditional uses of the plants, bush tucker and First Nations land management values.

    Since the visit, Samarla and Renee have started building a seed library and plant database for Avoid Island, documenting Koinmerburra names and uses for plants.

  • Eradication of invasive weeds

    Eradication of invasive weeds

    In 2020, QTFN wrapped up a three-year weed and marine debris clean-up project supported by a Queensland Department of Environment and Science Community Sustainability Action grant.

    With the assistance of volunteers, we have reduced the presence of the invasive Mossman River grass (Cenchrus echinatus) year-on-year, ending the program with a 99 per cent reduction in the infested area and the near-eradication of three other weeds – balloon cottonbush (Gomphocarpus physocarpus), lantana (Lantana camara) and rattlepod (Crotalaria pallida).

    Over the course of the project, 90kg of marine debris, including plastic bottle caps, commercial fishing debris and plastic toothbrushes, was cleared from turtle nesting beaches.

    The control of weed seed spread and removal of weeds has resulted in a visible recovery of dune vegetation and stopped weeds invading the endangered vine thicket community which provides habitat for birds such as the pied imperial-pigeon (Ducula bicolor).

  • Monitoring island birdlife

    Monitoring island birdlife

    Avoid Island’s unique combination of fruit-rich coastal scrub, open eucalypt woodland, mangrove and tidal flats, provides habitat for an estimated 84 species of migratory and resident birds.

    In the last half of 2020, experts from the Mackay chapter of BirdLife and the Queensland Wader study group joined us on the island to document bird diversity.

    The survey found 18 species of shore bird including notable sightings of critically endangered eastern curlew (Numenius madagascariensis) and bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica); as well as vulnerable white-throated needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus) and a pair of nesting white-bellied sea-eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster).

  • Thriving and surviving flatback turtles

    Thriving and surviving flatback turtles

    Mysterious and majestic, flatback turtles are the only sea turtle to nest solely on Australian shores and Avoid Island is one of four island rookeries favoured by the turtle’s southern population.

    In 2020:

    • More than 108 turtles had nested on the island at the start of the October to December 2020 nesting season, laying an estimated 7,300 eggs. This included four new turtles (two more than previous years).
    • Two remote camera traps installed on the primary nesting beach are capturing images of the hatchlings as they emerge from the nests.

    In 2021, QTFN will continue our collaboration with Mackay and District Turtle Watch to conduct turtle surveys, and partner with University of Queensland to complement the flatback turtle research program with climate change modelling and adaptation policies, as well as explore opportunities to build First Nations involvement in turtle monitoring.

  • Great Barrier Reef Foundation Reef Islands Initiative

    Great Barrier Reef Foundation Reef Islands Initiative

    In December 2020, QTFN and its project partners, Koinmerburra Aboriginal Corporation and Mackay and District Turtle Watch, were awarded a $200,000 grant from the Great Barrier Reef Foundation Reef Islands Initiative.

    The grant provides funding for the joint delivery of land management, education and threatened species research outcomes over a four-year period, and a part-time Indigenous Ranger position.

    The grant also provides seed funding to progressively transition the island to a self-sustaining financial model.

    This will involve the creation of an annual cycle of environmental, educational and cultural experiences where people can pay to come to the island and engage, learn and work alongside QTFN, researchers and Traditional Owners.

    The Reef Islands Initiative is establishing a network of climate change refuges by protecting critical habitats across the Great Barrier Reef. Pioneered by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, the 10-year program is supported by funding from Lendlease, the Australian Government’s Reef Trust, the Queensland Government and the Fitzgerald Family Foundation.

  • Caring for Country

    Caring for Country

    A major highlight for QTFN during 2020 was establishing and strengthening our relationship with the Traditional Owners of Avoid Island, the Koinmerburra people.

    Together with the Koinmerburra Aboriginal Corporation, we are developing a Memorandum of Understanding which will see us embrace a two ways land management approach on the island.

    Work has commenced on the development of a two ways management plan for the island’s terrestrial component which includes critically endangered coastal scrub and habitat for threatened birds; and a two ways threatened species management plan for the flatback turtle (Natator depressus).

  • Nesting for neighbours

    Nesting for neighbours

    As we increase the habitat for koalas at QTFN’s Koala Crossing, we are also creating habitat for a host of other native species.

    In 2020, with funding from the WIRES Landcare Wildlife Relief and Recovery Grants Program, we installed 40 nesting boxes and water drinking stations across the property.

    The nesting boxes, which were made by members of the Ipswich Men’s Shed and installed by volunteers Jackson Richards from Axis Contracting and Yvette Hadj provide a place for birds and animals to nest and care for their young.

    Built to different sizes and specifications, the nesting boxes cater for species ranging from kookaburra, rainbow lorikeet to large forest owls and small mammals like feathertail glider (Acrobates pygmaeus) and sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps).

    Three monitoring cameras also purchased with the grant will be used to non-intrusively check and monitor the nesting boxes’ use.