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From the Chairman, The Mulloon Institute
My
last update concentrated on the incredible challenge the summer bushfires presented to us all and I spoke about the opportunity for future resilience through the landscape repair and rehydration work being done by
The Mulloon Institute (TMI). February has been very much recovery time for so many people directly affected by the fires, but we have also seen both good and bad
'flowing' in their aftermath. Thus, this month's update
'Flowing February'.
Image: Peter's Pond, February 2020 - hooray!
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Looking much greener at the Home Farm |
Rain - both good & bad
Over the last month, we have received much rain in the Mulloon Catchment which has had both positive and some less desirable effects. On the good side, very decent rain was received over drought and fire affected areas; and on the bad side, increased turbidity was recorded in Mulloon Creek due to increased sediment and debris.
Read more.
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Pulse of water flowing over structure PM14 at Palerang
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Drought, fire and then flood!
Imagine an Olympic swimming pool filling up in 40 seconds. That's how fast the water pulsed through Mulloon Creek - twice during one week in February 2020. After the driest nine months on record and after bushfires within the upper half of the catchment, finally the heavens opened on the 9th February dumping possibly 200mm at the top end of the catchment. Read more
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Minderoo Foundation
There has been an incredible level of generosity shown from people and organisations to those affected by the fires and one of those was Andrew and Nicola Forrest's
Minderoo Foundation. A total of $70m was pledged by the Forrests, $10m for the immediate response, $10m for recovery and $50m for future resilience.
Given the role
landscape rehydration can play in
resilience to drought, flood and fire, I was pleased to have contact with Andrew Forrest in February to explain that connection. I then subsequently met with Adrian Turner from Minderoo who is heading up the program that will be seeking solutions that could make our country that much more resilient to future fires. We look forward to working with Minderoo on that task.
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Gary Nairn hosting SAIP visitors to Mulloon in August 2019 |
Spreading the word
TMI's Chairman Gary Nairn has been busy
presenting our work in Melbourne and making and reinforcing important connections with people and organisations interested in regenerative agriculture and landscape rehydration, including the
Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform, the
Yeoman Society and the
Global Evergreening Alliance.
Read more
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NSW Drought Resilience Forum
The Mulloon Institute's CEO Carolyn Hall attended the
UNSW Water Research Centre's NSW Drought Resilience Forum on 10 February 2020 where a variety of researchers, industry and government representatives and community stakeholders came together to discuss our current water challenges and to explore a range of solutions. Much interest was shown by participants in the MCLRP as a catchment scale landscape rehydration project at this event.
Read more
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Belltrees PS students Learning about contours with MCNF Farm Manager Michael Fitzgerald
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Visits to Mulloon Creek
Several private tour groups have visited us recently to see our landscape rehydration works at MCNF, including
Belltrees Public School (
view photos),
Hovells Creek Landcare. Upcoming private tours are scheduled for
Barker College's Geography students, the
Turnip Creek Restoration Project and
University of Canberra geology and soils students.
If your school is interested in visiting Mulloon Creek as part of your curriculum, please download our
'Educational School Tours' brochure.
Upcoming events at Mulloon that are open to the public include:
- 2020 Mulloon Creek Field Day, Saturday 7 November 2020, save the date!
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Damon Gameau at the 'Regenerative Agriculture' event |
In the Barn
Our barn on the Home Farm continues to be a wonderful venue for a variety of landscape related functions. In February we were pleased to host Carbon8 and the Clean Energy Regulator for the release of a plain speaking guide to joining the carbon market. About 120 people came along to hear a number of presentations that took a deep dive into discussions around Fire, Carbon, Water to learn how to help mitigate fire and rehydrate farms. Highlights of the day included presentations by Walter Jehne, Helen and Mike McCosker, our own Luke Peel and Damon Gameau producer of the 2040 film. View more photos here.
We also hosted the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade who enjoyed a tour of the pilot project site with Luke Peel and James Diack, a tasty lunch and afternoon in the barn.
The barn was also the venue for a slightly different function when MCNF Farm Manager, Michael Fitzgerald, gave away his daughter, Molly. Molly and Peter, both MCNF employees, are now a happily married couple. Congratulations from TMI, MCCC & MCNF!
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Landscape rehydration training
We have two dates scheduled for Natural Sequence Farming training coming up at Mulloon, with our training partners
Tarwyn Park Training
: 16-19 March (SOLD OUT) and 19-22 May 2020 (only 7 places remaining). Bookings for these courses are being taken via the TPT website.
Sponsorship in Memory of Alan Eagle
Expressions of interest are being taken for a partly sponsored ($1500) place on an upcoming NSF course held at Mulloon Creek.
The sponsorship is a generous donation from Cheryl Whittaker of Cheryl's Backyard Harvest, in memory of Alan Eagle and in recognition of his work and leadership of the
Hawkesbury Harvest
. Eligible farmers will need to be
from the Hawkesbury region and currently farming in the Greater Sydney basin, peri-urban area extending west to the Blue Mountains. Find out more
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Creek works underway at Duralla |
Mulloon Community Landscape Rehydration Project
The
Mulloon Community Landscape Rehydration Project (MCLRP) progressed during February but was restricted in its on-ground works at Duralla thanks to a shortage of logs from the
NSW Forestry Corporation
due to bushfire impact. Fortunately we were able to use
leftover logs from the Palerang structures and the reminder of work on Duralla will be completed
once more logs are available.
Much work has been done in developing the hydraulic measurements and data recording that will be a feature of the MCLRP scientific data. Luke Peel and the Science Advisory Council (SAC) have been working closely with HydroTerra on the Mulloon Institute Monitoring Strategy. Our SAC has also been working hard on a TMI Framework paper covering the long term environmental research and monitoring in a production and social context. SAC will be seeking to have the final paper published in the Ecological Management and Restoration publication.
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Log and rock weir at Mt Pleasant Station, 10 days after 100mm of rain |
Mulloon Consulting Contracting & Certifying
Peter Hazell completed the detailed design report for gully remediation at Sandringham Plains a property located north of
Rockhampton. The plans were developed to remediate a 450 metre section of eroded gully and will potentially rehydrate a 68 hectare catchment on Sandringham Plains. In addition, Anne Gibson completed detailed designs for a property at
Braidwood focused on revegetation, landscape repair, and landscape rehydration.
MCCC and TMI also welcomed another new employee, Nolani McColl, who comes from the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) with extensive experience in our fields of interest - welcome Nolani.
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L-R: Wilfred Finn (MLC), Trudy Sheehan (MLC), Gary Nairn AO (TMI Chairman), Carolyn Hall (TMI CEO) and Matt Egerton-Warburton (MLC Chairman) |
Mulloon Law Commitee
The
Mulloon Law Committee (MLC) under the guidance of Matt Egerton-Warburton, has been hard at work finalising a
Briefing Paper and
Scientific Compendium in preparation for meetings with NSW Ministers in March, followed by an Information Session at NSW Parliament House. The committee's work is focussed on finding workable solutions to the regulatory barriers we face in doing environmental repair in NSW waterways. Matt and his team have done a great job and I will report on the outcomes of the meetings next month.
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In conclusion water, fertility and ideas have all been
flowing freely during February. The benefits of those flows are already being seen with much more to come in future weeks and months. I look forward to reporting on those benefits at the end of March. All the very best for a productive March.
Cheers,
Gary Nairn AO
The Mulloon Institute, Chairman
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