Mid Lachlan Landcare
supporting sustainable agriculture and restoring the environment
The Biodiversity Council’s 2026-7 Federal Budget Breakdown for Nature.
The Biodiversity Council takes a look at what’s in the budget for nature before going on to discuss if governments should look to the private sector to meet conservation funding shortfalls.
Pretty heavy topics but very watch/ listenable and thought provoking.
Some questions the webinar raised & somewhat answered that left me hankering after more information:
How much do we spend on nature?
Can nature conservation be fully funded by private investment?
Nature Markets – What is the potential?
Are real world conservation needs financially attractive (for private investment).
I enjoyed the segment presented by Sophus zu Ermgassen, from Oxford University. He studies how private finance has actually worked in nature conservation over last 50 years.
Points I highlighted from the presentation.
- Thinking that the future of nature funding is via private finance is out of whack with how things are currently. Private enterprise funding is low & nature-based projects are often not able to deliver attractive returns in desired timeframes.
- Saying the boom is just around the corner is not living up to hype. Same thing has been said for decades.
- When investors say they are interested in your project as long as returns are sufficient remember that investors will invest in literally anything that delivers sufficient returns. May need around 15% per year return. Not realistic in what we do.
- Private money can’t replace public it. If you don’t spend enough setting it up, you can achieve almost nothing by private money & systems.
- Thinking that private finance is more scalable than public money isn’t true. Government have to want conservation and support funding
- The future is best served via a balanced portfolio of public and private. There are lots of private conservation works that private funders will never be interested in.
There are currently US $7.3 trillion in economic investments that destroy nature of which $4.9 trillion private money, $2.4 trillion public.
Building nature markets for creating private goods out of public goods is really hard. Making rubbish markets is very easy.
Future benefits are discounted today as investors chase fast revenues. Most conservation does not do that.
Working Bee at Garrallan by the Galari Bila
We enjoyed a fabulous couple of days planting at at ‘Garrallan’ in Cowra earlier this month, managing to get in almost 250 plants!
On the first day we hit our target of one Hundred trees in celebration of David Attenborough’s 100th birthday. What an inspiration that man is and so are all these wonderful volunteers who ventured out planting on a foggy morning by the river.
This planting will benefit many species although it’s main aim is to increase feed trees and habitat for the Superb Parrots that bred on this amazing farm. The day was organised by Garrallan custodian Marion and funded in part by Greening Australia with our Landcare helpers joining friends and neighbours to get the job done.
Doing jobs like this is so much more fun when you can do it with such an awesome bunch of people. Also such a beautiful spot along the Lachlan (Galari) river.
Once again our timing was spot on as it rained the next week giving the new trees a boost to life at their new home.
Walumarra Ngurambang – protect (Wiradjuri) country.
Superb Parrot Planting
The first of our Saving our Superb Parrot planting days for 2026 occured earlier this month over near Toogong. Luckily, not long after the last trees touched the ground the rain came, giving all 300+ plants a great start.
Such a great effort from all involved. This tree lane is part of some great connectivity plantings across this property of varying ages including last years Glossy Black Cockatoo corridoor planting.
If you do a little bit every year it can add up to a huge change in the connectivity of a landscape.
Mushrooms Up Close: A Hands-On Discovery Night
Mycology May continued with an intereactive discovery night at Club Cowra. Author, ecologist and environmental photographer Alison Pouliot guided us through her table full of woodland treasures, answering our questions while spreading her spores of knowledge about the wood-wide-web.
Fungi truly are fascinating and it fills us with delight to see our community get whisked away by their magic.
Questions abound including this one:
“What’s the difference between mushrooms and toad stools”
The answer lies in the folk tales of our youth. Back when food was mostly foraged, inedible fungi were called ‘toad stools’ and were imbued with stories of sickness, shame and black magic. Mushroom was the name given to edible fungi!
Many people are still a little scared of the fungi world as a consequence of the ancient cultural wisdom that kept our (northern hemisphere) ancestors safe. How interesting!
GGR Presents: Underground Allies, Fungi and Healthy Landscapes.
We kicked off Mycology May with a fabulous day with our ‘Growing the Grazing Revolution’ crew at Garrallan in Cowra. It had been quite dry in the lead up to our event so mushrooms were in short supply out in the paddocks. Never mind though as Alison came prepared with a few beautiful specimins for us to explore and discuss.
Working with a farm’s natural soil biology makes so much sense. Microbes in soil act like a chemical factory, delivering what’s needed to crops, native grasses, shrubs and trees. Mycelium networks are just one of a number of ways that nutrients are shared and life preserved across an ecosystem. How to keep that underground network healthy and functional was the main topic of discussion for this session.
During our meet-up we took a moment to check in with each other and share what we’ve been reading. As you can see, our GGR team are a well-read bunch!
Pottenger’s Prophecy: How Food Resets Genes for Wellness or Illness by Deborah Kesten, Gray Graham and Larry Scherwitz.
The emerging new science of epigenetics, which reveals the foods you eat switch genes on or off that can lead either to wellness or illness.
Where the light gets in by Ben Crowe
“Where the Light Gets In” by Ben Crowe is a transformative guide that aims to alter your perspective on life by introducing nine key perspective shifts.
Two Islands by Ian Kemish.
If you needed to find somewhere safe to hide from pursuers, Skarnsey, a small (fictional) island in the Outer Hebrides off Scotland’s west coast would appear to be perfect … and Niko, a survivor of the war in the Balkans, needs to hide.
The Persian: The SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER from former CIA analyst and The Rest is Classified Podcast Co-Host David McCloskey
Last One Out, Noone stays forever. Jane Harper
He had been here, that was clear from the marks in the dust. And he had been alone. In a dying town, Ro Crowley waits for her son on the evening of his 21st birthday. But Sam never comes home. His footprints in the dust of three abandoned houses offer the only clue to his final movements. One set in. One set out.
Natures Last Dance: Tales of wonder in an age of extinction by Natalie Kyriacou
Amidst the tragedy of wild species extinction lies a hidden world of survival and wonder. Conservationists are locked in a high-stakes battle with the ghost of a drug lord and his herd of hippos. Scientists are fighting to save a flightless bird that romances rocks. Unconventional animals are upending 21st century beauty standards, and financiers are betting on whale poo to make its debut on Wall Street.
Deep Listening To Nature by Andrew Skeoch
Deep Listening to Nature is an invitation to open our ears to the natural world. Beginning by tuning in to the sound of creatures around us, Andrew discusses how to identify species by call, interpret their communications and find empathy for their sentience.
Craft For A Dry Lake by Kim Mahood
In Craft For A Dry Lake Kim Mahood takes us on a lyrical journey to her heartland – travelling with her beloved cattle dog back into the Outback of her youth, seeking to lay to rest her father’s ghost but finding herself faced with many of her own.
Crossings by Ben Goldfarb
The road to hell might be paved with good intentions, but the roads to pretty much everywhere else are paved with the corpses of animals. In Crossings, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb explores the outsized yet underappreciated impacts of the, by one estimate, 65 million kilometres of roads that hold the planet in a paved stranglehold.
The Biggest Estate on Earth by Bill Gammage.
Across Australia, early Europeans commented again and again that the land looked like a park. With extensive grassy patches and pathways, open woodlands and abundant wildlife, it evoked a country estate in England. Bill Gammage has discovered this was because Aboriginal people managed the land in a far more systematic and scientific fashion than we have ever realised.
The Dreaming and Other Essays by WEH Stanner
Without condescension and without sentimentality, in essays such as ‘The Dreaming’ Stanner conveyed the richness and uniqueness of Aboriginal culture.
Symbiotic Planet by Lynn Margulis
In Symbiotic Planet, renowned scientist Lynn Margulis shows that symbiosis, which simply means members of different species living in physical contact with each other, is crucial to the origins of evolutionary novelty.
Submission to the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s 2026 Review
Back in February we joined some from our community at one of the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s community consultation days. Following that we’ve been encouraging community members to make a submission to the authority, sharing their insights, values and perspectives on the plan. The response I wrote & submitted reflecting on my role as a Landcare coordinator is given below. While there were many potential avenues for improvement laid out in the plan, I felt asking for more resources and collaborative opportunities be directed towards Landcare a good fit. That perspective shaped the response I wrote and am sharing below.
Please do feel free to share what resonated most for you with the plan review & what angle your submission took.
Question 1: What do you think of the issues and options presented in the Basin Plan Review Discussion Paper?
I felt the basin plan made it easy to understand where previous actions had succeeded. i.e: in recovering more water and delivering some of that to the environment. I also appreciated the way the paper explored and discussed the limitations of the plan and what additional actions may be required to reach the MDBA goals. I was particularly happy to see the plan thinking outside the basin’s (riparian areas) and towards land management in catchment surrounds. This is where I feel organisations such as Landcare can really play a part in supporting the outcomes of the plan as we are in an excellent position to engage local land holders in on farm and in-community water management issues. For example, our Mid Lachlan Landcare team are ready to leverage our experience in salinity mapping and mitigating to support the MDBA reach its water quality goals. We are also well placed to work with graziers to slow run-off, improve on-farm water catchment through better grazing practice. We have also proven our worth in the wider community in our work with Oz Fish on both restoring habitat and in helping roll out a carp muster in our area. While working across basin catchments with Landcare would not solve all the issues presented in the plan, this review highlighted enough synergies and opportunities to warrant a closer look at how we can work more closely together.
Question 2: Are there other issues and options that should be considered?
Chapter 11 (Page 81 of the Discussion Paper) outlines ways to ensure there is a robust information base for future decision-making in Basin water management. There are knowledge gaps, and better science and monitoring is needed. Landcare has a history of partnering with the Australian Citizen Science Association to deliver high quality data collection projects via citizen science. I would like to see how the MDBA can leverage the opportunity this presents to fill some of the data gaps it identifies. Technology in this space is developing rapidly with tools and apps able to orientate you in the landscape and capture data collected in real time. In addition, many citizen science projects can be run autonomously on an opt-in basis by community members. Landcare can and does support these projects by promoting their presence, assisting with training and orientating participants and creating a sense of community pride around participation.
Groundtruthing – Local knowledge and connectivity.
The plan acknowledges the difficult climate environment we are entering into with more uncertainty and changing paradigms. Flexible thinking and rapid responses to changing conditions are likely to be more successful if you have real, groundtruthed knowledge, that is, information and observations that have come from real-life rather than modelling. I believe the basin plan values real-world modelling and believe that Citizen Science and organisations such as Landcare can help support the delivery of that.
Question 3: What do you see as the priorities and why?
Building strategic partnerships who can deliver on specific problems highlighted in plan feels like a useful next step. While the MDBA has identified the need for action outside of riparian areas and direct water systems, it could become too complicated, beurocratic and overwhelming to cover everything in detain under the plan. Instead, I feel the MDBA could act like a central hub of a wheel of partners working together to solve the various structural, functional and process related issues the plan has raised.
Have you provided any Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP), Cultural Knowledge or First Nations data as part of this submission?
No
Rehydrate Australia – A Film By Tarwyn Park Training
Last month I attended a live Q&A showing of the film ‘Rehydrate Australia’ by Tarwyn Park Training. Tarwyn Park teaches Natural Sequence Farming, a regenerative land management approach based on the pinoeering work of Peter Andrews and now continued by his son Stuart and family. Peter has been restoring natural water cycles and transforming the Australian farming landscape since the 1970’s when he started putting his ideas into practice at his place, Tarwyn Park in Bylong, NSW. Peter’s book ‘Back from the Brink‘ published in 2006 lays out the thinking behind his approach and forms the basis for the training courses.
The film does a good job at blending Natural Sequence Farming philosophy with examples of on-ground work, flying us across Australia and into the farms and farmers that have either completed the training course or contracted Tarwyn Park in to help re-hydrate their land.
While the educational message of the film is clear, it’s the family dynamics that really brought this film to life for me. We don’t even make it to the five minute mark before Stuart Andrews is calling his dad ‘P.A’ and explaining how growing up under his ‘stick’ was not always easy. Move on a few more minutes and Stuart is likening his dad to an African Boxthorn – A prickly plant, pioneer and doing a job others can’t do – while he feels he’s more of a blackberry bush. Bravo for them for being so game to share those interesting and useful insights.
During the Q&A Stuarts son Hamish (from Forage Farms) spoke, answering some of the tricky questions posed by this upper Blue Mountains audience. In answering it occured to me that the prickles looked to have gotten even smaller with this generation, proof indeed that natural sequence farming works for people as well as paddocks. Bravo!
The film can be viewed for free in the comfort of your own home on the Tarwyn Park Youtube chanel or you can request a showing at your local and make a night of it with all of your friends!
Australia’s Relational Ecology.
For as long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated by relationality, possibly because of my struggles with understanding human relationships…
As a child I felt like I was from another world. That I was one of the unfortunate fairy folk who’d been captured by humans and observed for their entertainment. It was odd. Perhapse I was a little odd. I’m sure I’m not the only one to have struggled to find their resonance in this world.
My fascination with how humans relate to each other expanded to encompass how different species interact with and affect those around them. That led me onto wondering about relationships between plants and trees, the weather, soil, rocks and water before my ‘but why’s’ and scientific orientation eventually led me to chemistry with all it’s molecules, atoms and bonds.
I recognise a similar pattern of wanting-to-get-to-the-rate-determining-step with the team at Earth Laws Alliance. A team who’s work is rooted in a desire to restore a real-world relationality to our legal system(s) in a bid to protect the planet and its ecological functions.
While the historical detail, culture and protocols of the legal environment in which the Earth Laws Alliance team work are unfamiliar to me, there’s a sentiment and energy that I recognise as being vital to our collective future. So with that in mind, here’s what I took away from my time in Sydney.
Just before the easter break I took the train into Sydney for a seminar by the team at Australian Earth Laws Alliance. The theme ‘Exploring rights, duties and obligations in Western and Aboriginal Law” appealed to me and the prospect of hearing from a panel of esteemed thinkers made the 2 hour each way trip feel more than worth the investment:
Dr Mary Graham Waijiin Research Centre. The University of Queensland. School of Political Science and International Studies
The Honourable Justice Brian Preston AO – the Chief Judge of the Land and Environment Court in New South Wales.
Dr Michelle Maloney – Australian Earth Laws Alliance – An Earth lawyer and advocate for ecocentric and nature based governance.
First to speak was Dr Maloney citing ‘The Great Work: Our Way Into The Future‘ by Thomas Berry as an important text in helping us understand some of the cracks that exist in our western system. As I haven’t read that book I’ll just leave it at that.
Dr Maloney then invited us to explore the role of rights and obligations in our current system and cited Mabo as a turning point in Australian law after which our legal system became more pluralistic. That is to say after Mabo, the state was no longer the only voice in the legal landscape. An example of a pluralistic legal framework is one where formal (statutory) laws coexist with community or religious norms, indigenous traditions or international regulations. Moving on, Dr Maloney mentioned a future evolution of the legal system towards one that is orientated around Bioregions. This alignment could make it easier to recognise and ultimately protect the ecological relationality of a place. This may, I’m guessing, make it more difficult for off-set schemes to continue to justify disturbing one place by planting a few trees somewhere (anywhere) else.
Next up with Justice Preston who gave us a very thorough presentation outlining how legal rights, obligation and powers currently work and how our legal system, in being aligned with a philosophy of ‘economic growth at any cost’ is incompatible with protecting the planet. He mentioned that our laws are not currently protecting biodiversity. Posed the question ‘can our system meet needs that we don’t yet understand?” and then talked us through a potential solution – If we focus on our obligations there would be no need to worry about understanding the needs as our obligations would have them covered. That our Environmentally responsible duties could be covered if we develop law from the environment rather than just applying laws to it.
Dr Mary Graham was the last to present, giving a passionate talk on how ‘this land grew us up. we became human here’. Dr Graham emphasised that the land belongs to its self – there is no other god, emphasised that in Aboriginal cultures the power always stays with the people.
Dr Graham has produced some very interesting work on Aboriginal philosophy. Here are some snippets that immediately resonated with me:
Autonomy: The power always stays with the people. Autonomy as a relational-social capacity. Autonomy requires others (Aboriginal political thought)
The relationalist ethos can be simply described as abiding attentiveness and responsibility to the patterns, contingencies, and ethical obligations that arise with relations. The relationalist ethos is a foundational Aboriginal philosophy emphasizing that all beings and land are deeply interconnected through kinship and reciprocal obligations
The Law of Obligation is a non-transactional ethic of stewardship and reciprocity. People caring for land caring for people.
On Liberalism: Liberalism constructs a moral world but it is unmoored from place. Liberalism doesn’t have a time except for future.
On Rene Descartes: I think therefore I am translated into Aboriginal speak ‘I am (located) therefore I am’. World view
On Colonisation: Colonisation is an example of the survivalist ethos. Don’t ideologize conflict – thinking of the other as horrible people.
Custodial ethic: The ethic of looking after, looking after is embedded in everything we do.
On Working with Others: All perspectives are valid and reasonable but not necessarily true.
The event definitely gave me a lot to think about both on a personal and professional (Landcare) level. I’d definitely recommend checking out the work of Earth Laws Alliance to anyone interested in making lasting a lasting difference in the landscapes on which we live, love and work. It’s all very interesting.
Additional Links.
Stability, security and survival: a conversation with Mary Graham on ABC radio.
The law of obligation. aboriginal ethics: australia becoming, australia dreaming. 2023.
Can Aboriginal Political Philosophy and political liberalism be reconciled? ABC radio’s ‘The Minefield’ podcast. 11 November, 2020.
Help Map the Migration Paths of the Bogong Moth
Bogongs are part of the cutworm family of moths. There are a few in the family that look similar but Bogongs are the only ones with stripes and a kidney beans pattern.
The Bogong Moth Tagging project aimed to tag 10,000 moths over summer as the moths rested up in the cool caves of the Snowy Mountains National Park. I’m not sure how many they’ve ended up tagging but at the time of their live webinar update on 3rd March, they were well on track to exceed that number – a herculean feat if you ask me!
So why are they tagging moths?
We know that the moths arive in the caves of the snowy mountains in December in what’s called a Maelstrom. The team assured us listening that this Maelstrom is one of the seven wonders of the natural world – an event that fills you with a sense of awe!
Outside of this mass migratory event, entomologists have gaps in their undertanding around where the moths are travelling from and going back to once the weather cools down again. Tagging and (hopefully) spotting moths as they move through the country will provide some much needed insights into their lives.
Tagging so many moths is necessary for a statistical chance to see a tagged insect.
How do they tag them?
During the time of tagging, the moths were hiding out in the caves and resting. These moths are caught & popped little tubes. If that sounds a bit cruel it’s not, they get into the tubes them themselves as they like squishy little places.
The tubes get stored on ice to slow the moths down a bit. Then the moths are knocked out with CO2 from a modified soda stream & marked with either a little round piece of paper covered in beeswax to make it waterproof, or with an insect-friendly posca marker. Then they are released back into the cave.
How soon we we see tagged moths around the Central Tablelands?
While the team are not entirely sure, it’s likely they’ll start moving once the weather starts cooling down – so around now (March through to May)
What should we do to help?
Like all Citizen Science projects, it needs eyes on the ground (or in the sky, or by our porch lights) during the evenings to search for the moths! Invertabrates Australia have all the information you need to participate in the Bogong Search project on their website.
For those within our Mid Lachlan Landcare region looking for more tips or help with organising or participating in moth hunts, do get in touch because this can be a fun and low-cost activity for school and community groups wanting to know more about the insects that we share space with.
Trail Cam Captures During A Long, Hot Summer.
It’s been a long, dry summer here in and around Cowra and on my place, up in the hills of Woodstock, there’s not much feed or water around. As depressing as that sounds, it’s also a great opportunity to see what’s hanging out at my place. I don’t have any stock but I do have some water troughs hanging around from when this place was grazed so I dragged this one to a good location, filled it up and popped a trail camera up in a spot where it wouldn’t go off every five minutes for no reason!
This is the spec of my camera and the features I chose it for:
* Solar charging so you don’t need to change any batteries
* Wifi in the camera so you don’t need to take the SIM card out or take the camera down every time you want to look at the pictures. This basically means the camera syncs to your phone via an app and you can view the photos and then choose which to download.
* Buying from a site with a listed address and phone number so you can call them and make sure they are real before sending your money! I’ve not actually had any issues from buying online before but there are a lot of ‘ghost’ stores popping up that ship directly from China – that’s not always a bad thing but if you’re parcel doesn’t arrive, you have nobody to call for a refund or to chase up with.
Here are some of the pictures I got during the heat wave week
I noted that when it’s not super hot, we tend to get one or maybe two species of bird in the trough at the same time. During this very high heat event I counted up to five species hanging around at the same time. I don’t know exactly why this is but would like to think the birds had all came to an agreement that cooperation and collegiality was required to win the day – save those petty squabbles for when it’s a bit less sweaty!
I did get quite a lot of footage during this week as the trough was very popular so my top tip would be to check the camera every day or so rather than leave it for five days (as I did) and then having to wade through around 4000 images of birds skinny dipping…
As you can see from the trough cam, temperatures at ours got up to 47C which feels absolutely bonkers! I’m glad the birds, lizards, echidna, possum, kangaroos and wallaby’s dropped by during this time as I’m sure they would have all been feeling quite parched.
Do you have any good trail cam footage to share? If so, email it to us here at Mid lachlan landcare @ gmail dot com as we’d love to see what visits your place. Oh and make sure you let us know if we can share it on with our fellow landcarers.
Mid Lachlan Landcare 