Mid Lachlan Landcare
supporting sustainable agriculture and restoring the environment
Letting the River Speak – Murray Darling Basin’s Authority ‘what we heard’ report.
The What we heard report by the Murray Darling Basin Authority went live at the end of June and I’ve spent a little bit of time digesting it’s 140 pages. While the report is a long read, it’s definitely worth taking the time to flick through the pages and hear the voices of people from communities throughout the river system. The basin authority have done a great job of collaiting the feedback into several themess, introducing each theme as it’s own section and preceeding the commentary with a synopsis of what was found.
This report comes off the back of the MDBA regions tour that called in at Blayney, Orange, Canowindra and Cowra back in February.
MDBA Facts.
- The Murray Darling Basin plan was introduced 14 years ago, triggered by millennium drought (2001-2010)
- The plan is a political compact between 6 basin governments and currently accounts for $11 billion in commonwealth environmental water portfolio.
- The report covers what was learned during a 12 week consultation period around the basin.
- 2500 submissions were received.
- The team travelled to 59 towns running 322 engagement sessions.
What did the review ask?
• The issues and options presented
• Other issues and option that should be considered
• What the priorities should be, and why.
Feedback and soundbites that caught my attention from a Mid Lachlan Landcare perspective:
“There was broad agreement that land and water management needs to be better integrated, particularly in the context of maximising benefits of water for the environment. Land use, pest and weed control, riparian habitat, water quality, river operations and floodplain connectivity are interconnected parts of catchment condition. First Nations people and groups, natural resource management and landcare groups, landholders and industry organisations, all pointed to the opportunities to do things better, many noting that a considerable number of wetlands are on private land and require a partner approach”. Reflecting on Land and water management MDBA
‘ The revised Basin Plan must treat deep uncertainty as a permanent condition of governance, not a temporary data gap. The Discussion Paper’s implicit assumption that better modelling will resolve the adaptation deficit is not supported by two decades of Basin governance evidence, is inconsistent with best available science, and fails to meet the Water Act’s requirements for climate risk management.’ ANU Institute for Water Futures
‘ Environmental objectives must be evidence-based, achievable, and adapted to the climate conditions the Basin now faces, rather than based on assumptions that may no longer be realistic.’ Steph Cooke MP, NSW Shadow Minister for Water
‘ Many native fish species migrate long distances across multiple catchments during spawning events. However, the Basin contains an estimated 10,000 barriers to fish movement, including dams, weirs and regulators. Restoring connectivity through fish ladders, fishways and removal of redundant barriers will significantly improve migration success and recruitment of native fish populations. Fish and other aquatic biota are extremely important to YEAC and all Aboriginal First Nation Peoples!’ Yuwaalaraay Euahlayi Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC
Talking to quality not just quantity of water flowing through.
‘ Between December 2018 and January 2019, three huge and catastrophic deaths of fish occurred in the Lower Darling ostensibly by the drought, low oxygen levels in the water and algal blooms. What was not included in the possible causes is the heavy and constant use of synthetic fertilisers in the growing of cotton. These “nutrients” are the key driver for cyanobacterial (blue-green algae) to flourish, in hundreds of locations including creeks, lakes – and dams.’ Pennie Scott
‘ Carp control/suppression/reduction is a major issue, particularly for riverine communities (ie: as opposed to policy-making communities). Though very difficult, this must be tackled at some stage, because otherwise landowners and river people will remain disengaged and discouraged.’ Dr Adam Kereszy
‘ The GBCMA’s [Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority’s] decades of integrated catchment management show that investing in complementary actions, alongside delivering environmental water, is also critical in achieving lasting environmental outcomes. A focus on salinity, nutrient management, habitat restoration and biodiversity in connected systems, directly shapes water quality and ecological health.’ Jeff Odgers
Some of our current projects that are aligned to the sentiment above.
- Salinity mapping, monitoring & mitigation with other Landcare groups across the region, supported by NSW Government’s Department for Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
- Growing the Grazing Revolution focusing on grazing and farm management practices that improve soil and water quality both on and off-farm. Part funded in 2026 by Landcare NSW’s Landcare Enabling Program.
- Carp Muster in partnership with Oz Fish, Canowindra Connections and local councils.
Do let us know if the report raises anything for you that you feel our team could help with.
Packed With Pollinators – Canowindra’s Flying Fox Camp
The trees surrounding Canowindra’s swing bridge on the banks of the Bleubula river and currently teeming with Grey Headed Flying Foxes – it really is quite a feast for the senses.
This dramatic swelling in numbers is temporary, caused by ‘tourist’ bats stopping to take advantage of our bountiful box gum blossom as they make their way north on their annual autumn migration.
These fascinating creatures play a key role in pollinating and re-generating our forests, spreading seed across large distances as they make their way through the landscape. It’s fair to say that they are among the most efficient Land Carer’s we have on our team!
That said, when camp numbers swell dramatically like this, the change can make some people nervous about disease, the health of the trees they are roosting in and even the noise and smell around the camp.
While these concerns are understandable, many of the scripts we’ve internalised about bats are either unfounded or completely overblown, especially once you understand these animals a little better.
Mid Lachlan Landcare have started assembling a local ‘Bat Brigade’ to help our communities live well with these beautiful animals – a protected species here in NSW. We want to do our bit to help secure a happy and healthy future for the bats so they can continue to help us grow our Box Gum grassy woodlands.
We will be sending out more information about our Bat Brigade over the coming months. In the meantime, if you have any questions of a bat nature, do get in touch, preferably by email to us at midlachlanlandcare AT gmail DOT com.
Some more information is available here – a family friendly short doccumentary.
Bat Contacts.
The Australian Flying Fox Monitor Interactive website.
Ausbats – Interest group sharing & supporting research, community outreach & more.
Wires – BATS – Supporting, training and coordinating wildlife carers.
IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) – first responders to animal-focused disasters such as bush fires & extreme weather events.
NSW Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water. Flying Fox camp monitoring data.
Hacking Your Soil’s Microbiome
Every year Central Tablelands Landcare & Land Services runs a month-long festival of fungi called ‘Mycology May’. Our last event of the season was an intimate farmer-focused session with compost expert and soil microbiology enthusiast Dr Ernie Harbott from Compost Culture in Singleton, NSW. During the session we tested our soil samples two ways. First we used the Microbiometer – a device that produces a snapshot of your soils microbial activity and in particular it’s fungi:bacteria balance (or ratio).
Here are our Microbiometer results:
The we compared microbiometer results with what we saw under the microscope, the highlights of which are in the film below:
Here’s a helpful microbe-id chart for those of you that want to play along!
Turns out while hunting for critters under a microscope is lots of fun it’s also very time consuming and requires a decent level of prior knowledge. For those reasons , on the day we concluded it would be unlikely that many farmers would add microscopic analysis of soils as part of their regular routine. However, we did all agree, it’s greatly motivating and very interesting to see the life in our soils from time to time – especially at those times when a management decision has to be made.
Follow-Up Research
After the event, I read more about soil microbes. I wanted to know if scientists agree on a single ‘signature’ microbe that proves soil is healthy. Turns out that there is – the humble Testate Amoeba. I was pretty happy about that as we did find these in some of our samples AND they are quite easy to spot, dead or alive!
Here’s one of the papers I found helpful in answering my question. It’s particularly valuable as it’s a literature review rather than a stand-alone paper.
Testate Amoebas look a bit like the ghosts in the pac-man games (yes, showing my age). They come in a few different sizes, colours and mouth part shapes, all of which can be used to more precisely identify them. The Testate part of their name refers to the fact they have a shell. That shell persists in the soil even after the organism dies meaning no matter how old or dry your soil sample, the signature of these critters will still be there and, more importantly can still be picked up under the microscope.
Maybe soil microscopy isn’t so hard after all…
I continued researching in order to learn more about the different ways searching for testate amoebas in soil had been applied.
Testate amoebae are informative bioindicators of critically high ammonia deposition on peatlands.
Can Soil Testate Amoeba Be Used To Estimate Time Since Death?
Soil Microbes and Carbon Sequestration
I found a number of articles talking about this and found the relationship between plant species and carbon sequestration potential extremely interesting and potentially valuable for our farmers.
Microbial Solutions to Soil Carbon Sequestration.
How Soil Microbes Vary Between Grasses and Forbes
Root exudate composition of grass and forb species in natural grasslands.
We all really enjoyed our time with Dr Ernie from Compost Culture and would thoroughly recommend inviting her to your next soil microbiology/ compost/ soil health workshop.
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!
Mid Lachlan Landcare 