We recently had the great opportunity to spend a few days with Cobba Harrison, a Wotjobaluk Aboriginal man, who offered a valuable perspective into the bridge between traditional practices on Country and contemporary approaches to Natural Resources Management.

He has been working at Wimmera Catchment Management Authority in Victoria but took time out of his busy schedule to visit some of our sites and share his knowledge.

Australia is known for its unique and extreme climates that humans have been managing for millennia. It is well recognised that traditional First Nations land management approaches greatly helped make areas more habitable and that tapping into that knowledge can bolster contemporary practices.

Our team said it was an amazing experience to exchange information and knowledge, especially with Cobba’s extensive experience with community and government stakeholders to best optimise water management and quality of life in traditionally disadvantaged landscapes.

Whirlwind tour: sharing experiences from the Wimmera and South East Queensland

Cobba was here to learn from Healthy Land & Water teams about our projects and the latest best practices in natural resource management.

As our team took him to a few key sites around our region, it was a great chance to find out about progress being made in the Wimmera in catchment management.

Sustainable Agricultural Site Visit

The first leg of the tour was to a number of sustainable agriculture sites. Healthy Land & Water’s Marc Leman, showed Cobba around, highlighting the progress we’ve made and what challenges we’ve addressed along the way.

The tour included visits to:

Natural Sequence farming @ Silverdale: Visiting a site from our Healthy Catchments Project* in Silverdale was a great way to show our work in slowing water down, land hydration, and to see natural sequence farming practices at work. We were able to show the property as part of the landscape, and how restoring the riparian zones up the creek by clearing invasive Cats Claw vine protects native ecology and stabilises the banks downstream.

Cattle management @ Reynolds Creek: Cattle, being heavy animals, can unintentionally damage riparian plants crucial for soil stability along creek banks. During our adventure with Cobba, we discussed erosion prevention strategies such as installing watering points for cattle away from creek banks, particularly upstream from Moogerah Dam and other community water storage dams in the region.

Peri-urban development management @ Logan: We then looked at how we are addressing the threats posed by peri-urban development in the Logan Catchment landscape and in Tamrookum. As suburban areas expand and remote work becomes more common, it's essential to ensure that all stakeholders, including new landholders and managers, are well-informed about the importance of maintaining riparian health for our waterways.

Land restoration site visit
The second leg of the tour was hosted by our resident koala man Tom Lally who took Cobba out to inspect koala habitat sites including some areas we’ve recently revegetated to check out the progress being made.

Revegetation work @ Peak Crossing: We looked at some areas we are conducting vegetation condition surveys. Some of the project learnings we shared included how to refine planting strategies to maximise success of revegetation projects when faced with changing conditions, how to select high value locations in the landscape for improving forest and plant connectivity, and how to foster collaboration with landholders to realise shared vision.

Invasives impact on Koalas @ Reynolds Creek: At a koala site on Reynolds Creek, we saw the impact of overgrown invasive Cats Claw. Cat’s Claw is chocking native vegetation including plants that koalas would eat or utilise to rest or move around. In addition, koalas struggle to move through vines which would also change or fragment their habitat. We’re currently working on a few sites to with actions which also help to protect our source water. An important part of moving the needle is our work with local landholders to share the latest best land management practices.

* This program in all its phases has been funded by the Queensland Government's Department of Environment and Science and run in collaboration with all the landholders in the targeted areas. These collaborations have been key to the project's success.