Plan of action for Coorong

Location:	Tintinara is the nearest town or named locality to the project and is roughly in the middle of the project area. The project area covers approximately 15 311 km².
National priority area:	Biodiversity and natural icons Community skills, knowledge and engagement Sustainable farm practices
Funding:	$2 158 200 (4 year project 2009-2013).
Partners:	This project is a partnership between the Tatiara District Council and the Coorong District Council and managed by the Coorong District Local Action Plan Committee, with financial, administrative and resource support from both Councils.

Implementation of the Coorong and Tatiara Local Action Plans 2009-2013

Local action plans to address management of natural resources across the Coorong and Tatiara areas of South Australia. This involves education, training, workshops, field days and incentives.

The classic Australian movie Storm Boy evokes images of pristine beaches and prolific birdlife in South Australia’s Coorong. But behind the cinematic landscape lies a Coorong in decline: dryland salinity, wind erosion and weeds and feral animals.

The area is vast, covering 1.5 million hectares but has a population of just 12,000. Landholders graze sheep and cattle, and crop wheat, barley, canola and lupins. There are also several large irrigation areas producing lucerne seed, hay, dairy products, olives, grapes and potatoes.

Many of the agricultural practices were unsustainable.

A $2 million Caring for our Country project, driven by the Coorong and Tatiara District Councils, has kick-started the development of local action plans (LAPs) to address management of natural resources across an area covering 15 310 square kilometres.

To date, LAPs have translated into more than 150,000 hectares of on-ground work involving more than 70 per cent of the region’s landholders. Coorong District Local Action Plan project manager, Graham Gates, says there has been a “very good response from landholders”.

“We still have the same level of interest that the program had when it first started in 1997,” he says.

The key to success, says Graham, is in improving management practices and engaging landholders. Funding went directly towards education, training, workshops, field days, fact sheets, newsletters and incentives.

For example, landholders learn how to control groundwater recharge through broad-scale planting of deep-rooted perennial plants. They are also trained in sustainable agricultural techniques and ways of improving water security, including better management of groundwater resources. In doing so, they are taught how to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

As an incentive, landholders are offered payment for such activities as revegetation, fencing of remnant native vegetation and wetlands, planting perennial pastures and fodder shrubs (including saltbush and tagasaste), wind erosion control (including leveling sand blowouts), clay spreading and farm forestry.

“In 2010 alone more than 200 landholders undertook on-ground works on more than 10 000 hectares,” Graham says. “This will increase to about 250 properties undertaking on-ground works in 2011 over 18,000 hectares.”

Project funding provided professional support for landholders, community conservation groups, Indigenous communities and individuals. They included many volunteers, 12 schools and the Ngarrindjeri community, which has had a continuous presence since European settlement. It’s worth noting that David Unaipin, who features on the $50 note, lived here and his grave is at the nearby Raukkan community.

Several Indigenous communities on the shores of Lake Albert and the Coorong participate in on-ground works such as revegetation. Other community groups also help with tree planting and wetland monitoring and 12 schools are supported with WaterWatch kits and Weed Warriors programs.

This project addresses three Caring for our Country priorities: biodiversity and natural icons, sustainable farm practices, and community skills, knowledge and engagement.