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Moora landholder revitalises farm environment
It would be a perfect world if there was no damaged land to restore and native plants and animals were abundant. But this is true on a farm in the Northern Agricultural region - there's hardly any more room for new trees and the Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo is sighted constantly.
David Hall of 'Tanglewood,' who runs a mixed stock and grain farm on 1369 hectares near Moora, has staved off salinity by planting 10,280 trees and erecting more than eight kilometres of fencing to protect 32 hectares of remnant vegetation.
Funding
David carried out the work with over $15,000 from the Australian Government.
Activities and achievements
"The magnitude is starting to show," David said. "You can't see across the paddocks because some of the trees are so big now. We just knew the work had to be done so we've gone ahead and done it.
"We started down the bottom from the western boundary to the eastern boundary, working back slowly over 20 years - and we've run out of room. Salinity isn't breaking out like it was before and if we'd done nothing, we would have lost a lot more land."
They could have lost a lot of remnant plants also. David's tree-planting effort with the help of his son, Ben, has helped save the Blue Mallee, Wandoo, York Gum and Red Morell woodland, which is scarce in the Wheatbelt with only about three per cent left.
"Until we received the grant we'd done it all ourselves up to that point," David said. "We had put a big drain through because the water table was rising and killing the native shrubs and what was left we fenced off and re-planted. Some trees are still small, but they will take the water up in time. It's unbelievable the look of the place now."
David has lived on the farm all of his life just as his father did before him. He believes his success in regenerating the land is because "we did all our work early". His conservation work began back in 1986.
"It's been worthwhile because it's reduced the spread of salinity here - we could've lost a lot more if we'd done nothing," he said. "I don't want stock in the natural bushland, I'd rather keep them fenced out to stop damage to the trees and I still maintain it's an ideal wind break, we're very well protected doing this.
"It also gives the younger generation in years to come an idea of what the natural scrub on this block of land looked like."
More information
- David Hall: (08) 9654 5042 or tanglewood@wn.com.au
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