Blog Articles

Eucalyptus farms to boost carbon credits? Outback Carbon & the Shire of Northhampton explore

By Melissa Higgins posted 11-01-2023
Shire of Northampton eucalyptus farm proposed by Outback Carbon to boost carbon credits A carbon farming company is one step closer to a hardwood eucalyptus farm in the Northampton Shire after a development application was approved at last month’s council meeting. Outback Carbon wants to establish a hardwood eucalyptus tree farm to increase biodiversity and sustainability in the northeastern part of the shire. Outback Carbon general manager Kent Broad was jointly responsible for establishing almost 13,000 hectares of biodiverse carbon plantings in the Mid West region over 10 years, potentially storing more than two million tonnes of CO2e within ...

Southern NSW Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub: Amazing results!

By Emily Mason posted 13-12-2022
The Southern New South Wales Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub has brought significant investment into the region, through projects which have been activated on the ground with a range of industries. They include collaborations focused on maintaining ground cover, promoting resilient pastures, optimising management of soil and water, managing biosecurity risks, creating resilient communities, capturing the value of AgTech, managing rangelands and creating longevity in perennial horticulture plants. About the Hub The Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub is a consortium of nine regional partners including primary producers, Indigenous, ...

How climate change impacts what we grow and eat

By Emily Mason posted 04-11-2022
Australia’s food bowl – How climate change impacts what we grow and eat Nature is everything. It provides us with all that we depend on - the places where we live, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. But what happens to the ways we produce and consume food when nature is being destroyed and the planet is experiencing a climate crisis? Can we adapt the ways and amount of land we use to grow food, slash harmful emissions and start restoring nature to better health than it’s in today? These are big questions, but as a food producing nation and one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth, they are critical for Australia to consider. ...

Green money spending in the 2022-2023 Federal budget

By Emily Mason posted 28-10-2022
This week’s federal budget brings new money and planned reforms for the Australian environment! The Albanese government says it will spend: Over $200 million to protect and restore the Great Barrier Reef $90 million to employ and upskill up to 1,000 Landcare Rangers to conserve and restore the environment An additional $66.5 million to support 10 new Indigenous Protected Areas, bringing the government closer to its commitment to protect and conserve 30 per cent of land and ocean by 2030. $224.5 million for Australia’s most imperilled native species. $10.8 million to improve ocean and marine park management in Australia ...

What is Blue Carbon? The Western Port Biosphere Foundation’s Blue Carbon Project

By Emily Mason posted 26-10-2022
What is Blue Carbon? For the Western Port Biosphere Foundation’s Blue Carbon Project, it’s a natural way to capture and lock carbon back into marine and coastal ecosystems, and a path to local carbon neutrality by 2030! From the Ramsar wetland to the Bryozoan reef, the Foundation’s biosphere reserve covers 2,142sq km and hosts a wealth of carbon-absorbing marine habitats, from deep channels to mangroves and sea grass meadows, supporting a myriad of marine invertebrates and 65% of VIC’s bird species Championing climate action, environmental preservation and restoration, and sustainable development, the Foundation integrates science and First Nations ...

Country Road launches 'The Country Road Climate Fund'! Australia's first fashion industry climate fund

By James432 posted 24-10-2022
Iconic Australian brand Country Road has announced the launch of the Country Road Climate Fund , investing $1.5million in grant funding to projects driving climate solutions in the Australian fashion industry over the next three years. The fund aims to help accelerate projects or products that need funding to push solutions that directly and indirectly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These could include projects that improve energy efficiency in the production of textiles or projects that provide consumers with accurate data on the emissions intensity of fashion items, or encourage more sustainable fashion choices by consumers. Country Road brand sustainability ...

New Carbon 101 training package available now | MLA's The Toolbox

By James432 posted 21-10-2022
A new learning module, Carbon 101 has been released via MLA’s free eLearning platform, The Toolbox. The Carbon 101 module provides information about carbon farming, greenhouse gases relevant to agriculture – including the carbon cycle – and explains the language of carbon. This is the first of four carbon eLearning modules to be released over the next six months. This learning module is perfect for producers to start to learn about carbon and greenhouse gas emissions and are trying to get their head around what seems like a whole new language. Even for those who have a little more understanding, this module will explain some key concepts and ...

Precision Pastures answer the five most asked questions about soil carbon farming

By Emily Mason posted 20-10-2022
As a relatively new industry, soil carbon farming is attracting the attention of many players in agriculture, with producers, processors, service providers, banks, investors, and retailers, all keen to understand if there is a genuine opportunity. Drilling down into the detail is Hamish Webb , executive director and interim CEO of Precision Pastures, a specialist agronomy and carbon services business based in Armidale New South Wales. Precision Pastures conduct soil testing for carbon farming and, more generally, help farmers navigate the soil carbon industry. Mr Webb – a beef and sheep producer himself – unpacks the five most commonly-asked questions ...

Clean Energy Has a Tipping Point: the world is crossing into a mass-adoption moment for green technologies

By Melissa Higgins posted 19-10-2022
Clean Energy Has a Tipping Point, and 87 Countries Have Reached It Solar power, electric cars, grid-scale batteries, heat pumps—the world is crossing into a mass-adoption moment for green technologies. The following article snippet was sourced from Bloomberg, written by Tom Randall : Today there’s a new Edison-level transformation under way. It affects how we generate the power that flows to our electrical outlets—and what gets plugged into those zero-emission electrons. Bloomberg Green has identified tipping points for 10 clean-energy technologies, from electric motorcycles to heat pumps and rooftop solar panels. New analysis shows which countries ...

CSIRO pledges $90m to halve emissions of “hardest to abate” sectors by 2035 with carbon abatement research

By James432 posted 13-10-2022
CSIRO has pledged to help the nation’s “hardest-to-abate” industries to slash their emissions, via a large-scale scientific and collaborative research initiative into new carbon abatement solutions CSIRO said on Tuesday it would kick off its new “ Towards Net Zero Mission” with a $90 million investment , and work with industry, government and communities to halve the emissions in difficult-to-abate sectors like steel and agriculture by 2035. Announcing the Mission, CSIRO chief Larry Marshall said the decarbonisation of Australia’s industrial sectors was not just about using new technology to solve a problem, but deliberately turning that problem into ...

QLD's commitment to 80% renewables, using 22GW of new wind and solar

By Emily Mason posted 08-10-2022
Queensland’s new Energy and Jobs Plan involves shifting from a coal-dominated electricity grid to 80% renewables within 13 years, using 22 gigawatts of new wind and solar. The plan relies on two massive new pumped hydro developments to store electricity, including the biggest proposed in the world. It sets out a path to transform the state's electricity network with $62 billion worth of public and private investment over the next 15 years, delivering clean energy, thousands of jobs, and multimillion dollar economic opportunities for the Sunshine State. With its Energy Plan, Queensland has set itself up to cash in on the global transition away from ...

Professor Howden's Climate Warning: Key Takeaways

By Emily Mason posted 16-09-2022
Key Takeaways from Professor Mark Howden's 2022 National Landcare Conference Presentation The 2019-2020 Australian Black Summer. The 2020 Brazil Rainforest wildfires. The 2021 North American wildfires. The 2021 Syrian drought. The 2022 Eastern Australia floods. The 2022 Pakistan floods. Climate change impacts are rapid, accelerating, and they are happening now. Professor Mark Howden, Director of the Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions at The Australian National University, warned the delegates of the 2022 National Landcare Conference of the unfortunate reality we now find ourselves in due to the undeniable consequences of global warming. ...

Taking to the skies as the country dries

By BenBan posted 03-08-2021
Through a combination of programs and cost sharing, we were able to carry out aerial burning on Cape York properties to reduce fuel loads and connect early season fire breaks. The funding programs included Healthy Farming Futures, Reef Trust III and Indigenous Land and Sea. Cape York NRM partnered with South Cape York Catchments and Cape York Weeds and Feral Animals to conduct the program over a mixture of land tenures for landscape scale outcomes. The cooperation from stations and land holders was greatly appreciated, and we were able to join up and tie in burns with neighbours. We put in effective breaks from Melsonby and Bonny Glen, right through to the ...

Landcare’s critical role in the immediate, medium and long-term response to natural disasters

By Doug99 posted 10-01-2020
As you are no doubt aware, the current bushfires in Australia are at an unprecedented scale and have significantly impacted the environment and communities in many parts of the country. Millions of hectares of land have been devastated, with an estimated loss of more than one billion native animals, thousands of homes have been destroyed and lives tragically lost. We applaud and thank the amazing work of Australia’s fire-fighting and emergency response services, so reliant at these times on volunteer effort. Landcare Australia recognises that with global average temperature continuing to rise, climate-related emergencies such as the current bushfires, and recent ...

Builo

By Gretchen306 posted 10-07-2019
I'm an artist, though that's a rather large and flabby word these days. Let's just say I'm a drawer and painter. As such I have a heightened aesthetic sensibility and like to think of myself as especially observant. But sometimes one gets to dominate the other. Recently I started a series of paintings around the NSW Southern Highlands, a country I've always loved; rolling plains and hills, deep valleys and high ever-changing skies. I stayed in a remote place called Bulio and drew and photographed and walked the land. When I started painting back in the studio I slowly began to realize that I was painting not the wonderful country in my mind but the effects ...