15 June
2006 - Eleven Queensland landowners are the first
to receive a cash incentive through the Beattie
Government’s NatureAssist programme to protect
the world-class environments on their properties
as nature refuges.
Australian Minister for the
Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell,
and Queensland Minister for the Environment, Desley
Boyle, today announced the funding and an agreement
was signed with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy
to create Queensland’s newest nature refuge -
Brooklyn Nature Refuge, 125km north-west of Cairns.
“The Nature Refuge programme
is terrific in that it allows landowners to retain
control of their land, while protecting it forever.
The NatureAssist programme builds on that by offering
financial incentives to landowners to sign up,”
Ms Boyle said.
“The owners of these eleven
new nature refuges will receive a total of about
$470,000 and will protect more than 120,000ha,”
she said.
“Brooklyn Nature Refuge is a
magnificent property, covering 60,000 hectares,
including 5000 hectares which are World Heritage-listed,”
Senator Campbell said.
“It was purchased in July 2004
by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy with $4.5
million from the Australian Governments Biodiversity
Hotspots Programme.
“It adjoins Mt Lewis Forest
Reserve and forms a massive corridor linking Mt
Windsor Forest Reserve and the World Heritage-listed
Daintree National Park. It covers almost 50km
of the Mitchell River and its adjacent lagoons
and floodplains.
“It is truly a “biodiversity
hotspot” with arguably the greatest diversity
of wildlife of any property in Australia,” he
said.
Almost 500 native mammal, bird,
reptile and amphibian species are expected to
be found on Brooklyn Nature Refuge. In comparison,
Kakadu National Park is home to 482 species. The
property contains 71 ecosystems, forty of which
are threatened.
These first ‘incentives’ were
provided under the pilot NatureAssist programme,
funded by the Australian Government Biodiversity
Hotspots Programme, the Queensland Vegetation
Incentives Programme and three Natural Resource
Management groups.
Following the successful pilot,
owners of environmentally-significant land have
until June 30 to be considered for a cash incentive
to make their land a nature refuge under the first
round of NatureAssist.
The new nature refuges announced
today range in size from 4ha-60,000ha and protect
a variety of environments including artesian springs,
blacksoil plains, eucalypt areas and animals such
as the endangered black-breasted button-quail,
the Lewin’s honeyeater and the black-striped wallaby.
Ms Boyle said nature refuges
were a great way for private landholders to play
a part in protecting natural habitat.
“The EPA provides advice and
help to nature refuge owners to manage threats
from tree-clearing, development pressures, salinity,
weeds and feral animals,” Ms Boyle said.
“Natural resources on nature
refuges can still be used for activities such
as grazing or eco-tourism, provided it is done
in an environmentally-friendly way.
“The EPA’s partners in nature
refuges include some of the nation’s biggest pastoralists
and miners, not-for-profit conservancies, eco-tourism
operators, councils and farmers and graziers.
“I congratulate these people
who have committed to working on the ground with
the EPA to save environmentally-significant parts
of their property,” she said.
Already, there are more than
200 nature refuges, covering almost 465,000ha
in Queensland ranging in size from 1ha-215,000ha.
/ Rob Broadfield (Senator Campbell) / Carissa
Mason (Minister Boyle)
Nature refuge owners can also
have their transfer duty and land tax reimbursed
under NatureAssist.
Senator Campbell congratulated
the Australian Wildlife Conservancy on entering
into a conservation agreement that will protect
Brooklyn in perpetuity.
More information is at www.epa.qld.gov.au/naturerefuge
Read the media release by Australian
Wildlife Conservancy
Attached is a list of other
nature refuges.
Other new nature refuges
Calingunee Nature Refuge
A 155ha block of remnant vegetation on the property
Calingunee, a beef cattle enterprise owned by
William Hamilton, located about 30km south of
Moonie in the Western Downs in the Brigalow Belt
South bioregion. The landscape is characterised
by low hills and ridges and broad valleys and
supports a variety of woodland types on the valley
floor and includes permanent waterholes in the
creek, which provide excellent wildlife habitat.
Two notable regional ecosystems are conserved
on the property – an endangered regional ecosystem
dominated by Casuarina (Casuarina cristate) and
an ‘of concern’ ecosystem dominated by Brigalow
(Acacia harpophylla).
Carnarvon Station Nature Refuge
A 59,000ha property of grassy woodlands, dramatic
sandstone cliffs, natural springs and great expanses
of native grassland owned by Australian Bush Heritage
Fund and situated in the Brigalow Belt South Bioregion
of central Queensland, next to Carnarvon National
Park. Funds received from the NatureAssist pilot
will be used to fence off several artesian springs
on the property from feral animals including pigs
that have caused degradation to these areas of
high conservation significance.
“Fair Hills” Nature Refuge
The Marriage family has secured nearly 46ha of
their property, Fair Hills, as a nature refuge.
Markwells Road Nature Refuge
The Carlyle family, owners the property ‘Wonga
Hills” have set aside over 200ha of it as a nature
refuge. It is located north of Chinchilla within
the Boyne River sub-catchment of the Burnett River,
and has been managed as an agricultural and beef
cattle enterprise for 21 years. It features an
intact remnant scrub with a 29ha semi-evergreen
vine thicket understorey dominated by large emergent
brigalow and belah. It adjoins eucalypt forest
country enhancing the connectivity for breeding
and movement provided by a vegetation corridor
trending north-east and south-west, including
Jarrah/ Barakula and Koko State Forests. Endangered
black-breasted button-quail (Turnix melanogaster)
have been sighted at the Wonga Hills property
giving hope that they live in the remnant. The
Carlyles will use NatureAssist funds to fence
off this 200ha, protecting it from cattle which
may enter from the adjoining grazing lands. Protection
of this property will also protect the catchment
values of the Cooragar Creek sub-catchment within
the Burnett River basin.
Mount Pleasant Nature Refuge
The Gordon family have owned the Mount Pleasant
property for over 80 years. In 2005, they made
a decision to protect 813ha of it through a nature
refuge. Recently, through the NatureAssist pilot
scheme they dedicated a further 630ha. It is about
40km southwest of Bowen in the Brigalow Belt.
With two neighbouring nature refuges - Aberdeen
and Homehaven - Mount Pleasant forms a vital vegetation
link forming a continuous corridor between rare
and threatened upland notophyll/microphyll mossy
forest species of Mount Aberdeen and Highlanders
Bonnet National Park and the riparian communities
of the Bogie River.
Myall Park Nature Refuge
It is located on the black soil plains of the
eastern Darling Downs, 3km east-southeast of Jondaryan.
Owners of this 16ha nature refuge, Lindsay and
Joanne Evans, have managed their property ‘Sorrelvale’
as an agricultural and beef cattle enterprise
for over 70 years. A complexity of regional ecosystems
is found on the property including ‘of concern’
poplar box woodland. The Nature Refuge protects
one of the largest intact remnants of Corymbia
woodland regional ecosystems known to occur in
the local district which provides habitat for
a suite of woodland bird species including the
vulnerable painted honeyeater Grantiella picta.
Doctor’s Creek, a sub-catchment of the Condamine
River, intersects the property, and is a refuge
for grassland species including ground dwelling
reptiles and dunnarts.
Boyneside Nature Refuge
Peter and Moira Curtain have owned and operated
the Old Boyneside property as a beef cattle enterprise
since 1922. The Curtains now run a farmstay, which
is an important part of property enterprise and
visitors from Australia and overseas are hosted
on the property most weeks of the year. The property
is located 50km northeast of Dalby within the
Boyne River sub catchment of the Burnett River.
A 250ha patch of remnant vegetation on the property
is the core of the new nature refuge. The remnant
is in good condition and has a mosaic of ‘Endangered’
and ‘Of Concern’ vegetation communities. The endangered
community represents the largest single intact
remnant known to occur, based on current mapping.
This remnant is in excellent condition, a tribute
to the care the Curtain family have taken in preserving
it through the years. The property provides habitat
for a suite of dry vine thicket related fauna
species including brush turkey, Lewin’s honeyeater,
speckled warbler, yellow robin, white throated
treecreeper and black striped wallaby.
C.R. “George” Telford Nature
Refuge
The Warrowa property is a mixed, beef cattle/grain
cropping property and has been grazed by livestock
– formerly sheep, now almost exclusively cattle
– since development in the 1930s. The original
owner of the property, George Telford, left a
network of connecting strips and patches of vegetation
on the property which have been retained and form
the basis of this 1200ha nature refuge. To commemorate
Mr Telford’s conservation vision, current owners
Warren and Lynelle Urquhart have made the decision
to name this new nature refuge after him. The
entire property is next to Southwood National
Park, about 30km west of Moonie in the Brigalow
Belt and covers about 3601ha.
W.R. and D.M.J. Carter Nature
Refuge
This nature refuge covers 2100ha on the property
“Well Station”, located about 50km southwest of
Munduberra in the Brigalow Belt South bioregion.
The property has been in the Carter family for
three generations and has been operated predominantly
as a beef cattle property. The family have a strong
desire to preserve the remaining remnant vegetation.
The nature refuge will protect the endangered
regional ecosystem dominated by Brigalow. Brigalow
is not only the name of this silvery wattle and
the endangered ecological community, but also
the entire bioregion. These communities have undergone
extensive clearing for agricultural purposes and
are listed nationally as endangered. Previously
these communities covered 7 million hectares in
Queensland, however only 660,000ha remain. It
is critical these last areas of the ecosystem
are preserved.
Tallaroo Spring Nature Refuge
Barry and Shonnay Smith have long recognised the
important ecological values of their property
Tallaroo Station, especially the terraced mound
springs. Located in the Einasleigh Bioregion,
this 4ha nature refuge will also protect a healthy
population of the endangered plant salt pipewort.
