After the devastating 2022 floods left behind severe erosion and landslides at Tuntable Creek, a group of locals refused to give up.
Instead, they came together with a powerful vision to heal the landscape, using landscape rehydration techniques.
Their mission was to replant the riparian zone, protect natural assets, bring back biodiversity, restore degraded waterways, and prevent future erosion.
Sharing skills
Janelle Schafer, one of those landholders, is also an extension officer with the Southern Queensland and Northern NSW Innovation Hub, and recently completed a professional mentorship program with the Mulloon Institute.
With her new skills, a dedicated local community, and ongoing support and expertise from the Mulloon team, the project received funding from North Coast Regional Landcare’s Caring for Catchments project.
“The aims of the project are to rehabilitate the riparian zone of an eroded creek gully on Siddha Farm which has been colonised by banna grass,” Janelle said.
Improving biodiversity
“We would like to speed up the succession of gully vegetation from banna grass to native rainforest vegetation through active management to reduce the fire hazard that the species posed to a hamlet of four dwellings in the 2019 bushfires.
“This will increase biodiversity by replacing weed species with a variety of subtropical rainforest species, and also stabilising the creek bed with native sedges and rushes. With time, this will aid the establishment of up to one hectare of the endangered ecological community Far North Lowland Subtropical Rainforest.
“About eight small leaky weirs have now been installed in the gully, and local native sedges and rushes have been planted around them to support their stability and help collect silt and build up the eroded gully base.”
Janelle recently hosted a landscape rehydration field day with Mulloon Institute at the site, which was attended by 22 farmers, NRM workers and neighbours. They were able to see the site’s transformation, and help with a practical component, making brush packs, installing two brush pack weirs, and also installing a woven pin weir.