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Thread: Somerset. Most fished dam in Qld!!

  1. #16

    Re: Somerset. Most fished dam in Qld!!

    Hi JC,
    Agree with the vegetation buffer zone as the prefered choice.
    In regard to resupmion of land for lakes, farmers were compensated for lost land. And they only own land to a boundary ABOVE the high water mark, this does not mean cattle up to thier guts turning foreshores to sludge when water levels drop is an acceptable practice.
    What about th farmer next door, he pays the same rates yet can't quietly slip a pump into the lake at night for irrigation or have a permanent water source for his split hoofed bovine provided by tax payers.
    JC I know you're from the land, same here. I've seen the waters of the once mighty Moonie River turn into nothing more than a shallow muddy creek due to bad farming practices. Our fragile land & particularly our waterways can't handle another couple of centuries of rape, pillage and European farming practices.
    There are some great alternatives such as cell farming, minimal till or no till & the re-establishment of remnant forrests that actually help the soil. Split hooved animals in Oz have alot to answer for as well (yet another hand me down from Europe). Nuthing wrong with a feed of croc or roo.
    Also on the subject of crap, if cattle crap on land, that great little critter imported from India called the bung bettle uses it to feed thier larvae.
    Anyway, we transgress, I recon the planting of some buffer zones of colistemon and melaeluca would be good for bank stability and water quality.

    fitz
    Australian Lure & Fly Expo - Australia's largest ever gathering of Aussie lures under one roofwww.lureshow.com.au
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  2. #17

    Re: Somerset. Most fished dam in Qld!!

    Yeah! More trees rock! Let's get some revegetation happening. Keep the moo cows in the paddock. Hmm, steak is good though!

  3. #18

    Re: Somerset. Most fished dam in Qld!!

    I'm not looking for an argument Fitzy. I'm all for land preservation, the organisation I work for is a massive multi-million dollar national experiment for establishing sustainable grazing systems (southern Aus anyway from WA to Armidale). Our systems are inappropriate and there are too many old timers that just flog the crap out of their places year after year and destroy it in a drought!

    I just think the tree solution is superior to the fencing one. It won't cost much more, will be self replacing and will provide protection & habitat for most of the foreshore. If we want it fenced we should pay, I just don't see it as fair to impose the fencing costs on the graziers. Like I said the lake came up the hill to them not the other way around, if Sunwater wanted it refenced they should have included compensation to fence it when they reposed the land, but no doubt were too cheap. If the graziers pay for watering equipment, we pay for the fences. I'm talking about stock water, I'm not talking about those that irrigate because thats Sunwaters problem.

    To me its different to a river were the river was there first, I'd like to see river banks fenced off. The problem is the gov sold the land with grazing rights on the banks and is too cheap to compensate farmers for fencing it off, or buy back the rights. That should be done, with all of the stock watering equipment available we don't need all of those exposed banks. In Great Britain their gov loves to pay big money farmers to do nothing, a bit that would be great over here!

    Thats why I have to laugh at Kim Beasleys $140m anti-salinity scheme. Its an outright joke, its like try fix a severed leg with one bandaid. Land repair in this country is going to take at least $3b a year for at least 10 years to see any noticable improvement. The only way thats going to happen is if the Gov adds a $150 per person per year levy to our food bills. That would be really popular with families with 3 kids ($750 a year)! Mr & Mrs Joe Average want clean green food, they just don't want to pay for it.

    One the researchers is aiming to get as close to 100% rainfall utilisation as possible. He has already manage to reduce runoff (soil errosion and nutrient loss) but between 70-90%. Not good news for river flows but great news for landcare. If his theories become popular it could result in water shortages in the Murray! Bob Carr will have people covering their properties in cement to generate water. Right now he taxes them for rainfall on their properties. Ultimately it should end up as bad news for irrigators not fish. Gum trees can use much more water from soil profiles/rainfall than grass pastures, so it may just be reverting to the water flows of 100 years ago.

    Like you, I agree that there are too many flaws in Australian grazing. Our rainfall is too eratic and our soils crapped out millions of years ago. This is why gums trees are such pests overseas. They absolutely dominate in places like California and places like Ethopia. The reason being Ethopia has been so buggered up that gum trees, with their ability cope with poor quality conditions, are able to outcompete the native competition.

  4. #19

    Re: Somerset. Most fished dam in Qld!!

    Lordy,
    I can see your point with the gums but they are native and cope because of the erratic conditions Australia has
    ( and they are not a pest here unless they are in a suburban backyard). Not trying to pick on the graziers and it is obvious they are doing they're best now to look after the land more than ever before but with politics,money and all the other crap involved where do we go? The runoff problem? I'm at a loss and am unqaulified to speak more but would like to hear more please.
    Cheers Luke

  5. #20

    Re: Somerset. Most fished dam in Qld!!

    Gum trees are a real pest when you've got a swimming pool that drives you crazy keeping it clean of leaves!! >

    Apart from that, one of my first jobs was working in an tordoning/ring barking gang. (young & keen to travel). Could see a massive increase in grass growth after killing off the trees, but wouldn't do that sort of stuff now. Wish I never had done it actually. But the shooting/hunting was good & the pay was great! 8) Didn't like it when I got bit by a king brown fella an hours and a bit drive out of Townsville tho. Near died from shock. (young & silly. Will learn not to try to catch em the hard way)
    Australian Lure & Fly Expo - Australia's largest ever gathering of Aussie lures under one roofwww.lureshow.com.au
    Australian Lure Shop - Get aussie made lures direct from the lure makers at www.australianlureshop.com.au

  6. #21

    Re: Somerset. Most fished dam in Qld!!

    Completely fencing off the dam to cattle similar to Lake Samsonvale would be neccessary to create any sort of buffer zone that is going to be worth while otherwise the cattle will eat all of the grass, water weeds, lillypads, saplings, everything.
    This became even more evident to me when recently fishing Eungella dam, in that on the small Islands in the dam which cattle cant get to there was good grass cover to the waters edge followed by a good lillypad margin then weed edge out from this where depth allowed. Everywhere else that cattle could get to the waters edge the water weed was surviving but the Lillypads were non-existant.
    The bufferzone will limit the rate and amount at which the nutrients, sediment(erosion) etc. enter the dam with run-off. This will have an incredible benifical effect on water quality ie. less algae and sediment greater visibility and ultimately less cost to treat the water for our use.

    most importantly it gives somewhere for our fingerlings to live while they grow and dodge birds and bigger fish

    This is most suited to dams etc. with slowing changing water levels and margins that aren't shallow for long distances

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