This reinforced riverbank, just upstream from the Daintree River ferry crossing, was well underwater in the recent flooding rain – so we’re happy to report it has emerged unscathed to continue to do its job of stopping erosion.

One hundred metres of this riverbank was restored last year. Erosion problems had been worsening for years and Cyclone Jasper accelerated things in 2023, sweeping chunks of riverbank down the river and threatening the road running alongside the river.

Our solution, working with partners Neilly Group Engineering, was a combination of engineered rock work, earthworks and revegetation (mangroves, grasses and trees). And tree rootballs were embedded into the rock wall to better protect the mangrove plantings from flooding and to begin to replicate habitat conditions in established mangroves where large logs and branches collect and provide fish habitat.

The reinforced riverbank has now gone through multiple high rainfall events, with the latest nearing record high flows. Mangroves growing on the rockwall’s benching were the only part of the design that was significantly affected in the March flood. They will recover as tidal flows bring more mangrove seedlings from nearby vegetation.

Terrain NRM partnered with the Douglas Shire Council and Jabalbina Rangers for this project, which aims to stop an estimated 1,200 tonnes of fine sediment a year from washing down the river and out to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon

Terrain NRM’s Zack Severino says revegetation is the long-term solution, after a combination of rock and earthworks.

“We were dealing with a sheer drop. With every storm, more soil was getting washed away. Now we have a reinforced riverbank. And the upland area has been planted out with native, fast-growing trees to get a good root system embedded. Mangroves have been planted on the benched areas to catch sediment and more seedlings, so that’ll also help to secure the riverbank, and also filter the water.

The ‘Daintree Wetlands: Reef Coastal Restoration in the Lower Daintree’ project is being delivered by Terrain NRM through funding from the Australian Government’s Reef Trust through their Reef Coastal Restoration Program grant.

Introducing our 2025-26 Emerging Leader…

A love for the Wet Tropics region and its sustainable future has led Thomas Herridge into a wide variety of roles – from a tradie to a tutor and Federal politician’s office manager. The latest is the 2025-26 ‘Emerging Leader’ on the Terrain NRM Board.

Thomas says the chance to step into a boardroom role is exciting.

“The average age of board directors in Australia is 61. It’s not common to be given an early career opportunity like this, to help lead an organisation.”

He’s the seventh Far Northerner to take advantage of Terrain NRM’s annual Emerging Leader mentoring program, designed to help future leaders on their career paths and to bring fresh perspectives to natural resource management leadership.

Thomas is currently working as an advisor for the National Indigenous Australians Agency, collaborating with Indigenous organisations and stakeholders across the region to support community-led initiatives.  He grew up in Machan’s Beach on Cairns’s northern beaches.

“I’ve got a deep love for that community, and for the whole Wet Tropics community. The Emerald Creek, Davies Creek and Freshwater Creek areas are favourite spots and working across a range of industries has given me a broad perspective on a sustainable Wet Tropics region with industries being profitable alongside healthy waterways and improved land for future generations.”

Terrain NRM has developed a landmark Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan to better protect the Wet Tropics’ globally significant biodiversity and the natural capital that underpins the region’s agricultural industries.

As climate change drives more intense cyclones, floods, heat events and droughts, the Wet Tropics’ natural assets—its rainforests, waterways, farmlands, ecosystems and species—are becoming increasingly vulnerable.

Past events including the aftermath of Cyclone Larry have shown that clean-ups can be more damaging to habitat than the cyclone itself, and they’ve prompted calls for better ecological guidance in recovery operations.

Terrain NRM Project Leader Jacqui Diggins said the new Plan responds to a critical gap in Queensland and Australia’s disaster management systems.

“Disaster planning has traditionally focused on protecting people and property, but our natural assets are also vulnerable to natural disasters, and their loss has cascading impacts across the environment, communities and the economy,” she said.

“If we want resilient communities and resilient industries, we need to plan for natural capital with the same rigour we apply to infrastructure.”

Funded by the Australian Government, the Plan was developed as part of a national initiative. Terrain NRM worked closely with local governments, state and federal agencies, FNQROC, the Regional Natural Asset Management Advisory Committee and a dedicated steering committee including the Queensland Department of Environment, Science and Innovation to ensure the Plan is practical, consistent and aligned with existing disaster management processes.

Mrs Diggins said the development process highlighted several major challenges.

“It became clear that there is no structured framework for determining when and how to consider biodiversity, particularly when impacts aren’t tied to infrastructure,” she said.

“There’s also no consistent state-wide method to prevent unintended environmental harm during recovery—like weed spread and vegetation damage—and no agreed system for prioritising natural assets, which is essential for targeting resources and guiding recovery efforts.”

Championing Conservation: Ashlyn Skeene

Yirrganydji woman Ashlyn Skeene has recently been awarded an Indigenous bursary from not-for-profit environmental organisation Terrain NRM to help with her studies. This recognition is a testament to her dedication and passion for environmental conservation.

Ashlyn is a Biodiversity Ranger, working with the environmental team at Cairns Airport, and she’s currently studying a Certificate IV in Project Management Practice at TAFE, with aspirations of becoming a project manager in the environmental sector. Her goal is to make a significant impact in her community.

“Growing up as an Indigenous person and being able to connect with nature and the environment as a way of life is what inspired me to pursue a career in conservation,” she says.

The bursary from Terrain NRM will help Ashlyn to achieve both her short-term and long-term career goals.

“I am so grateful that Terrain NRM chose me for this award,’’ she says. “I am more motivated now and ready to make my community proud.”

In 2022, Ashlyn was honoured with the Reef Traditional Owner Youth Champion Award. As a Yirrganydji Land and Sea Ranger, she has contributed to scientific research on blue carbon and its co-benefits, including water quality. She has also participated in seagrass, bird and fish surveys, and leads community volunteers on remote beach clean-ups, taking direct action on plastics.

The bank of the Daintree River has been restored near the ferry crossing – where flooding rain after Cyclone Jasper washed away land and part of a road.

Terrain NRM partnered with the Douglas Shire Council, Jabalbina Rangers and Neilly Group to rebuild 100 metres of riverbank upstream from the ferry crossing recently, and to begin revegetation work including mangrove restoration.

The work is designed to stop an estimated 1,200 tonnes of fine sediment a year from washing down the river and out to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.

Landholder Colin McDowall says it has been welcomed.

“It was the highest flood we’ve ever seen here, and it did some damage. There had already been erosion in this area over the years with the way the current runs to the side and hits the bank in floods.

Restoration a combination of rocks and mangroves 

“We’re hoping the rocks and mangroves will help to hold the bank together better and save it from this happening again.”

Terrain NRM’s Zack Severino said revegetation is the long-term solution, after a combination of rock and earthworks.

“We were dealing with a sheer drop. With every storm, more soil was getting washed away. Now we have a reinforced riverbank. And the upland area has been planted out with native, fast-growing trees to get a good root system embedded. Mangroves have been planted on the benched areas to catch sediment and more seedlings, so that’ll also help to secure the riverbank, and also filter the water.

Tree rootballs for fish habitat

“Tree rootballs are part of the design, to create fish habitat. Natural processes will build up over time.”

Jabalbina Ranger Manager Rick Burchill said over 100 native trees from Jabalbina and Douglas Shire Council nurseries had been planted at the site.

Indigenous students from across the Wet Tropics region can apply for a grant to help with studies and future employment opportunities in environmental and agricultural fields.

Terrain NRM’s Natural Capital Fund Indigenous Education Bursary Program is open to students doing university or TAFE courses focused on the environment, agriculture, natural resource management, conservation or sustainable development.

Ty’a Dynevor and Kayoko Yamashita received $3000 grants through the fund in recent years.

“I’d gone from working full-time on Thursday Island to being a full-time student as a single parent in Cairns so getting one of these grants meant a lot,’’ Kayoko says.  “I could buy the equipment I needed for my practicals. It felt like it took financial pressures off my shoulders.”

Kayoko is studying Environmental Management and Science at James Cook University.

“Never give up – just go for it”

Another of the university’s students, Ty’a (pictured) is completing a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Zoology and Ecology.

She has this advice for others: “My Dad’s motto was ‘Never give up. Just go for it’. If you are experiencing financial stress and difficulties and you need an extra bit of money to support yourself in your studies, this is a great bursary fund and opportunity for you. I’ve also appreciated how Terrain keeps in touch with me for potential future opportunities, like internships and workshops in the region.”

Terrain NRM’s Natural Capital Fund Chair Pete Faulkner said the bursary program, now in its fifth year, is all about encouraging more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to become future leaders in natural resource management.

Australians are feeling the pinch. Cost of living is a major concern – even with the inflation rate brought under control in the last two years – and it’s likely to be the defining issue of the upcoming federal election.

One of the major drivers of cost-of-living pressures is climate change. Here’s how it’s squeezing our household budgets, and why we need to take more action on addressing climate change and investing in the environment to reduce cost of living pressures.

1. Extreme Weather and Food Prices

In the last five years, food prices have risen by 20 per cent. ‘Unprecedented’ natural disasters are becoming more commonplace. Every time a major flood, cyclone or wildfire sweeps through a community, it devastates crops, causes livestock damage, reduces yields and disrupts supply chains. And all of this pushes up food prices.

Climate change is also increasing production costs more generally. Primary producers are needing to spend more on water management, pest control, disease control, accounting for increased crop losses and other adaptive measures, and inevitably there is a flow-on effect for consumers.

2. Insurance and Housing Costs

Insurance costs are being driven up significantly by climate change. Australians are collectively paying $30 billion more today on insurance than they were 10 years ago. The increasing frequency of natural disasters is an underlying cause, with more frequent and sizeable claims costing insurance companies more. Even disasters in other countries impact Australia by driving up the cost of reinsurance.

What we are now starting to see is insurance companies either pulling out of flood-prone areas, including some areas in the Wet Tropics, or charging substantially more.

Housing costs are also impacted. Extreme weather damages infrastructure, reducing housing supply and pushing up construction and rental prices. As demand outstrips supply, Australians are left paying more for housing—whether they rent, own or are trying to buy.

3. Rising Energy Costs

Australia’s reliance on coal and gas for energy, and the industry’s aging infrastructure, are significantly impacting cost of living. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2023 didn’t help. The cost of oil, petrol, gas and diesel has increased much more than other goods. On average we are paying $30 more to fill up a vehicle’s fuel tank now than we were before the COVID-19 pandemic. This directly impacts fuel and power bills. It also puts inflationary pressure on other goods, including food, due to transport costs.

The natural wonders of the Wet Tropics lured Michelle O’Loughlin to the region – and now she is helping to plan for its ‘nature-positive’ future.

The newly appointed Emerging Leader on Terrain NRM’s Board moved from Western Australia to the Wet Tropics more than a decade ago and since then she’s been working in local government in the fields of sustainability and climate resilience.

She sees the region, with its two world heritage areas and abundant renewable energy sources, as well-positioned to embrace green initiatives.

“It makes sense that residents, businesses and industry should be empowered to unlock opportunities which reduce emissions and build climate resilience so we can be an exemplar of a smart green economy.”

Our sixth Emerging Leader on the Terrain NRM Board

Michelle is the sixth Far Northerner to take advantage of Terrain NRM’s annual Emerging Leader mentoring program, designed to help future leaders on their career paths and to bring fresh perspectives to natural resource management leadership.

She says she is looking forward to strengthening relationships in the NRM sector, learning more about nature positive land use opportunities and gaining a better understanding of advocacy and collaboration for First Nations-led natural resource management.

“In my roles, I’ve always presented to Boards. I’ve never been on the other side so I’m looking forward to gaining that new perspective.”

Diversity the key to strong leadership

Terrain NRM Chair Barry Hunter says diversity is the key to strong leadership.

New business models that generate zero waste have been the subject of TED Talks for years, and momentum is now building closer to home. The Queensland Government recently chose Townsville as a site for a circular economy support hub for businesses, and introduced a Circular Economy Investment Program. And all Australian environment ministers have agreed to work with the private sector to design out waste and pollution, keep materials in use for as long as possible and foster markets that achieve a circular economy by 2030.

Natural resources are finite – if we use them continuously we’ll eventually exhaust them. But our traditional, or linear, economic systems involve a lot of waste. We often take a resource, turn it into a product and discard what’s not used. Our landfills are bulging and it also means businesses are not optimising the value, and potential profit, of the resources being used.

What is a ‘circular economy’?

A ‘circular economy’ is a system which reduces waste and regenerates nature. The emphasis is on more recycling, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and remanufacturing, producing less waste in the first place and maximising the value of precious resources. It includes actions like developing by-products and sharing or leasing materials to extend their lifecycle. In other words, we are going back to ‘waste not, want not’ and adding innovation.

FNQ Smart Green Economy Project

Locally, a circular economy is one of the key goals of the FNQ Smart Green Economy project, supported by Cairns Regional Council, Terrain NRM, Wet Tropics Management Authority, James Cook University, CQ University and government agencies. Other businesses and councils are also exploring ways to move to circular economy principles.

The Wet Tropics economy is underpinned by its natural resources, but they’re under pressure. Many people visit and live in this region because of its amazing natural environment, and our agricultural sector is reliant on healthy natural capital. It makes sense for us to be at the leading edge in the transition to regenerative economic models – models that treat ‘waste’ as a resource and allow innovative thinking about how we can create new opportunities and value from it.

Forests are essential for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. But according to a recent assessment, the world is not on track to meet its goal of halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030.

Australia has a poor track record when it comes to forest clearing. Our rate of clearing is one of the fastest in the developed world. We also have one of the highest rates of animal extinctions from habitat loss.

To draw down carbon dioxide and improve biodiversity, we need to plant a lot more trees. But tree planting takes a lot of time and money, particularly in tropical areas where reforesting rainforests require a high diversity and density of tree species.

A much more cost-effective strategy is to protect existing forests, and a key opportunity in Queensland is to fast-track strategic parcels of high value regrowth vegetation (HVR) from regrowth to remnant forest.

High value regrowth vegetation is defined by the Vegetation Management Act 1999 (VMA) as regrowth, that is more than 15 years old, on freehold, Indigenous or similar land. High value regrowth vegetation is more vulnerable to clearing and degradation than remnant vegetation because there is less awareness or knowledge of its importance and value. It is therefore less likely to progress to remnant status – a status that would give it greater protection in law.

In the Wet Tropics, there are 1,758 high value regrowth areas in prime landscape locations – adjacent to protected areas or within statewide biodiversity corridors. They are mostly on smaller properties of 5-10 hectares.

For the past 4-5 years, Terrain NRM has been running a Building Rainforest Resilience program, which incentivised landholders in priority locations to restore and protect rainforest on their properties. It resulted in 738 hectares of habitat protection, more than 30 hectares of revegetation and nearly 250 hectares of weed management.

An additional benefit of this project was the connections made between landholders and Traditional Owners, which in some cases has led to business opportunities for First Nations people as well as opportunities to access Country. Building these relationships helps to create sustained maintenance beyond the life of the project.

This is a project that can easily be scaled up with more investment.

There are about 1000 small landholders in prime locations in the Wet Tropics who have high value regrowth vegetation on their properties. Greater investment would enable us to work with these landholders through incentives to protect and improve vegetation condition, especially in habitat that is endangered or ‘of concern’.