A $7.5 million project will help sugar cane growers in the Wet Tropics continue to fine-tune farming practices – increasing productivity and improving the quality of water flowing to the Great Barrier Reef.

Terrain NRM has secured funding through the Australian Government’s Reefwise Farming Program for a two-and-a-half-year project focusing on fertiliser application and managing crop diseases and pests.

The project will help cane growers across more than 6700 hectares from Cairns to Ingham, and will support on-farm activities that hone in on pesticide and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) entering our waterways, as well as particulate nitrogen and phosphorous.

Partnering with Canegrowers and Sugar Research Australia

Terrain NRM is working with Canegrowers Cairns, Canegrowers Innisfail, Sugar Research Australia and Canegrowers Herbert River on the project, which will include dollar-for-dollar grants for cane farmers adopting new practices, nutrient management plans, farm trial sites and field days.

The Herbert, Tully, Johnstone and Russell-Mulgrave catchments rank among the highest priorities in the entire Great Barrier Reef catchment for reducing dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and pesticide loads to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.

Terrain NRM’s Jamie Thornberry said on-farm practice change and innovation was continuing to play a pivotal role in the delivery of water quality outcomes for the region.

“As a region with high rainfall and a close proximity to the reef, intensive agricultural systems will continue to be presented with unique challenges,” he said.

“Farmers have come a long way in accepting these challenges as a part of doing business in the region and continuing to manage nutrient runoff, sediment and pesticides to achieve water quality outcomes.”

Scaling up proven changes to farming practices

He said the new project would scale up changes to farming practices that had proven to be effective over a number of years, with actions tailored to each part of the region.

“Projects will be targeting the specific needs of each region, with dollar-for-dollar grants in the Ingham and Cairns areas to support things like changing fertiliser application methods, laser-levelling, precision application of mill mud and ash, and optimising liming practices.

Extension help with new or updated nutrient management plans

“Extension officers will be working with growers in the Tully and Innisfail regions on new or updated nutrient management plans, and on everything from identifying and managing crop constraints to ameliorant and cane variety selection. They will also be working with growers in the Cairns and Ingham regions.

Banana, grazing and cane land will be improved in the Cassowary Coast region through a new $2 million project.

Terrain NRM will be working with landholders from Innisfail to Kennedy on initiatives to increase the resilience of their land through a ‘Future Farms’ project funded by the Queensland Government.

Help after extreme weather events

“Local landholders have been subject to extreme weather events in recent years, and this program will fund on-ground initiatives to improve farm resilience and soil and land conditions,” Minister for Natural Resources, Mines, Manufacturing and Regional and Rural Development Dale Last said.

Terrain NRM is working with the Australian Banana Growers Council, Canegrowers Innisfail, the Cassowary Coast Graziers Association and landholders on the program, which is built around directly improving soil health, soil condition, land condition and waterway health.

Demonstration sites on farms

As part of the project, several landholders will host demonstration sites on cane, banana and grazing land. On cane land, these sites will focus on mixed species fallow crops, improved drainage, laser levelling and soil amelioration.

In grazing country, the focus will be on pasture management including legume planting, strategic paddock layout and erosion control along waterways using revegetation and fencing.

On banana-growing land, demonstration sites will showcase contouring to help mitigate erosion on slopes and farm drainage design and streambank remediation to reduce sediment loss.

Terrain NRM’s CEO Stewart Christie said the Cassowary Coast region had experienced repeated severe weather events over the past two decades including Cyclones Larry (2006), Yasi (2011), Niran (2021) and Jasper (2023), and major flooding from tropical lows in 2025.

“These events, following decades of land-use pressures, have extensively damaged the region’s agricultural landscapes, resulting in financial losses and long-term degradation of land and waterways,’’ he said.

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.

It’s a busy time of year for our Water Quality Monitoring Team! With the intense rain event between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, the crew was out most days. (It’s lucky they love the wet.)

We have automatic sensor results from 11 locations across the Innisfail-Tully region and our team, along with 3C Farms, collected water samples from Utchee, Kennedy and Corduroy creek sites, and the Sandy Creek wetland.

Over that period, we amassed 170+ samples.

The water has been sent to laboratories for nutrient, sediment and pesticide analysis. The results will be shared with local landholders.

We’ve been collecting samples from some areas for 8 years now. They’re helping all of us to better understand how our activities in catchments affect water quality, and how wetlands can improve water quality by removing nitrogen and sediment.

Our water quality monitoring projects are funded by the Queensland Government’s Office of the Great Barrier Reef and World Heritage and the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

Feral pig and woody weed control programs are beginning in the Herbert catchment as Terrain NRM and its partners intensify efforts to improve water quality in a river system extending from west of Mt Garnet to the floodplain around Ingham.

Five projects are now being rolled out as the first stage of the Herbert Integrated Project’s on-ground works, and Terrain NRM Project Manager Fiona Barron said there were more to follow.

Council leads feral pig control program

One of the first is a feral pig management initiative led by Hinchinbrook Shire Council.

“Feral pigs are a major problem for the environment and also for the sugar cane industry and other farming industries in the Herbert,” Ms Barron said. “Pigs churn up soil and vegetation and damage wetlands and riverbanks, which releases nutrients and can spread pathogens.”

Hinchinbrook Shire Council will build on an existing control program by using emerging surveillance and control technologies, including AI-enabled cameras. A remote-triggering feral-tech trap door will also be trialled near a coastal community where traditional systems have been unsuccessful.

Woody weeds removal in Upper Herbert region

In the upper Herbert, stakeholders identified the thickening of invasive woody weeds, such as lantana, as a priority.

“Dense thickets of woody weeds are a problem for graziers because they lead to less soil protection and pasture,” Ms Barron said.

“Part of the project will involve working with graziers on trials of different burn approaches at different times of the year to determine the most effective way of tackling woody weeds so that we can share best practice with other landholders.”

Whole-of-farm and whole-of-catchment planning

Other projects include developing a whole-of-catchment management plan, supporting cane farmers through integrated whole-of-farm planning led by Herbert Cane Productivity Services Ltd, and synthesising past and present water quality monitoring data to better understand what’s happening across the catchment and help farmers and the wider community.

Circular economy, natural capital opportunities

There will also be a focus on circular economy opportunities and natural capital capacity-building within the Herbert catchment area.

Ms Barron said the Herbert Integrated Project was being driven by the community, and Terrain NRM was working with a wide range of partners and community groups.

“We have engaged widely with stakeholders across the upper and lower Herbert catchment to understand how the catchment can be managed as one integrated system – to not only improve water quality but also deliver broader community and landscape benefits,” she said.

A new high-frequency water-quality monitoring station has recently been installed at Corduroy Creek south of Tully. It’s the eleventh for the Tully-Innisfail region and it’s in one of 50+ locations where water monitoring has been happening in paddocks, drains, creeks and rivers across the Tully, Murray and Johnstone River catchments.

Why do we do it and how does it help farmers?

We’re helping farmers to sustainably manage their land. The data is giving all of us a better understanding of how human activities, including land management practices, impact waterways and the Great Barrier Reef. We design water monitoring programs to answer landholders’ questions about water quality. The data is shared with participating landholders and industry bodies. It has led to changes in the way farmers use pesticides and fertiliser, and manage ground cover. Having more knowledge and understanding = good decision making.

Why Corduroy Creek?

Cane growers in this area asked for data. So this creek has been monitored for more than six years now, initially through a project run by Sugar Research Australia and then through two Terrain NRM projects. We chose the same monitoring sites so we can look at trends over time. With long-term datasets, we can track changes in water quality following changes to land management practices. This helps us all to see the effects of different practices and the way changes can make a positive difference to water quality.

How do high-frequency water monitoring stations work?

These stations fill in the gaps between monthly water sampling results. Every half hour, a nitrate sensor takes a measurement. By measuring stream flow as well, we can see changes in nitrate concentrations and we can also calculate the nitrate load moving down the creek (in kilograms) during a single rain event, during the first big flush of the wet season or for an entire year. The new station at Corduroy Creek also has a rain gauge, to help us relate the stream flows and nitrate concentrations to rainfalls, given how localised rain can be.

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.

From local rivers to Sydney’s Macquarie University – three Mamu Rangers and Terrain NRM’s Alicia Buckle recently took a deep dive into the science behind environmental DNA.

Environmental DNA (eDNA): What is it?

Environmental DNA, or eDNA, is changing the way we monitor ecosystems and it’s particularly useful in places where traditional monitoring would be dangerous (because of crocodiles) or would cause too much disturbance (in sensitive ecosystems or for rare and endangered species).

It’s being used for many things – from detecting pest fish like tilapia in our creeks and rivers or seeing whether polluted waterways are becoming healthier to monitoring endangered swordfish or finding crown-of-thorns starfish before they mature and cause major problems on the Reef.

Local waterways: How eDNA sampling helps

For Mamu Rangers, eDNA analysis is helping to monitor culturally significant species without land managers having to spend countless hours searching for them, or installing cameras and traps.

“We are using eDNA sampling to help us determine whether species like gudgeon, barramundi and mangrove jack are present or absent in waterways,’’ Mamu Ranger Francis Joyce says. “From there we’ll look at how to manage our waterways better for them.

“Being at the laboratory was amazing – it gave us more of an appreciation of all the science that happens after our sampling, and why our project’s design and sampling methods are so important.”

Fast Facts: eDNA in the laboratory

DNA is in the biological matter in samples.

Molecules called primers are released into the mixture and they attach to target sections of the DNA strands.

These sections can be used as a ‘barcode’ (like we have on products at a supermarket).

Many copies of the barcode sections are made.

These samples are sequenced to look at what species are present. Just like at the supermarket checkout, DNA barcodes can be matched to species in a database to give us a list of animals and plants found in the sample.

More than 140 people have been part of community workshops focused on the next 10 years of investment in water quality improvements for the Wet Tropics region’s nine river catchments.

From Cardwell to the Tablelands and Cairns, workshops have brought together landholders, industries, traditional owners, river catchment groups and local government. Workshops are also happening further north, in Mossman and the Daintree region, in coming months.

New strategy to guide investment in water quality programs

Terrain NRM’s Charles Hammond said the sessions would help to guide strategic investment in land-based water quality programs over the next decade. Terrain is being funded through the Australian Government’s Reef Trust program to lead the development of catchment priorities.

Identifying regional priorities

“In the workshops, we’ve been identifying regional priorities,’’ Charles said. “We’ve also been looking for opportunities that’ll maximise investment by delivering multiple benefits to the environment and local communities.

“The response has been great. People are telling us how useful it is to talk with other industries and groups, and to share information about a wide range of past, current and future projects and resources.

“They’re seeing just how many organisations are working towards improvements for river catchments and water quality, and the value of working together.”

He said a huge amount of effort and investment had already gone into improving reef water quality over the last 15 years, and good progress had been made.

“There has been significant work with landholders on farm management practice changes to improve everything from the land and production to the quality of water leaving properties.

The rootballs of trees are part of a new engineered solution for erosion along the Herbert River near Ingham.

About 180 metres of flood-damaged riverbank has been repaired using five rootballs combined with more than 2000 tonnes of rock – for a rockwall with a difference.

Strengthening riverbanks, creating fish habitat

Terrain NRM’s Lana Hepburn said the result would both strengthen the riverbank and create fish habitat.

“The hardwood is wedged trunk-first into the lower riverbank so the rootballs are in the water, with rock benching holding them in place,’’ Lana says.

“The rootballs add complexity to the waterway, creating eddies and different flow rates which moves the fast-flowing water away from the toe of the streambank to prevent more erosion. They also create places for fish to rest and feed.

Erosion since 2009 wet season

She said the riverbank had been eroding at the site since 2009 and the 2021-22 wet season had worsened things, with more riverbank vegetation lost to flooding.

“Since 2009, the riverbank has retreated 20 to 40 metres on average across the site. The toe of the riverbank – the point where the riverbed meets the bank and supports the weight of the bank –became completely unvegetated. So when the 12 metre high bank was hit by fast water, it was eroding at the toe and collapsing, sending soil down the river and fine sediment out to the ocean.”

Cane farmer Mark Zatta, whose land borders the river, says he’s “stoked”.

“Originally we had about 50m of rainforest along the river but we were losing it over time. All of a sudden, in one river rise, a whole lot was gone. Once the first wall (of riverbank) dropped, it just kept collapsing. It’s on the outside of a bend in the river where the river pushes around.