Twelve new projects are helping to improve and connect rainforests from Bloomfield to Cardwell and west to Wondecla.

Landholders, traditional owners and threatened species recovery groups are embarking on tree-planting, weed control and habitat protection initiatives through a ‘Building Rainforest Resilience’ project focused on nationally significant rainforest areas.

It’s part of Terrain NRM’s vision to build one strong, healthy and intact forest system in the Wet Tropics region.

Working with landholders in priority areas

Terrain’s Tony O’Malley said 300 landholders – with large properties beside world heritage areas and within the region’s top-six cassowary corridors or with Mabi or littoral rainforest refugia – had been invited to be part of the project.

One of the latest grant recipients is the Gunggandji-Mandingalbay Yidinji Peoples Prescribed Body Corporate (GMYPPBC).  The Gunggandji-Mandingalbay Yidinji rangers will be removing weeds, including lantana, giant bramble and guava, from cassowary habitat on Aboriginal land within the GMYPPBC Trustee area in Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire east of Cairns.

Rangers Cadmas Sands and Justin Keyes said the work area was around a traditional walking track used for trade.

“It’s part of our story but nobody’s done work there for years. We want to clean up the weeds. We’ll give it our best to get it back to where it was. This funding allows our generation to go back on more country and work and buy materials and protect our country.”

Mr O’Malley said the work was right on the edge of the rainforest and would help the forest recover the area, through natural regeneration, once rangers removed the weeds.

Supporting Traditional Owners

“The Gunggandji-Mandingalbay Yidinji Peoples PBC manages 8,200 hectares of Aboriginal land and it’s one of the biggest coastal forests in the region,” he said. “This is about supporting the Traditional Owners to keep a large habitat patch in good condition.”

Eligible landholders wanting a helping hand to look after their lot now apply for funding through Terrain NRM’s final round of Rainforest Resilience Grants.

Up to $20,000 is available for revegetation, habitat protection agreements and weed management.

Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said the funding recognises that important habitat isn’t just located in national park and conservation areas.

“We know that landholders right across the Wet Tropics already play a large part in helping to look after the region’s natural areas, and we want to further support that,” he said. “We have contacted over 300 landholders and Traditional Owner organisations who we think are in important cassowary habitat or corridors, or might have rare rainforest types like littoral or mabi forest, to invite them to apply for a grant.”

Terrain and threatened species recovery teams – including all levels of government, scientists, traditional owners and conservation group members – have worked together to determine where landholders should be supported to help connect or buffer large habitat systems.

The grants are also open to threatened species recovery team members.

41 grants allocated in previous rounds have helped landholders to revegetate 13 hectares of land, manage 234 hectares for weeds, and protect 260 hectares of habitat.

Speewah’s Anabel and Bruce Belson are among the growing collective of landholders who have accessed a rainforest grant.

Anabel said they were very excited to be offered a grant as it coincided with the discovery of a large patch of lantana. “Our 68 hectare, mostly forested block, is right on the edge of world heritage rainforest and has important ecological value so it’s important to us to look after it – but the ongoing maintenance certainly doesn’t get easier as we get older”.

Four Far Northern enterprises have together won a Queensland award for exploring ways councils can help protect habitat for threatened species.

Planz Town Planning, Kelly Reaston Development and Property Services, Terrain NRM and the Far North Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils (FNQROC) have won the Planning Institute of Australia’s Queensland Award for Excellence in Improving Planning Processes.

Judges commended the teamwork involved in “all parties stepping outside their usual networks and cross-collaborating to bravely go beyond traditional planning measures”.

See the ‘The Role of Local Government in the Preservation and Recovery of Threatened Species and Ecological Communities’.

Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said local governments were playing a valuable role in threatened species habitat protection.

“This project was all about bringing together the region’s local government town planners, threatened species recovery teams and traditional owners to share knowledge on the region’s threatened species and on local government’s possible roles in protecting their habitats,’’ he said.

“The initiative was funded by Terrain NRM and managed by local government and their consultants, making the outcomes a great fit for local government delivery.”

The award-winning project includes 11 recommendations for greater involvement by local government, and it identifies possible partners and resources.

FNQROC’s executive officer Darlene Irvine said the project laid out a clear vision for the region.

“By stepping outside traditional land use planning approaches, it gives direction to the entire spectrum of community and local government efforts and actions in the species recovery space, and it will be of great value in guiding future investment and action,’’ she said.

The project is part of Terrain NRM’s Building Rainforest Resilience Program, which is working with landholders, threatened species recovery groups and all levels of government to improve rainforest habitat in priority areas which are home to endangered southern cassowaries, Mabi forest or littoral rainforest.

Indigenous students in the Wet Tropics are being encouraged to 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 studying natural resource management, environmental studies, sustainable development, agriculture or conservation at university or TAFE.

Tamieka Barlow, one of two successful applicants in 2021, is studying a Bachelor of Environmental Practice at James Cook University. She received a $3000 grant through the fund.

“It has really helped me with my studies. I’m glad this has been created to help students who want to work on Country get to where they want to go,” she said.

“I found the application process really easy and I’ve also found that Terrain genuinely cares about me. They’ve provided ongoing support and opportunities to be involved in events and to meet people who work in the sector.”

Terrain NRM’s Natural Capital Fund director Rhiannon Simcocks said the bursaries were about encouraging more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to become future leaders in natural resource management.

“It’s incredibly important for us to recognise the connection between young indigenous people and Country,’’ Ms Simcocks said. “We want to help support students to further their studies and provide a stepping-stone for careers in natural resource management.

National park areas at Crater Lakes and Wooroonooran have been connected following a community revegetation blitz.

Tablelands residents Elaine and Michael McAuliffe have joined a growing number of private landholders who are hoping to conserve key forest habitats in the Wet Tropics. Located in a priority wildlife corridor used by endangered rainforest species, including the Southern Cassowary, the couple has received a Rainforest Resilience Grant through Terrain NRM to revegetate their property and help connect national park areas.

The grants are part of Terrain’s Building Rainforest Resilience project, which supports willing landholders and threatened species recovery groups to improve or protect important habitat. Activities include revegetation, weed management and habitat protection. This project is supported by Terrain through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

Terrain’s Rainforest Leader Tony O’Malley said the program is aiming to reconnect and buffer large fragmented areas of habitat.

“We are working closely with threatened species recovery teams which are advising us on the grants process,” he said.

“The Cassowary Recovery Team, for example, has identified six priority corridors in the Wet Tropics and much of the land is outside protected national park or world heritage area. We offer landholders in those corridors resources for conserving and improving their patches of rainforest.”

The McAuliffes had already planted more than 6,000 trees on their ex-dairy farm block since buying it in the 1980s, and they used Terrain’s grant money to engage local contractor Mark McCaffrey for more revegetation work with support from local landcare group, Trees for the Evelyn and Atherton Tablelands (TREAT).

“Lots of the revegetated parts of the property now look like natural forest. Unfortunately, I did get some bad advice back in the ’80s and there was a section where I planted 1000 Caribbean pines, which aren’t the right thing at all, and they all blew over in a cyclone,” said Mr McAuliffe.

“For years I’d been thinking about filling in the area where the pines fell in so when I found out I could apply for a Rainforest Resilience Grant I grabbed the opportunity with both hands… I’m 80 years old now and reveg is hard work on the knees and back so I’m glad to have the support! I was inspired by the work being done on the western side of Lake Eacham, connecting the Crater Lakes and Wooroonoonan.”

Tree-planting and weed control work at Mission Beach is protecting endangered coastal rainforest and strengthening Djiru people’s ties with traditional ceremonial land.

Mission Beach’s Clump Point

At Clump Point lookout, Djiru traditional owners have been working with the Cassowary Coast Regional Council and Girringun rangers to plant thousands of trees on the edge of littoral rainforest where the land has been overrun by guinea grass.

Djiru’s Rona Hart said getting back on Country was grounding.

“This is a special place – for thousands of years our ancestors met with other groups here, held ceremonies, fished, hunted and camped,’’ Mrs Hart said.

“It’s always good to come back. We came as kids and growing up, and now I come with my own kids and grandkids. This new project has been an opportunity for other Djiru people to get back on Country too, through short-term employment, to keep the connection and learn new skills.”

A partnership project

The Clump Point area is a council reserve under an indigenous land use agreement and Mrs Hart plans to continue land management work in collaboration with the Cassowary Coast Regional Council and other organisations.

“The young trees are looking beautiful,’’ she said. “But there is always more weed management to do.

“This kind of coordinated effort is really beneficial – it empowers Djiru people to become more involved in environmental issues and it also helps to bring traditional knowledge and cultural practices into shared land management.”

Protecting littoral rainforest

Littoral rainforest is listed as endangered, and Clump Point is the only place in the Wet Tropics where it is growing on volcanic soil.

Four new nature refuges, together covering more than 300 hectares of land, have been declared in the Wet Tropics region.

Landholders in the Kuranda, Innisfail and Tully regions have been granted nature refuge status for their properties by the Queensland Government, protecting habitat and securing wildlife corridors between national parks.

A “dream come true”

Kuranda landowner Di Daniels said it was a “dream come true” to know rainforest on her 38-hectare property would be protected for future generations.

“We’re really privileged to be living in this environment with beautiful rainforest, native animals and birds,’’ Ms Daniels said. “We wanted to make sure our rainforest was conserved long after we’re gone.’’

Another nature refuge is a 250-hectare property bordering the Basilisk National Park in the Innisfail region. Owner Peter Rowles said natural ecosystems needed to be connected across the Wet Tropics landscape for the survival of wildlife.

“Habitat on private land provides these essential connections which need to be protected,’’ he said. “We feel privileged to have been able to contribute to the long-term protection through a nature refuge.”

The two other nature refuges are 15 hectares of critical cassowary corridor at Smith’s Gap near Tully where land was bought and revegetated by Queensland Trust for Nature and local conservation group C4, and 27 hectares at Kuranda in the ‘Fairyland Link’ wildlife corridor.

What are nature refuges?

Nature refuges are voluntary conservation agreements between landholders and the Queensland Government which conserve the land’s significant cultural and natural resources in perpetuity, while allowing compatible and sustainable land uses. Nature refuge agreements are also binding on future landholders.

Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said it was wonderful that the nature refuge option was available to landholders wanting to protect their habitat.

“A lot of important Wet Tropics habitat is on private land,’’ he said. “These new nature refuges are in really important wildlife corridors. Landholders are making a priceless contribution – they are helping to bridge gaps in world heritage areas and secure our wildlife’s future.”

Terrain NRM funded the nature refuge assessments for three of the new refuges through its Building Rainforest Resilience project, via a grant to Kuranda Conservation in the northern region and grants to private landholders in the south. The Building Rainforest Resilience project is supported by Terrain NRM through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

Landholder-led conservation

Kuranda Conservation’s Jax Bergersen said the community’s long-term goal was nature refuges right along the existing world-heritage cassowary corridor.

“Linking world heritage rainforest areas with prime ecological blocks of land is a way forward, along with the revegetation work that’s been happening for decades in this region,” she said.

Ask Michael Morta about the Wet Tropics region and he’ll tell you it’s part of his make-up.

The Ngadjon-jii traditional owner grew up swimming in the creeks of the Atherton Tablelands, Little Mulgrave, Babinda, Tully and Cardwell areas, and getting to know the indigenous people in each community as his family moved around the region.

“The Wet Tropics area is a special place for me and I’m passionate about preserving our natural and cultural landscapes,’’ Mr Morta says.

He has recently been appointed as Terrain NRM’s Biodiversity and Indigenous Engagement Coordinator. In this role he’ll be monitoring threatened species and ecological communities across the Wet Tropics region, and he’ll also be working with Wet Tropics traditional owners.

“I’m excited to get back to a role like this where I’m helping to look after Country from the wildlife to management of Country,’’ he said. “An important part of this is keeping traditional owners involved in natural resource processes and management.”

Mr Morta was a trainee indigenous ranger and has since worked as an Aboriginal liaison officer, cultural heritage manager, and marine parks ranger and supervisor among other roles.

As part of the Building Rainforest Resilience project, he will be helping to reduce threats to the endangered southern cassowary, Mabi forest and littoral rainforest.

Cassowaries will be captured on camera in a new project to reduce the number of the iconic and endangered birds being struck by vehicles.

Cameras have been installed at cassowary crossing hotspots on Far Northern roads and they will be in place for one year as part of the Queensland Government and CSIRO-funded project which is also a partnership with Terrain NRM and the Cassowary Recovery Team.

The footage will be used to learn more about both cassowary and driver behaviour.

“Vehicle strike is the leading recorded cause of cassowary deaths,” Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said. “Some great solutions have been implemented over the years, however cassowary vehicle strikes continue.

“These new smart cameras will capture in detail the interactions between cassowaries, roads and drivers and increase our understanding of how cassowaries and drivers behave around each other. The findings will help identify effective solutions to improve cassowary and driver awareness and safety.”

The project follows a successful two-week trial on the Tully-Mission Beach Road earlier this year.

Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said the Queensland Government was committed to working with the community and other agencies such as Terrain NRM, the Cassowary Recovery Team and CSIRO to help reduce the risk of cassowary vehicle strike.

It adds to existing initiatives like:

• Vegetation management along key roads in the Mission Beach area, to increase cassowary chicks visibility during the breeding season.
• Variable Message Signs installation on Kuranda Range Road, which are used to notify drivers of road hazards, including cassowary sightings.
• Bluetooth loggers installation to identify trends in driver behaviour in the Cassowary Coast region.
• The launch of the ‘Report a cassowary’ feature on the QLDTraffic App.
• Vehicle Activated Sign trails on the Tully Mission Beach Road at Carmoo.

It also adds to progress on the world’s first dedicated cassowary land bridge linking tracts of world heritage-listed rainforest on the Bruce Highway at Smiths Gap.

“We want to protect the cassowary,” Mr Bailey said.  “This project will assist us in understanding interactions between cassowaries and road users. We will continue to work with the community to find effective and innovative solutions to reduce cassowary vehicle strikes.”

Mr O’Malley said local cassowary groups would help to monitor the equipment, which has been installed on the El Arish-Mission Beach Rd and Tully-Mission Beach Rd.

Reducing dangerous interactions between cassowaries and vehicles is part of a larger four-year Rainforest Resilience project that also focuses on improving rainforest habitat in the Wet Tropics through grants and incentives for revegetation, weed management and habitat protection. The Rainforest Resilience project is supported by Terrain NRM through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

Image courtesy of: Rob Onnis (PHiMAGES)

A new group focused on threatened rainforest species has formed in the Wet Tropics region.

The Rainforest Recovery Network is bringing together scientists, government bodies, conservation groups, traditional owners, natural resource management organisations and industry to improve the lot of cassowaries, Mabi forest and coastal rainforest.

Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said the network’s first role was identifying priority sites for habitat improvement in the Wet Tropics.

“We are identifying the best places to invest in to benefit rainforest species,’’ he said.  “Funding will help with their recovery through revegetation, weed management and habitat protection.”

The network has formed as part of a new ‘Building Rainforest Resilience’ project which also includes a landholder incentives program, community grants and a fresh look at ways to reduce cassowary deaths on roads. This project is supported by Terrain NRM through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.