TULLY JOHNSTONE WATER QUALITY PROGRAM

CONTINUED INVESTMENT FOR HOTSPOTS

Overview

The Tully Johnstone Water Quality Program is focused on reducing the runoff of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) from farms. Terrain NRM has been appointed as the Regional Program Manager overseeing on-ground projects delivered by other partners.

Background

The Tully and Johnstone catchments on the Cassowary Coast, south of Cairns, are two priority catchments for nutrient runoff. It is an area with significant sugarcane and banana production land where farmers have been working hard for several years to change to practices with less risk to water quality.

Dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), which is used in fertiliser, is a particular focus.

This project runs on from the previous Queensland Government funded Wet Tropics Major Integrated Project, which came to an end in 2021.

Locations

Johnstone and Tully catchments on the Cassowary Coast, south of Cairns

Solutions

This program includes four on-ground projects:

Canegrowers Innisfail are coordinating a project to provide agricultural extension to farmers that is focused on nutrient management.
Liquaforce has a developed a new app that will enable farmers to have farm, nutrient, soil and performance data at their finger tips.
JCU Tropwater is undertaking local scale water quality monitoring to provide relevant and practical information for farmers to use in their decision making.
Terrain NRM are monitoring constructed wetlands to build more evidence and knowledge about the use and function of intercepting wetlands to improve water quality flowing off farms.

Funders

This project is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.