Reef Rescue investment a success for grazier

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David Wright and his family had already begun making improvements to their Constant Creek grazing property when they found out about the Reef Rescue initiative.

The project funding allowed the family partnership to speed up the work and complete 1.5 km of fencing at Constant Creek and 3.55 km at a second property at Mt Spencer.

The Constant Creek project fenced off a hard ridge from flatter, more productive land.

The family had also installed a watering point at this property. The fencing constructed at Constant Creek helped to improve and maintain ground cover through more efficient use of available forage.

The family was comfortable building fencing which met the Reef Catchments standards for the funding offered. They implemented a wildlife-friendly top plain wire fence. The funding also advanced the rate at which the family was able to initiate and complete the works.

"We wouldn't have done (the Constant Creek work) so quickly, if we didn't get the funding. We would have left it for another year or so," David said.

David said the family was planning on completing the Mt Spencer fencing within the next five years, however the Reef Rescue funding brought this forward as well. In fact, there are parts of the Mt Spencer property that they would never have fenced, if not for the funding.

"The 50 per cent funding is very generous and makes it very attractive to do fencing activities," David said.

David is already seeing the environmental and economic outcomes that his family set out to achieve.

"We have already been able to undertake re-seeding with Signal Grass and the type has enabled us to lock the cattle out of that land while the pasture is established. Without the fence, we would not have been able to stop the cattle getting into the newly re-seeded pasture," he said.

David hopes that they will now be able to manage the ground cover more effectively and as a result, increase the stocking rate. In terms of improving water quality, David and his family's work means improved ground cover, which will reduce sediment input into the waterways.

"With these two projects, I signed off on them and it was within a fortnight that I had received the (funding). It was like return mail. The big advantage of the way the Reef Rescue budgets were developed was that I didn't have to race around town getting quotes from all and sundry. You just put your own figures in and they were accepted, or not," David said.

David Wright on his grazing property
Image courtesy Reef Rescue