Latest news with #DesertChannelsQueensland
ABC News
21-05-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Camels help eradicate invasive prickly acacia in outback Queensland trial
Dozens of giant creatures with stomachs of steel have proved a powerful enemy to one of the most invasive plants in the Queensland outback. Over four years, camels have been introduced to prime grazing paddocks to eat a thorny weed called prickly acacia. The invasive plant, introduced to Queensland in the early 1900s, is estimated to cost landholders $27.5 million yearly in lost production. The acacia's prolific spread means eradication is no longer considered an option. The trial began in Muttaburra in Western Queensland, and the results are in — the humped mammals have beaten, and eaten, the weed. More than 30 camels have been dining on a 40,000-hectare property as part of the trial, and while they failed to kill the plant, they did keep it at bay. Desert Channels Queensland (DCQ) operations manager Geoff Penton said the trial proved how effective the camels could be in slowing the weed's spread. "It's an effective method." Unlike cattle or sheep, when a camel eats the prickly acacia's flowers, the seeds do not pass through into their faeces. It means the weed's spread is stopped in its tracks. Mr Penton said one camel for every 1,000 prickly acacia plants was an ideal ratio. "We found that grass makes up roughly only a third of their diet, so they predominantly will eat the prickly acacia," he said. According to DCQ, prickly acacia is one of Australia's worst weeds, and under good conditions can produce more than 170,000 seeds per tree in a year, completely taking over landscapes. Left uncontrolled, it is estimated that within five years, the weed could dominate 95 per cent of Mitchell Grass Downs, which spans more than 470,000 square kilometres across Queensland and into the Northern Territory. Mr Penton said the second stage of the DCQ trial was underway, evaluating the camel's impact during seasonal changes, and more landholders wanted to join the program. Paul Keegan has been a cameleer for 40 years at his property near Mount Isa in North West Queensland. Mr Keegan supplied some of his 300 camels to the DCQ trial and said the results were exactly what he expected. "Unless you implement something to take the flower and seed out, landholders are going to keep going around spraying and spraying [herbicides]," he said. Camels have had a bad reputation in some parts of rural Australia, with feral populations stealing feed, destroying fences and drinking water meant for cattle. But Mr Keegan said if landholders wanted to get on top of prickly acacia, they should swap out herbicides for the herbivores. "Inside the fence at the trial site there was no [prickly acacia] grass thanks to the camels, and outside the fence the grass is up around your knees," he said. For 25 years, camels have eaten prickly acacia across David Batt's 80,000-hectare cattle and sheep station, west of Winton. Mr Batt said he could not quantify how much money he had saved on herbicides by using camels, but it would be substantial. "It's well worth it," he said. While camels may "get a bit of a bad rap" as pests in Australia, Mr Batt said he had no problem with them mingling with his stock.
ABC News
13-05-2025
- ABC News
Channel Country transforms after record-breaking flooding in outback Queensland
In the land of boom and bust, an ancient landscape of sand dunes and river channels is transforming. Record-breaking floods has parts of the Channel Country in south-west Queensland springing to life, a haven for flora and fauna across thousands of kilometres of inland waterways. It's a silver lining of devastating flooding across the outback where it's estimated 13 million hectares of country went underwater. It was only last year the terrain underwent a similar metamorphosis when water from ex-tropical cyclone Kirrily snaked south through the Channel Country to Lake Eyre. But the scale of flooding this year was much more extreme. Desert Channels Queensland, a community-based natural resources group, said 20 to 40 centimetres of top soil has been lost from significant areas of country. "That will take a fair while to recover," operations manager Geoff Penton said. Ecologist professor Daryl Jones from Griffith University expects there to be more pelicans than ever seen before in outback Queensland. "This water will lead to unbelievable amounts of reproduction in plants and there will be some spectacular numbers of baby birds," Professor Jones said. While pelicans are usually associated with the ocean, some head to inland lakes to breed. They respond to floods, although Professor Jones said it was a mystery how they know which lakes are full and teeming with life. "They have something that tells them 'let's go and fly across vast areas of land, from horizon to horizon, thousands of kilometres, to get to this mysterious place'," he said. In outback Queensland, Lake Machattie and the old Diamantina Crossing at Birdsville are well known hotspots for squadrons of pelicans. Across the border in South Australia thousands of pelicans will flock to Lake Eyre when it is full too. Roads are reopening to isolated towns like Birdsville that had been cut off by floodwater for six weeks, but the Simpson Desert remains closed to visitors. Park ranger and Elder of the Wangkangurru and Yarluyandi people from Munga-Thirri, Don Rowlands, said the blooming flora and fauna was spectacular. "It's the best condition you can ever see it — the green grass, flowers, birds that are nesting and flying around everywhere," he said. "How this country transforms just by adding water is beautiful. Even more so than last year after ex-tropical cyclone Kirrily, he said. "We've had a lot more rain this time and a lot more places that got watered. So I think the spread of green and flowers will be much wider," he said. Photographer Ingrid Hendriksen recently flew over the Channel Country. "It's like watching the land breathe again," Melbourne-based Ms Hendriksen said. "I've photographed it before but this time it felt different. More dramatic. "The contrast between parched earth and the large amount of flowing floodwaters was spectacular." From the aircraft, she said the juxtaposition of how water brings life —yet isolation, stress and huge challenges — to the outback was confronting. "This is the reality of life in the outback. It's raw beautiful, and at times, incredible tough," she said.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
State plans to kill thousands of cats
Thousands of cats will be killed as part of a new culling program which aims to protect some of Australia's most vulnerable species. The program aims to reduce the growing population of feral cats across 180,000 hectares of south-west Queensland. 'This project is a chance to turn the tide,' Desert Channels Queensland CEO Leanne Kohler said. Funding of $498,973 was poured into the project as part of the government's Saving Native Species Program. The Channel Country Threatened Species Partnership (CCTSP) will unite 12 groups 'in a shared mission to safeguard the environment and biodiversity of our remarkably beautiful Channel Country', Ms Kohler said. Included in this partnership are traditional custodians, pastoral companies, conservation groups and the Queensland Government. Together they will work to conserve iconic threatened species, including endangered and critically endangered fauna such as the greater bilby, the night parrot, the plains-wanderer and the kowari. There are more than 200 native species which come under ongoing threat from feral cats, which are one of Australia's most devastating predators. 'Feral cats are relentless hunters that don't recognise property boundaries,' the state's Deputy Director-General of the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation Ben Klaassen. 'Innovative collaborative partnerships increase our chances of successfully managing such a damaging pest species and improving recovery outcomes for threatened species,' Mr Klaassen said. The control efforts include humane ground shootings, trapping and the use of thermal imaging scopes to locate and cull cats across eight sites in the Channel Country area. Despite being labelled as humane culling remains a highly controversial practice and there have been calls for non-lethal alternatives to be implemented. The Australian Wildlife Society has been approached for comment on the matter. It is hoped that the program will successfully protect native wildlife and restore balance to Australian ecosystems.
