Peter Hazell Coordinator of Mulloon Creen Community Project
Mulloon Community Project
The Land | Stephen Burns | August 1, 2019
Preserving the essential nature of our landscape was the focus of an address at the regenerative agriculture workshop hosted by Gillian Sanbrook at her property Bibbaringa, Bowna.
One of the keynote speakers was Peter Hazell who is the coordinator of the very successful model Mulloon Community Landscape Rehydration Project near Bungendore.
Mr Hazell has been working on the remedial work carried out along the Mulloon Creek under the direction of Peter Andrews and stimulated by the late Tony Coote, Mulloon Creek Natural Farms, Bungendore.
He described the all-encompassing project involves all who have any connection with the land, not simply those who own the land.
"One of the key components of the project is bringing the community along with us," he said.
"Initially the project focused on expanding the original natural sequence farming program which had occurred over three kilometers," he said.
"Adjoining landholders came on board and now we have moved down stream covering another ten kilometers and have a much bigger demonstration to show everybody."
Funding was initially difficult as government finance bodies were skeptical about the viability of the project and Mr Hazell said there has always been a bit of skepticism about natural sequence farming.
"The initial interest was in how we could communicate and share this knowledge with the broader community as opposed to doing more on-ground works," he said.
"We developed a strategy to bring the community along which involved sharing the knowledge and the experience."
The approval process is long, but we are now starting to move onto works along the creek embracing three more properties
Mr Hazell said the first workshop with Stuart Andrews held at Mulloon Creek in 2016 attracted many landholders who were interested in the concept and concerned about the state of the landscape.
"The approval process is long, but we are now starting to move onto works along the creek embracing three more properties."
Interest in regenerative farming is growing
Speaking at the regenerative agriculture workshop held at Bibbaringa, Bowna Peter Hazell coordinator of the Mulloon Creek Landscape Rehydration Project told his audience of the slow but sure movement towards adopting skills and practices which are more in step with our landscape but allowing for agricultural production.
He pointed out the challenges but also the optimism engendered with each success.
"Going beyond the boundaries of the home property at Mulloon Creek, we originally wanted to go to the next five properties down stream but then the interest was so great among the other landholders in the catchment they wanted to become involved," he said.
"It has assumed a 'snow-ball affect', we started with ten landholders, now we have over 20 landholders actively involved in the project."
Mr Hazell said the expansion of the Mulloon Creek concept is spreading into neighboring creek catchments where landholders can see value in repairing the landscape.
"It is a very interesting process," he said.
The work along the Mulloon Creek requires careful consideration with a lot of design and approval involved, and there is a lot of other work carried out along gullies, including re-vegetation and adaptive management.
"A couple of years ago, the landholders were taken through a holistic management course with Graeme Hand and farmers choose what will suit them on their properties and how far they want to go down the track with this type of agriculture," he said.
"Part of it is about intervention, part of it is about management change."
Mr Hazell said the concept has a lot of support and especially through this dry time.