Agricultural
1 December, 2021
Cambooya Landcare Committee re-elected
In the absence of other nominees, the existing Committee of Cambooya Landcare Association Inc was elected to continue at the Annual General Meeting held at Felton Hall.
The committee consists of Kate Reardon-Smith as Chair, Ian Whan as Vice Chair, Glenn Knight as Secretary and Hugh Reardon-Smith as Treasurer.
The proceedings started with Dr Adam Frew from the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) giving a fascinating presentation about the relationship between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, their affect on plant growth and defence against insect attack.
After a light supper, the Chair reported on Cambooya Landcare’s activities.
Mrs Reardon-Smith thanked the other members of the executive and all members of Cambooya Landcare Association for their support and spoke about what the group has been up to in the last year.
“Our main funded activities this year have been two federal government Communities Environment Program projects,” Mrs Reardon-Smith said.
“The first of these enabled us to fence and revegetate areas within the property boundary on four properties adjacent to the roadside reserve on or linking to the Toowoomba-Karara Rd (Cambooya-Felton section).
“The other funded similar works along drainage lines
on three properties in Emu and Sandy Creek catchments to enable management and maintenance of groundcover during drought to protect areas from erosion.
“These projects are almost complete, and we thank those involved for their enthusiasm and efforts in putting up fences, planting trees and sending through pictures of their finished works.
“I’d also especially like to thank Lisa Hanlon and Felton Produce for managing the orders for fencing gear and the Peacehaven Nursery at Highfields for accessing and providing us with over 650 seedlings of species native to our area for the projects.”
Mrs Reardon-Smith said Cambooya Landcare has also completed two small projects supported by Toowoomba Regional Council for works around the Landcare Office and weed control and revegetation works in Federation Park at Vale View, both of which were delayed by the ongoing dry conditions and restrictions imposed due to Covid-19.
The Cambooya Landcare Lantana Busters team has also continued to work on removing lantana in the woodland reserve at Symes Thorpe in Toowoomba.
“Many of you will be aware of the coordinated feral pig control project that was completed last year,” she said.
“This project centred on the Felton Valley and was extremely well supported by landholders with well over 100 properties involved.
“In all, we conducted four planned aerial helicopter shoots - in September 2018, May 2019 and March and August 2020 - controlling a total of 285 pigs and a small number of wild dogs. That project also subsidised the purchase of motion sensor cameras.
“We’re keen to continue to collect data on pig activity in the region, so if you purchased a camera and have records to share, please let us know,” Mrs Reardon-Smith said.
She said Cambooya Landcare also used some of the project funds to purchase additional cameras and would like to see those deployed in the region.
“While the helicopter shoots during the drought were successful, it’s important to keep an eye on pig numbers building up through these wetter conditions and to continue to use other methods to limit the impact of pigs in the region,” she said.
“We’ll look at accessing funds to support another helicopter control program in the future; however, the only way we can be sure that we are having an impact on the population is to have good records through time.
“We continue to operate the Felton weather station and would like to thank the Nutrien branch in Pittsworth for sponsoring the costs of running that for the past year.”
The formal part of the meeting continued with a tabling of the audited financial report and the election of the Committee.
The Association will continue to hold Landcare general meetings on the 2nd Monday of each month beginning at 5.30pm at the Landcare Office, 64 Eton Street Cambooya. All are welcome to attend.
For more information about Cambooya Landcare, visit their website or Facebook page.
