Refreshing Central Billabong

The productivity benefits of waterway fencing include:

• improved ground cover management and re-establishment of sensitive riparian vegetation
• reduced streambank erosion, minimising loss of valuable riparian land
• closer management of stock watering by providing alternative watering sources, with flow-on improvements in animal productivity
• the opportunity to manage paddocks according to land class, such as using gully and waterway paddocks to create smaller paddocks that segregate land types and enable sensitive management
• reduce the risk of stock getting stuck in waterways, and reduce maintenance of creek crossings
• improved mustering efficiency and general stock management.
  

For landholders, stabilised creek banks that are less likely to erode in high rainfall events removes significant stress about land and stock loss.

Waterway fencing:

• enables the creation of a riparian buffer zone that traps sediment and nutrient runoff
• restricts stock access, reducing trampling along fragile banks
• enables native plants to regenerate, creating improved habitat for fauna and flora including threatened species
• reduces sedimentation, leading to improved water quality and reducing “smothering” of habitat (such as when rocky creek bottoms become silted up, removing important fish breeding habitat).

See Stock & Waterways - A NSW Manager's Guide: Riparian Fencing (2019) for information on fence layout, fencing types and potential management options.

The Refreshing Rivers Program can also equip eligible landholders with support through providing access to a work crew to erect fences. Visit the Rewards page for more information. ‍

Creating and enhancing habitat along waterways has many benefits to landholders, including:

• increasing diversity of native plants and animals supports ecosystem services, with many benefits for production systems
• bringing back rare native species onto farms is a real win for current and future generations
• increased aesthetic appeal of waterways
• opportunities for waterways to be a place of fun, recreation, calm or sanctuary.
• creating shade and shelter for stock and pastures (reduced wind, heat stress)
• increased environmental responsibility with regards to water
• improving a farm’s natural capital.
  

The benefits of improving habitat along waterways are twofold.

Firstly, in most cases, improving habitat requires management changes that will benefit the waterway as a whole - for example, reducing channelling and erosion to allow shallow and deep areas to form will also improve water quality.

Secondly, habitat improvements such as restoring vegetation have many flow-on benefits for waterway health, such as filtering run-off and stabilising banks.

Visit the Restoring riparian areas website (Sustainable Farms, 2023).

Contact your Refreshing Rivers Project Officer, local Landcare group or native plant nursery for advice on appropriate local species to use for revegetation or in-stream planting.

There are many productivity benefits of controlling pests and weeds along waterways, including:

• reduced spread of weeds and abundance of pests across the whole property
• meet legislative requirements
• minimise loss of viable land to weed infestation, and reduce habitat for pests such as rabbits
• maintain and increase property values
• maintain access to and amenity of waterways
• control erosion - pest animals can contribute to erosion along waterways, while replacing woody weeds with native ground cover helps stabilise stream banks.

For landholders in Central Billabong, removal of willows over the last 15 years has already had a significant impact on waterway access and amenity. Tackling the remaining willows as well as other pests and weeds will continue to deliver benefits to landholders.

Waterways can easily become choked and smothered by weeds, which also compete with native plants. Benefits of weed management include:

• reduce smothering and blocking of streams, which can alter flows
• allowing native plants to compete, which in turn provides habitat for native animals and boosts farm biodiversity.
  

Benefits of pest management include:

• reduce competition with and predation on native animals
• improved ground cover through reduced grazing pressure
• reduced erosion, which can be caused by pest animals wallowing, browsing and destroying groundcover.
  

Pest fish are also a significant problem in many waterways, and measures to control or reduce pest fish will help support the survival of native fish species.

NSW Weed Control Handbook (NSW Government, 2014) - a guide to weed control in non-crop, aquatic and bushland situations.

Priority Weeds of the Murray and Riverina Regions Identification Guide provides basic information to help identify and manage species listed as priority weeds in the Murray and Riverina Regional Strategic Weed Management Plans.

The Refreshing Rivers Program can also equip eligible landholders with support through access to a work crew for significant weed control projects. Visit the Rewards page for more information.

Creating a farm plan that includes waterways and other natural assets provides the opportunity to be rewarded through environmental markets and/or certification schemes. See our Rewards page for more information.

Mapping and improving natural assets also has a range of direct benefits for the production system.

Natural capital on farms includes soils, water, carbon and the diversity of plants and animals. The natural assets which make up this capital include riparian remnant vegetation, rocky outcrops, refuge pools, paddock trees, farm dams, floodplain wetlands, groundcover, shelterbelts, scar trees, habitat for specific threatened species and more.

By assessing natural capital on your farm, you can identify opportunities to improve these assets with a range of flow-on benefits for the broader farming system. Ecosystem services (the services to humankind provided by natural ecosystems) are particularly relevant here.

These services provide a production benefit to farms, and include:

• water filtration and infiltration into the soil profile
• nutrient cycling and retention
• bank stabilisation
• healthy biodiversity
• carbon storage
• shade and shelter for stock and crops
• waste disposal (e.g. breakdown of manure).

Creating a farm plan that considers natural assets, particularly waterways, in the context of surrounding landscapes has the following benefits for waterway health:

• identify linkages that can be enhanced between riparian corridors along creeks and other vegetation
• identify and restore biodiversity hotspots along waterways
• identify areas at risk of erosion, and work to address these
• identify opportunities for enhancing habitat in waterways, such as refuge pools
• may provide access to environmental markets and other sources of funding to support waterway management actions.

Talk to your Project Officer for Central Billabong, Andrea Mitchell, about creating a farm and waterways plan.

Working with your neighbours and others in the community to connect corridors of vegetation has many benefits including:

• create climate resilience (including to flood and fire) at a larger scale
• improve water retention in dry times
• support more wildlife on farms
• reduce erosion impacts
• get to know your neighbours and create success as a community
• increase wellbeing through collaboration and connection
• be part of a coordinated effort to improve waterway health, truly driven by local community values.

Corridors help to:

• create a riparian buffer zone
• enable native species to move through the landscape, improving biodiversity throughout the catchment
• stabilise streambanks and reduce erosion, which in turn improves waterway health and in-stream habitat
• filter nutrient and sediment runoff before it enters waterways
• buffer against spray drift and herbicide run off before it reachs waterways.

Talk to your Project Officer for Central Billabong, Andrea Mitchell, about connecting with your community to create corridors.

See also Ten ways to improve natural assets on a farm (Sustainable Farms, 2020).