Some notes and impressions from attending the conference

1. REPORT ON 2012 LANDCARE
CONFERENCE
By Ross Smith
representing the Greater Mary Association Inc
( sponsored by BMRG)
MONDAY
Social Media for Landcare – Stewart Dawes
An intense training session by an excellent presenter.
He covered mainly the use of Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest but also dealt with Facebook and Youtube
etc.
He gave an insight into how he and other people were using social media to improve their bottom line and
some ideas how not for profit organisations could also.
1/8

2. TUESDAY
Landcare, be heard- Mia Freedman and Peter FitzSimons
A most entertaining, thought provoking and informative presentation delivered by two excellent
communicators. With some reference to social media and marketing/advertising principles.
Some quotes;
“Don’t deal with the world the way you wish it to be but deal with it the way it is”
“Facebook to younger generations replaces the communications at the church or the pub”
“Organisations like landcare have to find a way to cross the “make me care” threshold with individuals.”
“Marketing success depends on finding the correct “emotional entry point” for the target group”.
“An example of marketing success – YouTube video on how to stack a dishwasher with giveaway of
dishwasher cleaning tablets “
German Land care – Beate Krettinger
A short presentation of the Landcare movement in Germany.
Lots of similarities with Australia – seemed to evolve after Australia did but no mention of copying Aust.
Some areas of Germany Active and some not active in landcare.
More levels of government than in Aust
Farming closely linked with landcare
Frog Dreaming – Sarah Schmude
A very impressive presentation on involving schoolchildren ina landcare oriented conference and
storytelling involving year 5/6 students with older students and developing action plans - in northern NSW
(Uralla).
Conducted at a very intense level and over a period of years so would have a lot to offer anyone who is
interested in this field
Social Media and the Social Movement - Tom Croft
A presentation about the developments in Victorian Landcare (which QLD should watch) and the
application of social media to the landcare movement
Government provides a gateway to give small groups websites etc
Landcarevic on Youtube gives a good explanation and worth looking at even if all the facilities are not
available on QLD
2/8

3. “Beyond Reasonable Drought” Doug Avery
An NZ farmer lecturing Australians on how to handle drought ???
This turned out to be very informative story of how a farmer in the north east of the South Island changed
his farming systems to combat the inherent dry climate.
His main innovation seemed to be an introduction of Lucerne into the farm to make better use of moisture
stored lower in the profile.
Sustainablity – Environmental
Financial
Social
Use of legumes encouraged early rumen development
Producing 2 kg per day wt gain on pastures all year round (wow)
He also mentioned that he was using Plantain but did not elaborate
Motivation for sustainable farm practices in Australian Agriculture -
Dr Saan Ecker
This presentation was of the results of a study to better understand what caused farmers to uptake certain
practices or innovations. The results of research by ABARES
Results showed that motivations included a mix of financial, environmental and personal issues with
support being an enabler not a driver of change
Regenerating Landscapes through innovative land management practice Simon
Gould
Soils for life an environmental NGO
A presentation which I thought would be interesting to follow up as it left some gaps in my understanding
of what was achieved and now there is a website which gives a lot of information soilsforlife.org.au
20 case studies mostly grain cropping and some diary with 1 in NT and one in QLD – “Dukes Plains” at
Brigalow
http://www.soilsforlife.org.au/
Farmer led research to improve soil health productivity and reduce carbon
emissions - Cam Nicholson
One of the highlights of the conference
Scientifically based and farmer led research into the benefits of conventional and alternate fertilizers with
some very interesting results which did not back the claims of some alternate fertilizer proponents.
A good web site with a lot of information and a downloadable report -
http://www.woadyyaloak.com.au/index.html
3/8

4. SW VIC near Ballarat
Quotes: “microbial activity more influenced by management than by the products added”
“no consistent links between soil biology and production”
“start where people are at and when they are ready to go” (getting adoption of research results)
Plenary Session
Dr Carole Hungerford
A GP with urban and rural practices and a passion for healthy food and the environment.
Author of “Good Health in the 21st Century” 2006
She spoke on the importance of gut bacteria and how the food we eat can influence these – GM food may
influence gut bacteria.
Food value of produce is not changed by its attractive appearance or not – some deformed fruit are better
for us for they have better plant hormone balance because they have dealt with a threat
Selenium is very important anti-cancer agent (not taken up in acid soils)
Tim Flannery
Author of “The Weathermakers” and other books www.theweathermakers.org
Some Quotes;
“most politicians come from a law or business background so have little scientific knowledge and not good
ability to enterperet the scientific data of climate change etc”
“99.999% of all species that have been on our planet are extinct”
Climate does change over millions of years but humans speed these changes up”
“ the human advantage over other animals is foresight”
“we are changing the physical and geological state of the planet”
“ 50 billion tonnes of soil travel from Africa to USA every day”
“Manage Humans – the only thing that can be managed”
“we should be moving towards measuring wellness and happiness” “Ecuador is moving this way”
“Japan has shown no growth for a period and there has not been a major disaster because of this”
“Use the experience of the “elders””
4/8

5. Gala Awards Dinner
Something to experience – 900 people? In one room being served and waited on very well with impressive
speakers and cuisine. Notables included Bob Hawke, Fed Minister Ludwig, Jack Thompson etc A list of
award winners appears at the end of the document
WEDNESDAY
David Suzuki
As would be expected a moving and thought provoking address on the world outlook. The address was to
be available on the Landcare website in 2 weeks but I have not been able to find it yet
Plenary Session
Ron Archer
Very eloquent speaker connected “mother earth” and “mother Nature” gave some insights into how to
influence the younger generation and acknowledged that white people can also have a connection to the
land!
Ian Lowe ? ACF
Gave and interesting point of view: commonly used business accounting practices do not allow for the
real cost of environmental damage in the long term.
“managing our natural resources is like coaching a football team if you only know three players – we need
so much more knowledge”
Directed us to read the “State of the Enviroment 2011” published by Fed Govt however this report is
116mb to download – the summary is 18 pages and both are available at
http://www.environment.gov.au/soe/index.html
“The 2011 State of the Environment (SoE) report aims to give Australians the best possible and clearest
answers to three basic questions:
• What is the current condition of the Australian environment?
• What are the risks the Australian environment faces and are we doing enough to protect it?
• Where is the Australian environment headed?”
Presentations
Victorian Landcare Programme – strategic plan - Ingrid Duncan
It seems Victorian Landcare has a very supportive government which has aided with the gateway as
demonstrated on their website : http://www.landcarevic.net.au/
A National Approach to Building Resilient Rangelands - Kate Forrest
A national approach to managing rangelands with 14 NRM regions in Australia covering 85% of the
continent.
5/8

6. The Australian Rangeland Initiative ---Aim:
 To demonstrate that the decline of rangeland health is an issue of national importance
 To stimulate investment in Rangelands at a national level
Contact the Alliance through any of its member organisations or Through the coordinator Kate Forrest at
the SA Arid Lands Board. Email: Kate.forrest@sa.gov.au Office: 08 82049131
There doesn’t appear to be a QLD member
Carbon Farming Initiative and Land Sector Package Lee Nelson
Wide ranging presentation mentioning Carbon Farming Futures, Methane, Nitrous Oxide and link dates for
European Carbon trading market
Some information about the Carbon Farming Initiative is available at
http://www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au/clean-energy-future/land-use/
Caring For Our Country – Ian Thompson
One speaker that was a little hard to understand but he gave an outline of the governments analysis and
thinking that has given rise to the changes in Caring For Our Country grants most of which is delivered in
the “Outline for the Future” to be found at:
http://www.nrm.gov.au/about/caring/review/pubs/c4oc-outline-future.pdf
General Impressions
Quite an eye-opening experience to see so many people gathered together with the same broad goals in
mind.
The strong emphasis on farming as an integral part of Landcare – many presentations pitched towards
farmers not pure enviromentalist
No mention of controversial issues such as Coal Seam Gas and Mining in general.
Very well organised and smoothly run conference though I hoped that more of the conference proceedings
would have been available by now – even attendees can’t be at every sessions.
There were many impressive speakers and displays some of the memorable ones were
Speakers:
David Suzuki, Tim Flannery, Peter Fitsimons
Presentations
Social Media for Landcare – Stewart Dawes, Farmer led research to improve soil health productivity and
reduce carbon emissions - Cam Nicholson
6/8

7. Displays
Weeds of National Significance, Regenag, dung beetle research
NOTE
The Link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/rpsmith45/LANDCARECONFERENCE2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCM3LwNP224CG
YA#
will show of some photos I took at the conference of presenters, the dinner and the static displays. The
static display photos are not always clear but more information can be obtained by zooming in on ones that
are of interest. Unfortunately the resolution in this web album is too low to be able to do this so if anyone
wishes to explore a poster more contact me by email and I will send you the higher resolution original
Ross Smith
Greater Mary Association Inc. PO box 1381 Maryborough 4650
rpsmith45@yahoo.com.au
An extract from the Landcare Newsletter
The 2012 National Landcare Conference was an outstanding success. The speakers in the plenary and
concurrent sessions were inspiring and informative. The presentations from the key note speakers in the
plenary sessions (such as David Suzuki) were filmed and these should be up on conference web site
(www.daff.gov.au/landcareconference.) by early October and are highly recommended. The powerpoint
presentations or papers from most of the concurrent sessions will also be available. The conference was
very well attended by people involved with the Landcare movement across the country and internationally.
Representatives from eight other countries attended the conference which was opened by the Secretary of
DAFF, Dr Conall O’Connell and you can read his presentation at
www.daff.gov.au/about/contactus/secretary/landcare.
The National Landcare Awards were also a highlight and the night included well known Aussie star Jack
Thompson (who has been a supporter of Landcare for a number of years), Minister Joe Ludwig and former
Prime Minister Bob Hawke who was presenting the inaugural Bob Hawke Landcare Award. This award was
won by dairy farmer and passionate Landcarer, Lynne Strong from NSW.
Media commentators Mia Freedman and Peter FitzSimons gave a fascinating insight into the chaotic and
evolving world of social media and the need for Landcare to get its message out. Later in the conference,
Tom Croft from Victoria gave a presentation on how Landcare groups are using social media and he has
uploaded his own presentation to Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8A_kAu3YNQ.
(Landcare Patron Jack Thompson, David Suzuki, Minister Joe Ludwig, Bob Hawke Landcare Award winner
Lynne Strong, Social media session with Mia Freedman & Peter FitzSimons, Individual Landcarer winner
Chris Scott, Lunch Time, Landcare Elders Session with Alice Knight/Horrie Poussard, Ron Archer, Professor
Ian Lowe, Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke.) 3
7/8

8. 2012 National Landcare Award Winners
Australian Government Individual Landcarer – Chris Scott, NSW
Australian Government Innovation in Sustainable Farm Practices – Running Creek Feed Test Station, QLD
Australian Government Coastcare – South West Rocks Dune Care, NSW Australian Government Local
Landcare Facilitator – Susie Chapman, QLD Australian Government NRM - SEQ Catchments, QLD Westpac
Education - North Dandalup Primary, WA Be Natural Young Landcare Leader - Megan Rowlatt, NSW Toshiba
Community Group – Ellen Brockman Integrated Catchment Group, WA Leighton Holdings Indigenous –
Bunya Mountains Murri Ranger and Elders Council, QLD Rural Press Primary Producer – Danny Flanery,
NSW Urban Landcare – Georges River Combined Councils’ Committee, NSW Local Government and
Landcare Partnership – Byron and Tweed Shire Councils, NSW People’s Choice Award – Youngtown Primary
School, TAS
8/8