I want to go on a droving expedition which has started from the Snowy Mountains across the Riverina to Hay using the old stock routes. It is being done by a man that is trying to establish pre-european vegetation.
"Arthur Webb talks about his vision for Murraguldrie Station. Murraguldrie Station is a conservation cattle farm aiming to simulate pre-European landscape function using animal impact and appropriate soil disturbance. Enhancing existing grassy eco-system flora and re-introducing many that formerly graced our paddocks."
To pay for expenses on the drove, one can do volunteer work on revegetation activities, weed management, flora & fauna surveys, and organic food garden maintenance.
Woko what do you think about this? i am keen to go droving and volunteering.
Hi Margaret.
That’s an interesting one. I guess if you’re attracted to life on the open road & camping under the stars to the gentle lowing of cattle then droving in the long paddock has a lot of appeal. It sounds good from where I sit. The benefit for the environment is that to pay for your costs you’d be helping with revegetation & bush care. If I understand you correctly you would be planting & caring for the bush on Murraguldrie Station separate from the droving.
My concern is that the long paddock has seen a lot of remnant vegetation severely damaged by cattle, especially during drought when the long paddock is most in use (& abuse). At Monarto in SA I’ve even seen camels, that’s right, camels grazing on roadside native vegetation as if SA could afford to lose any more of its already devestated native vegetation. I guess the route you’d be taking wouldn’t be in drought now so that would reduce the damage that would be caused by cattle. Whether the planting & bush care would offset damage done to the roadside vegetation would be almost impossible to calculate as, among other things, you'd need to take into account the rarity of plants damaged or protected in the respective environments as well as the costs & benefits to any endangered wildlife.
Unfortunately, cattle aren’t soft-hooved like Australia’s native browsers so cattle grazing in the long paddock will cause soil disturbance. Soil disturbance leads to weed invasion which leads to reduce native vegetation quality & higher fire risk.
It’s important to be aware that cattle grazing on roadside isn’t the only disturbance to roadside vegetation. Dumping of rubbish, road rubble, soil infested with weed seeds, garden refuse are others. And I haven’t mentioned trail biking. So remnant roadside vegetation is under severe pressure in any climatic conditions, not just drought.
I must confess that I’m always suspicious of scheme promoters who want to balance their environmentally damaging activities with something environmentally positive in the hope that they will forestall criticism from opponents. I think I’d want to explore the real motives of the promoters of droving the long paddock. Besides, if their real motivation is to protect the environment why aren’t they simply promoting the bush care & revegetation ideas full stop?
Is the drover's day done?
Daniel Lewis
An unlikely coalition of farmers and greenies is fighting to save the historic stock routes of NSW from abolition.
The drover
Arthur Webb of Murraguldrie station reads Banjo Paterson's In the Droving Days.
At the start of a journey down the Long Paddock it isn't all laid-back visions splendid of the sunlit plains extended. There is chaos and cursing. It takes time for the cattle, horses, dogs and drovers to find their travelling rhythm.
Yet as Arthur Webb pushed his mob down the Humula Road towards Tarcutta last week, you only had to witness his inspired rendition of Banjo Paterson's In the Droving Days to realise what passion there still is for the history and relevance of this life on the stock routes of rural NSW.
Unique life ... Al Crane on a stock route. Photo: Jon Reid
Russel Ward wrote in The Australian Legend that Paterson romanced the Long Paddock because Australians realised it was bushmen such as stock route drovers - people rendered different from any others by a unique way of life - who created the ''national mystique'', the characteristics of the typical Australian.
AdvertisementNow this great cultural cradle of the stock route network is under threat because it does not pay its way. The state government is pondering a report that recommends the abolition of stock routes, except where ''appropriate business cases can be mounted'' for certain reserves to keep hosting travelling sheep and cattle. There are still thousands of travelling stock reserves throughout NSW covering hundreds of thousands of hectares. They were established 150 years ago so herds and flocks could be walked to and from farms and markets.
Today they are managed by Livestock Health and Pest Authorities, which employ rangers to maintain them and charge fees for travelling stock to graze them.
A drover's day
Grazier Arthur Webb pushes the herd along the stock route south of Tarcutta. Photo: Jon Reid
But because of mechanised transportation, many travelling stock reserves are now rarely, if ever, used and their upkeep often has to be subsidised by the rural ratepayers who fund the authorities. It has long been a sore point and the ''primary default position'' is that management of travelling stock reserves should be ''devolved to appropriate NSW government agencies'', the report says.
Fighting for survival of the stock routes is an unlikely coalition of graziers, drovers, academics and environmentalists. Their main hope lies in the system doubling as an amazing spiderweb of environmental corridors. Travelling stock reserves are often the only areas left that boast rich native biodiversity because they have never felt the plough and been only occasionally grazed.
The coalition believes the reserves are well managed by the authorities as a grazing and environmental resource and want the authorities to keep that role, but with extra government funding to enhance their environmental values and ensure they are not a burden shouldered only by rural ratepayers. That way they could still be home to drovers and form the backbone of wildlife corridors the federal government wants so native plants and animals and agricultural landscapes can cope with climate change.
Lighting up the night ... Al Crane. Photo: Jon Reid
The coalition fears the reserves will be poorly looked after by their new managers or sold to neighbouring farmers by a state government desperate for revenue.
In the western foothills of the Snowy Mountains, Webb, 61, runs Murraguldrie Station. With sidekick Al Crane he has started on a droving trip across the Riverina to the Hay district, where they plan to fatten cattle on the travelling stock reserves of the saltbush plains before returning home in December.
Webb wants to use the trip to show people the stock routes are still important. He is inviting paying ''city people'' to get on a horse and go droving with him to learn that ''grazing stock is the greatest tool we have for creating biodiversity. It emulates what Aborigines did with their burning. You must have soil disturbance and you must remove the biomass intermittently. It stimulates the plants that are there and helps build the soil.''
The stock routes, he says, are ''a link to the past'' but also to biodiversity. ''With climate change and all the things that are happening it's a very important thing that we focus on this link in this modern landscape. It's a living piece of our history and the small amount of money it would take in the scheme of things to upgrade these stock routes and keep them functional I think would be a drop in the ocean. The problem is that the funding … has been left to farmers … and it really is a community asset the government should be funding. These stock routes run through the best of our agricultural land and there's biodiversity there that isn't anywhere else in our landscape and to let that go would be tragic.''
To join the droving trip, email
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/is-the-drovers-day-done-20120616-20gou.html#ixzz20MiAWvyc
Maybe taking the middle ground though is the best hope for the environment - This guy seems to be a genuine bush lover who also wants to preserve colonial heritage.
If the stock routes are only occasionally grazed while being revegetated & having their remnant bushland improved in the meantime then that's far better than having a coal seam gas extraction industry or formula 1 race track operating in them. As you say, Margaret, perhaps compromise often produces better results.
I'm always bothered by claims that something (e.g., stock routes) needs to be abandoned/taken over because they "don't pay their way". It's so often the case that the bean counters don't take into account all the costs & benefits involved, some of which can't be assigned a monetary value. I'm also concerned that those who do the taking over have an ulterior motive. In the case of stock routes it might be to ram through a multi-laned freeway at great cost to the environment. The price of a healthy environment is eternal vigilance.
Hi Margert Some times I swag it over night on a stock route at a place call long flat on the mid north coast we do some bass fishing and spot lighting.
A few beers sitting by a fire. It's a great way to spend a day when you have nothing to do and all Day to do it !
Nightowl
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW
Thanks for your replies Woko and darin. I've signed up for it - hopefully i can cope with sleeping in a tent, it's a long time since i did that or rode a horse.
Hi Margaret
Good stuff, you will enjoy it. Don't sleep just lay there and listen to the sounds of darkness.
Nightowl
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW
Have a great trip, Margaret. I'll be very interested to hear of your impressions.
i just got back yesterday and i loved it. Saw lots of birds and Arthur knew all the birds. He pointed out superb parrots to me and they were always flying overhead until the one day when i got a really good look at them and didn't have any camera battery left. There were a flock of 8 or 9 living in the area we were camped.
Horse riding hurt but i got used to it...sort of. I spent a week out there and last tuesday the cattle were sent to market and it's pretty much finished. During my week we stayed in the one place and moved the cattle around, from where they were penned overnight to water and then to feed.
I saw a couple of echidnas which was special as I have never seen them in the wild before. The first one curled into a ball and then peeped it's head out and looked at me, then burrowed it's head under a clump of grass.
The day we moved the cattle to the stock yards, one cow was refusing to be moved and we left her by the side of the road because she was sick. I went back in the ute later to try to get her into someone's paddock. Anyway she ended up attacking me and hurled me through the air and stomped on me. I have very large bruises, a sprained wrist and lots of aches. The worst thing was that she stomped on my glasses and I couldn't see to find them in the long grass. Finally this 90 year old man called Pop came along with Red Dog on his ute and helped me. I had a bit of trouble communicating with him because he was VERY deaf. He did however find my glasses after about 40 minutes of searching. He also rammed the cow very ferociously and got her away and into the paddock. Finally I managed to drive back to the others holding bits of my glasses up to my eyes, changing gear somehow and steering. I forgot to mention i had 3 cattle dogs on the ute who did nothing to save me from the cow, maybe because i told them to get up and i didn't know the command to get down hehe so they just stayed up there and barked which didn't deter the cow at all.
What an adventure, Margaret, & with bruises & broken glasses to show for it. Nice to hear that you survived the cowardly assault.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TliXva6Jl1A&ytsession=UoGVulTZffpU8P6hSL_OwD2zfMbM_LIRm5VYEBKD5NT-RUvAGEiJxCD4svDhYiByArYvEdnGek53eCS3y2C1oHjkZ_KWkZFeAWJaIzLGdQnQaaYpt0aNhrfG_KJD-RP7AwF7oUXRYlkSQCfA3S6I7uXm6WqIYn9jrK3B-1QakkITRAYBheWy44bCusTgcS2mI3TR_-WnXe5lFT3pdtHe8k6g0SeM1_C-PuKSwEoI222zqpZmAjc0rEwy5RVQUfRSvRUXtAGFxtmVeza2_t-FW4O7Vh4biUBWyOrwfrRLuSku062wIs3AzVfCyY9Xoxjn1eKoaIYoXGB94Sip-LM7QK-T9Qm0CUUwKMFWzUWBfG-lKYQreGuLuEciAyGz-Yf_uL8vClWOpS2em05DnYcmtoxiJEOdO_SVeMFzSU558CEdL6k4o_He-74V7RLG5-W-Sm8KSm9hOV58RBzmXgXxTx7Kvw_Ipp-NAO9rMBp9bFVSvoCKRuWyBNN6XBekvhaO4qjPs_YuZ0z_GXgJj_cYyXOhwmBK7XKB
That was very brave of you , to tackle a grown cow. I would rather walk 10000 miles around anywhere, before I did anything like it. Most people think cows are gentle lovely animals, most might be, but since one of my aunts was killed by one of her own cows (the long horns sliced her open from her neck all the way down), I'm a bit scared of them.
Other than that, you obviously had a good time.
( I'm not sure if I should click on the youtube link? Looks like spam of an escort agency??)
M-L
gees i'm glad i didn't know that before i went...there were a few cows/steers with long horns. They were all lovely and cooperative, this one must have been in lots of pain to do that. That's a youtube link i put there, don't know how to put it in, about the droving.
Arthur put the drove together to get city folk to understand the importance of the long paddock and stock routes because they have the remnants of the original biodiversity of pre -european settlement. He believes that we need to restore the land by planting native grasses, plants and shrubs to build the bio- mass that protects against drought and erosion. He is currently doing this on his property and believes that the grasslands that european settlers found were farmed by the aborigines. This situation meant early white settlers had runs that could support far more animals than is the case today. The european farming practices have ruined the fecundity of the land and over-grazing meant that when drought came the top soil was swept into our creeks and rivers, clogging them up.
I spent some time putting seedlings into punnets to be planted out for the autumn rains.
During my time away i met lots of people who know about ecology. His partner is a consultant ecologist and academic, others I met were a horticulturalist, a zoologist, Ag science students.
Arthur believes that cattle are compatible with preservation of native vegetation as long as the land is given enough time to rejuvenate after grazing. They have the same symbiotic relationship as our native animals with soil disturbance providing opportunities for seeds to germinate. He thinks that the remnant vegetation needs grazing for it to flourish. The horticulturalist doesn't agree with him. And i wouldn't have a clue. I intend to read Gammage's book The Biggest Estate on Earth. How Aborigines Made Australia.
Most interesting, Margaret. Where we've removed native browsers I suppose there might be an argument for allowing cattle to do the job. It might be a question of the degree of intensity. If cattle are for making money then intensity is usually all the go (perhaps not as much as it used to be) & the native vegetation doesn't have time to recover.
In relation to soil disturbance by cattle encouraging seed germination there may be some argument for this, too. But usually cattle would graze any seedlings that came up since the cattle are usually for making money, not encouraging native vegetation. I have rabbits where I live & I have a baiting programme to control their numbers. But I've often wondered if the native vegetation would be advantaged by having just a few rabbits around, especially since the neighbouring farmer likes to rid the area of kangaroos which serve to make bare patches of earth as seed beds where they rest during the day. However, I'm not sure what the comparitive effects of kangaroo & rabbit poo & pee would have on seed germination. Did Arthur & the horticulturalist discuss this, Margaret?
Gammage's book looks interesting.
Dammit, I wrote a long response to this then lost it when I tried to post.
I have read at least one study of semi-arid areas using long term exclusion zones (25 years or so) that suggest that moderate grazing has a positive effect on plant species richness, particularly of herbs and grasses. The best case scenario was macropod grazing, but I believe moderate cattle grazing may have had a better effect than total exclusion (though I'm not certain).
In other cases, where invasive hard-to-control species such as Buffel grass are present, intensive over-grazing can be one means of control, as other means are ineffective because Buffel grass is the first species to respond to fire and significant disturbance. I know they are trialling intensive grazing of Buffel grass in Taunton NP (near Rockhampton), to try and control it and help provide a better environment for the endangered Bridled Nail-tailed Wallaby.
On the other hand, exclusion of cattle is often used as a means of aiding regeneration around creek banks and regrowth of seedlings around individual eucalypt trees has been shown to be enhanced through the exclusion of grazing.
Clearly it's horses for courses (or cattle for courses?) when it comes to grazing management.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
How interesting & good points, too, timmo, especially the cattle for courses principle. It shows how careful we need to be when applying various methods to achieve various aims. Do you know what they're using for intensive grazing of Buffel Grass in Taunton NP? Macropods? Cattle?
Yeah, they're using cattle - basically just offering the neighbouring farmers free agistment, as they'll need to overgraze it pretty heavily.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
Arthur Webb wants to re-establish the small native animals on his property and has been told by aborigines, they won't come back without the emu and the plains turkey. He therefore intends to breed some plains turkeys to put on his property. Apparently both these birds give warnings about predators to the small animals . - one at night and one during the day.
Timmo, it seems to me the cattle grazing of buffle grass is the lesser of two evils since the increased nutrients provided by moo poo will disadvantage native grasses. However, I guess this is another example of how invasion by exotic species forces ecologists into making compromises.
The main problem I have with grazing animals is the damage they do to the soil. They compact the soil and pulverise it so the organic matter is washed or blown away. Organic matter (OM) levels of soil that has been grazed are always much lower than pristine pre-farming levels, and it takes hundreds of years for the soil to recover, if ever. Strip grazing helps a lot if done properly, but Australian soils don't respond well to grazing.
Good point, Greg. When using hard-hooved animals to manage vegetation the stocking rate must be carefully managed to avoid the problems you mention. The clearance of native vegetation & introduction of feral species makes the managment of these problems such a delicate enterprise. One fear I have is that the seemingly ever-popular method of using feral bugs to control other ferals will lead to an horrendous environmental problem. All hell could erupt on the feral front, notwithstanding all the laboratory testing beforehand.