Managing your On-Farm Water
South Coast NRM’s Projects
Current Projects
This trial, funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation, is being conducted from 2020 - 2024 and will look to see how effective subsurface drainage is in relieving waterlogging, and improving farm profitability.
South Coast NRM have an active project officer to manage the internationally protected, Ramsar wetlands across Esperance. To do this, we work with landholders and growers.
Yakamia Creek drains a mixed agricultural/urban catchment through the City of Albany and enters Oyster Harbour.
Historic Projects
Managing your on-farm water workshops:
‘Managing your on-farm water’ workshops were held in Esperance, Cranbrook and Williams on the 17th, 19th and 20th of September 2019. These workshop were delivered by South Coast NRM on behalf of the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), in partnership with the Gillamii Centre and Peel-Harvey Catchment Council. Below are copies and links to the information presented at the workshops and further resources and reading. These workshops have been made possible through investment by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and South Coast NRM wish to thank them for their support.
Waterwise Youth in Ag:
In 2021, we visited the Esperance Farm Training Centre to deliver a talk on the importance of land restoration and effective drainage design in managing surface water runoff, waterlogging and salinity.
Stokes Inlet Water Quality Monitoring
Across 2020 to 2021, South Coast NRM conducted the fourth sampling round of the Stokes Inlet and it’s tributaries (the Young and Lort Rivers) to assess the ongoing health of the estuary system. You can read the full report here.
Fish friendly Farms
South Coast NRM worked with landholders to set up two demonstration sites as part of the delivery of the Fish Friendly Farms Programme in the South Coast NRM Region. The demonstration sites showcased the implementation of environmental restoration and protection works to help restore ecosystem function for the benefit of native fish and the aquatic environment.
Landholders, project partners and the community were engaged through project workshops, field days and communication activities to improve landholder and stakeholder knowledge of the native fish, local waterways and NRM issues and activities to protect and improve the aquatic environment.
Presentations:
GRDC Welcome
John Ruprecht – Western Land & Water Consulting – Surface Water Management
Henry Hamilton – PCT – Implementation of Surface Water Management
John Simons/Buddy Wheaton – DPIRD – Legalities
Online Resources:
Land Drainage and the Soil and Land Conservation Act
This website has many useful resources related to water management including access to a Notice of Intent to Drain form.
https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/soil-salinity/land-drainage-and-soil-and-land-conservation-act
Rights in Water and Irrigation Act 1914
https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/law_a700.html
Water Management
https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/climate-land-water/water/water-management
Surface Water Management
https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/water-erosion/surface-water-management
Review of Inland Drainage Research (2003 – 2015)
Prepared by GHD for Department of Water
https://southcoastnrm.com.au/downloads/knowledge-hub
GeoScience Australia
– National Surface Water Information
https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/national-location-information/national-surface-water-information
Access to free elevation data
Follow the instructions on the website to download the required data. You can use QGIS (see below) to generate a contour map.
PLEASE NOTE: this data should only be used for broad level planning as it is unknown when the data was collected, how it has been interpolated and stitched together, and sometimes excludes information.
https://elevation.fsdf.org.au/
Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions – NatureMap – mapping Western Australia’s biodiversity
https://naturemap.dbca.wa.gov.au/
Free mapping resources – QGIS
This will give you options of downloads depending on your computers operating system.
https://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html
Official website to QGIS, this has an active community that assists new users via their forums.
https://www.qgis.org/en/site/
Official user manual
https://docs.qgis.org/3.4/en/docs/training_manual/index.html
Appropriate grass options for drainage
We recommend you consult with the attached document and contact Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development to talk to a pastures expert Esperance (08) 9083 1111, Albany (08) 9892 8444 or Narrogin (08) 9881 0222
General tips on species selection.
Species selected for vegetation cover should be appropriate and able to endure the range of operating conditions:
form dense ground cover with few gaps;
not form clumps or barriers to water movement;
generally less than 20 cm tall;
self seeding; and
suit the soil, water conditions and climate.
https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/pasture-establishment/perennial-pastures-western-australia
Report card on sustainable natural resource use in agriculture in Western Australia
https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/report-card-conditions-and-trends/report-card-sustainable-natural-resource-use-agriculture-western
Agroforestry: realising the triple bottom line benefits of trees in the landscape
https://publications.csiro.au/rpr/download?pid=csiro:EP185003&dsid=DS4
Soil conservation earthworks design manual
https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=pubns
Water Use of trees and shrubs in Mediterranean Climates in Southern Australia 1998
https://www.agrifutures.com.au/wp-content/uploads/publications/98-063.pdf