Crawford landowner Brian O’Reilly (pictured) is one of the land managers engaged by Burnett Mary Regional Group to participate in an Australian Government-funded pilot program aiming to offer incentives to enhance remnant vegetation on their properties.

Brian runs beef cattle and has a cell-grazing operation on his property near Kingaroy.

With the support of the program, Brian has installed exclusion fencing. This fencing protects and improves remnant vegetation on the property.

Over the next few years, almost 3000 endemic plants will be established on Brian’s place, creating a wildlife corridor running from one side of the property to the other, incorporating vegetation that currently exists.

Brian said he always wanted to enhance native remnant vegetation when he bought the property.

“Just as we developed the place into cell grazing, we then wanted to complement that with virtual wildlife corridors as well,” he said.

“We had the energy to make it happen and the grant made it possible.We also wanted to plant more trees.”

For us, it’s about the future generation because there’s a lot of these trees we won’t get to sit under.

BMRG project officer Benjamin Hoekstra said Brian’s property has several patches of important remnant vegetation.

“This project will encourage and support the creation of wildlife corridors, connecting habitat and increasing overall biodiversity,” he said.

Brian said he wants to share his story with the community.

“We’d like people to come out, walk through, and look at what has been done,” he said.

The Enhancing Remnant Vegetation Pilot program is funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

The Enhancing Remnant Vegetation Pilot encourages and rewards participants for installing fencing, managing pest plants and animals, and carrying out plantings on their land with the overall goal being the improvement of remnant native vegetation.

Find out more about the Enhancing Remnant Vegetation Pilot on the Burnett Mary Regional Group website or via the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

Find out more about how Queensland’s regional NRM organisations are delivering Nature Positive outcomes every day: https://www.nrmrq.org.au/nature-positive/.