Scotty and Josie Finlayson aren’t your average central Queensland landholders, instead of cattle or crops their paddocks contain liberty trained horses ready to perform in Australia’s biggest horse shows.
The couple own a 64-hectare property in Stanwell, 25km from Rockhampton) A little under 12 months ago, the Finlayson’s acquired a second property – Offmore Farm – also located in Stanwell.
“Offmore Farm had been flogged for many years. Indian couch had overtaken other grass species, rain was running off the property like cement and a gully was badly eroded with a metre-and-a-half drop,” said Scotty.
Attempts had been made to fix the gully by dropping anything and everything (e.g. tyres, steel drums, rocks etc. in it with no success. Looking for a better solution, Scotty attended regenerative agriculture workshop hosted by Fitzroy Basin Association, and was put in contact with FBA’s Senior Land Management Officer, Ellie Carter.
Through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program, Ellie organised a one-on-one property visit with Scotty and Josie. After inspecting the property and learning how the catchment moves through the landscape, Ellie created a specialised erosion mitigation plan.
Starting at the top of the catchment, over 500m upstream of the damaged area of gully, Ellie recommended that two retention banks be constructed. Dispersing the force of the water moving down toward the damaged area of gully was deemed paramount in ensuring that remedies to heal the eroded land worked. As for the eroded gully, it was advised that the walls be battered, a rock chute installed and the whole area seeded and fenced off from livestock.
The Finlayson’s had already destocked all paddocks and ripped some of the land to allow water to penetrate the surface. Ellie suggested that installing more fencing would allow the property to be rotationally grazed, preventing overgrazing. Additionally, strategically installing more watering points would even the grazing pressures across the undulating landscape.
After the visit, Scotty and Josie followed Ellie’s advice to heal the eroded gully.
“Stopping runoff benefits everyone, if you’ve got water running off your property, you’re losing potential.” Scotty Finlayson
In the future, Scotty and Josie plan to employ regenerative agriculture methods to improve Offmore Farm’s productivity and land condition. Once the land has had time to heal the couple will reintroduce cattle to the property. Until then the land will be given time to recover and Scotty will continue to train the best team of liberty horses in the country.
This project was supported by Fitzroy Basin Association through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program
View this case study on the FBA website.