Bryan Ward
Getting Involved
Property: Illawong, 160 hectares, Bowna, Slopes2Summit (S2S) region.
Brian has learnt a lot about how to manage his property so it's a better place for native flora and fauna and an enjoyable environment that is easy to work. He’s keen to pass on his knowledge.
What is your background in this landscape as a landholder?
Originally I had been managing a property not far from here. It was time to look at other things and my wife and I found this place (which was only 2 paddocks, no house, no water, just thistles, Rabbits and Pattersons Curse) and at the ripe old age of 58 I thought I’d better start again and away we went!
I just tried to develop it in a sustainable way as fast as I could and from there I could see some of these lovely old trees that were dying and needed attention so direct seeding pastures (which I pioneered at the property I'd previous managed) turned into direct seeding trees by seed. That fascinated me and I was lent a seeder by one of the departments which I pioneered and promoted for about 14 years. I wouldn’t have been able to get a third of this place back into trees if I wasn’t direct seeding.
Can you describe the process of direct seeding?
Similar to establishing pasture. Preparation is the most important thing. So, this is 2008, so if I was going to be planting in 2009 I’d be spraying this spring knocking down all the weeds, and then in '09 when the autumn break came I’d knock it down again, with a knockdown herbicide, and then I’d come along with my little machine behind my vehicle and sow the seed.
What have you actually sown and how has it changed the landscape on your property?
Number 1, far more shelter and warmth, and I’m proving that now by backgrounding Cattle. I take them on and I get paid a certain amount of money per kilogram that I put on them. So, I might get them at 237 kg and I had to take them up to 500 kg and I did that in 159 days at 1.5 kg per day, at this time of the year, with no supplementary feeding, just grass. And that is simply because of the shelter, because the Cattle here were eating 1 or 2 hours here and there while the neighbour’s Cattle, as soon as there was a bit of wind or rain they’d be huddled up against the fence. And you also grow far more feed and we’re protecting all these big old trees.
In the early stages, a couple of the Gums I watched very closely where the Cattle and Sheep were camping right beside them, nutrients come in one end of the animal and out the other and the uptake from the tree is just incredible and the tree goes ballistic, all these new little growth twigs and leaves come about it and the insects attack it but there’s nothing to attack the insects. So I covered one branch up with some Hessian, left it there for 6 months, pulled it off, and before I put the Hessian on there was 1 or 2 little leaves and when I pulled it off it was just a mass of leaves again and that proved to me that you’ve got to have other things working to devour the insects.
Hence, I fenced off the Eucalypts; don’t put any more Eucalypts in because they re-seed themselves, and all the understory. And now people say you’re just creating Rabbit and Fox harbours; that’s nonsense, because you’ve got to manage those plantations like you do an ordinary paddock which has got stock in it. You walk through to make sure everything is ok, any Rabbits you can see, Foxes – it’s ideal for baiting because they come to the same tree so I bait in those areas so I keep the Fox population down to a minimal.
Have you any idea how many trees you’ve actually effectively planted in this area?
No, but in round figures per km you put in about 1,000 seeds and I suppose out of those, I’ve had 8 or 900 strikes per km and other cases in these tough years you might only get 3 or 400. But then they’ll keep on regenerating.
What about birdlife? Have you noticed a change?
Enormous! Wrens and things we didn’t see before. We’ve got Babblers – a lot of species. I don’t know them all. When you walk into the plantations there’s a deathly silence because you’re in their territory and then afterwards you hear all these noises. And people who know birds and know their sounds say there’s some incredible birds here we haven’t seen for ages. So it’s certainly increasing.
Why do you think that’s happened?
Simply because of the shrubs. Big trees, big birds. You’ve got the little shrubs and the little fellas can hide down there and feel quite comfortable.
What motivates you to do what you’ve done?
I think just the satisfaction: making the place a better environment, it’s far easier to enjoy and work. Classic example during the 2002 drought: after we’d got some of these plantations really up and going and you’re feeding stock dead and dying, miserable, terrible; but you look through and see this great big heap of bush we’ve put in and you walk through there to see what’s happening, trip over a few Goannas, a couple of Echidnas, see all the birds, get to the other end and you think what’s all the fuss about? It’s a completely different environment.
What’s your view of the sorts of approaches to landscape management being undertakin in the Slopes to Summit corridor and the Great Eastern Ranges corridor?
I think it’s excellent, as long as you can get it coordinated properly and you can get everybody on side. But the thing I find disappointing with a lot of these things is that they get a sudden rush of money and funding and then it’s cut back and you stop and you start and if you could keep going and continue momentum I think it’d be great.
