Welcome to the September 2025 Southern Queensland Landscapes Newsletter
Stay informed with the latest project updates, upcoming events, regional stories and our ongoing initiatives.
Message from the CEO
Gillian Meppem
I’m freshly back from the 2025 National Landcare Conference, where the theme of Nature, Agriculture, Land and People Positive was powerfully on show. The program was jam packed with inspiring stories of partnership with landholders from across our nation. Southern Qld Landscapes proudly presented the excellent impact results from our Resilient Landscapes project in the Rabobank sponsored Sustainable Ag and Soil Health concurrent stream. Margany Elder, Uncle Kev Collins also joined the team and showcased a poster project featuring the unique partnership between the Margany People and the Tully family aimed at protecting and restoring the Manu Manu Creek Fish Traps, situated south of Quilpie.
Earlier in the month it was great to join our Chair, Kimberley Swords at the Qld Water & Land Carers (QWaLC) celebration event, held across four locations and online, to mark QWaLC’s 21 years as Qld’s peak body for community based environmental groups. Kimberley spoke of her journey from veterinary surgeon, sheep wormplan facilitator and local drought coordinator, and noted that so much has changed in the past ten years. She put the challenge to all of us to move forward together, engaging in the way people need us to engage. Our AGM will be held in a similar hybrid event format on 10 December, with a face-to-face meeting in our Toowoomba office and an opportunity to join online or with staff in our regional offices. I look forward to presenting an update of this year’s activities.
This month we have also welcomed new staff member Claire Steaines. Claire, based in Goondiwindi, joins us from a background as a veterinarian and more recently as a soil testing laboratory technician. Claire is based with Piper Beaton in the Goondiwindi Business Hub, drop in and say hello if you’re passing by.
Stay well, Gillian
An Update From Trish McKenzie, Board Director
Living southeast of Cunnamulla, I have come to appreciate the land, the people, and the opportunities and challenges that come with it. I really love living here and caring for the community. My husband and I manage a grazing enterprise that produces sheep and wool, goats, and beef cattle. It’s a life that constantly reminds us of our responsibility to care for the land that sustains us.
Sustainable farm planning and land management are high priorities to ensure we leave this land in better condition for ongoing biodiversity and ensuring long-term productivity for future generations. Serving on the board allows me to contribute to regional strategies that support healthy landscapes, resilient communities and collaborative conservation. Being a board member is both a privilege and a responsibility. It’s about listening to diverse voices, respecting cultural knowledge and making balanced decisions. We focus on practical solutions including erosion control and rehydrating the landscape; solutions that are making a real difference on the ground out in the southwest.
As well as my board position with Southern Queensland Landscapes, I also represent our region on the Queensland Great Artesian Basin (GAB) Advisory Council which gives me the opportunity as a board member and local landholder within the GAB to bring forward issues of importance to our region. The impact and damage from flooding in the southwest is something I have highlighted.
I would like to acknowledge the hard work of our CEO, the Southern Queensland Landscapes team and my fellow board members. Thanks to Hollie who has added so much to the board with her input into business development, as she departs the Board to concentrate on the family business and educating her young boys.
One of our SAF's, Piper Beaton, recently attended a Local Land Services NSW event on smart and autonomous cropping, with a strong focus on the importance of healthy soils. The day brought together a great mix of voices, local producers, Agtronic technicians, soil scientists and researchers all sharing their experiences and knowledge. The overwhelming message from both producers and scientists was the soil health benefits of multi-species cover cropping. These cover crops bring together a variety of plant families, each playing a role in improving soil health and farm productivity. From different root structures to unique growth habits, the mix works as a team to create healthier, more resilient soils.
Some of the main benefits include:
Breaking up compacted soil and improving aeration with diverse root systems.
Adding organic matter and nutrients, cutting down on the need for synthetic fertilisers.
Attracting pollinators and beneficial insects that help manage pests and boost yields.
Increasing the soil’s ability to hold water while reducing erosion.
Supporting soil microbes that store carbon and break down organic matter.
If you are located within the Condamine Basin Region and any of this interests you for your own enterprise, reach out to Piper Beaton, our Sustainable Ag Facilitator based in Goondiwindi. We are currently running a project in your region focusing on improving ground cover, changing practices and improving soil health!
Motivation, challenges, opportunities and rewards – the story of soil carbon farming on Peter and Julie Ramsey’s property. Ten years ago, Peter and Julie Ramsey concluded that they had to do things differently to ensure a brighter future on the land for their children and families. The Inglewood farm has been in Julie’s family for three generations and they are keen to maintain that connection.
For Peter and Julie, the real motivation to start a soil carbon project was to increase production from paddocks that were getting tired after 100 years of grazing. “Being able to leave the farm in a healthy and more productive state was a major driver. So why not get the financial benefit and peace of mind from the carbon credits while we are doing it.”
Peter Ramsey said “More standing feed for the livestock has increased production and decreased input costs as the improved soil does all the hard work with a bit of help from us. Increasing carbon in the soil provides the skeleton or space for all the good bugs and fungi to live in the soil which makes plants and animals grow better.”
For more information on Peter and Julie’s success story, watch the short video and view the factsheet on our website by clicking the button below.
We are seeing fantastic momentum across the region, with strong interest from landholders in improving land condition. Even better, clusters of neighbouring properties are getting involved, which is a promising sign for achieving landscape-scale change that supports water infiltration, soil health, and resilient groundcover.
Right now, our project team is working closely with participants to develop agreements and monitoring plans. You will hear us talk about LCAT's, the Land Condition Assessment Tool, an app we use across Queensland to track improvements in land condition.
We are proud to be engaging with Mardigan and Bidjara Nations, exploring how our program can support knowledge sharing and upskilling for First Nations involvement in natural resource management. We look forward to broadening engagement to support other Nations.
In May, we hosted a Landscape Restoration Day near Mungallala with 18 landholders. It was a fantastic day of on-site learning, mingling and sharing ideas for improving property health. Let us know what kinds of events you would like to see in your area as we are interested to support initiatives that matter most to you.
We are recruiting for two positions in the program delivery team; Projects Lead and Project Officer. These positions may be based at any of our offices, and we support flexible work arrangements. Please reach out if you would like to discuss any of these opportunities.
Southern Queensland Landscapes board is a skills based and supports the organisation through the provision of strategic advice across areas including stakeholder engagement, finance, risk management and governance. Applications are now open for three Director roles, two for the western voting region and one for the eastern voting region. The SQNRM Ltd. Constitution notes Director terms as three years. Completed nominations must be received by the Company Secretary by 5.00pm, 1 October 2025 and will be finalised at the AGM on the 10 December 2025.
Southern Queensland Landscapes were represented at the 2025 National Landcare Conference by our team - CEO Gillian Meppem, Richard Turnbull, Dr Payel Sinha and Uncle Kevin, a Margany Elder from near Quilpie. Conference highlights included: • Payel’s presentation on the Natural Resource Recovery Program - 'A Holistic Approach to Restoring Landscapes'. • Our poster on the Quilpie Fish Traps sharing Uncle Kevin’s story and the work to protect these ancient Margany cultural sites through the Natural Resource Recovery Program.
Protecting the Manu Manu Creek Fish Traps at Quilpie
How a community-led partnership is helping to protect important cultural assets and improve land condition outcomes in the Upper Bulloo River Catchment. Southern Queensland Landscapes is supporting this partnership by funding land management improvement works that will in part be completed by the Margany People. The works will include cool burning, water quality monitoring and pest management, which will improve landscape rehydration and soil health on surrounding grazing land, in turn protecting the river and fish trap site.
Southern Queensland Landscapes is proud to join with 11 other regional Natural Resource Management organisations through NRM Regions QLD to provide coordinated, supportive services across the state.
NRM Regions Queensland is the representative body for NRM in Queensland. They coordinate statewide programs and provide a forum for these organisations to collaborate and support each other.
%20(3)-1.png?upscale=true&width=1120&upscale=true&name=Untitled%20(600%20x%20300%20px)%20(3)-1.png)
.jpg?upscale=true&width=1120&upscale=true&name=Roma%20TEC%20Training%20SQL%20Staff_200325%20(Elijah%20Cavanagh).jpg)
