Central Australia Grazing Land Management Workshop

Summary

Central Australian pastoralists now have access to a customised grazing land management workshop for the central Australian region. Centralian Land Management Association (the landcare group of the central Australian pastoral industry) had the full support of its members to customise the workshop. They, and others involved in the local pastoral industry felt existing local research projects and information databases, particularly those with an ecological approach to grazing land management, should be collated into a grazing land management ‘package’ for delivery in an accessible, workshop style format. The EDGEnetwork Grazing Land Management workshop provided the perfect vehicle for this to occur.

Customising the workshop was a collaborative effort, involving a nine strong steering committee, representing CSIRO, NT Department of Business, Industry & Resource Development, NT Department of Information, Planning & Environment, Desert Knowledge CRC and CLMA member and association representatives. Substantial assistance was also received from Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries. Substantial funding support for the package came from Meat and Livestock Australia and the National Landcare Program.

The workshop has benefited from a pilot workshop which drew agency and producer participants from the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland. The complete package includes:

• Workshop notes covering the following modules:

1. Welcome to Grazing Land Management

2. Understanding the Grazing Ecosystem

3. Managing the Grazing Ecosystem

4. Managing Fire

5. Managing Tree/Grass Balance

6. Pasture Improvement and Restoration

7. Managing Weeds

8. Planning Grazing Land Management

• PowerPoint presentation for each module
• Facilitator Notes for each module

The workshop is essentially designed for central Australian pastoralists, however it provides a valuable insight into the intricacies of arid zone grazing land management to all people working in and servicing the pastoral industry in central Australia (eg. Landcare groups and personnel, research and extension staff in government, regulatory and monitoring agencies).