Bristow Hughes , Strathalbyn Station , discussed how he was controlling wallaby grazing pressure at a field day .
PROJECT SITE
The project site was in a 260ha area in Dunn ’ s paddock , with a 2.5km section of Boonie Doon Creek running across the southern part and two feeder water courses ( total length about 2km ) running north-south feeding into a loop of the creek .
About 5ha of black soil on the northern side of Boonie Doon Creek was heavily infested with rubber vine . It was devoid of ground cover and severely eroded , with widespread shallow gullying . On the southern side of the creek , a black soil flat was also infested with rubber vine and had some gullying as well .
On forest soils , large areas of understorey vegetation had died , leaving bare , severely scalded and eroded sites across about 25ha . Low-growing ground covers replaced the native understorey vegetation and extensive areas of vigorous currant bush and rubber vine provided refuge for a large wallaby population .
For this site , the Stomping Out Sediment project split Dunn ’ s paddock in two , with a 2km sub divisional fence , to allow improved grazing management ( managed livestock graze periods , followed by long pasture recovery periods ). Other project activity included :
• remediation of two severe gullies ;
• management of rubber vine on the black soil flat using an Ellrott plough ; and
• construction of exclusion plots to investigate the effect of livestock and marsupials on ground cover .
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