How we SMASHED the Biggest Barrier to starting a Homestead

[@GrantWitheridge]

Thanks for your video. Sorry to tell you, but what you have is not a sandstone, but a dispersive sandy-clay. Your erosion is not caused by high velocity, it is caused by chemical reaction. What is causing your erosion is the high sodium content of the soil. These soils do not like water. If you build leaky weirs, if you follow the advice of Peter Andrews, then you will just increase your erosion problems. If it helps you to understand these soils, then think about the difference between a headache tablet that you swallow whole (a non dispersive soil) and a headache tablet that you dissolve in water (a dispersive soil). What they place in dissolving tablets is sodium, because it expands significantly when it gets wet. This causes the tablet to break-up quickly in a glass of water, and dissolve. So, imagine your property is made of dissolving headache tablets, and you take the advice given to you in the comments below, you build a leaky weir, that holds the soil in water for longer periods, that makes even more of the dispersive clay expand, and it moves into the water turning the water brown. When all the clay is washed from the soil by this chemical erosion (NOT velocity) then you end up with a LOT of clean white sand. Even though the soil is brown, once the clay dissolves away, the sand looses its brown colour and goes back to white. Peter Andrews never had to deal with these soil in the Hunter valley. Peter Andrew's solutions need to be heavily modified to work in these soils. What the soil needs is gypsum to replace the sodium. If you were able to grass the whole gully, it would be like planting grass in a bowl of sugar. Just add water, the sugar dissolves, the soil structure is gone, the soils ability to hold water is gone, and all the grass dies. If you learn how to read the land, you will see that there are many signs in your video that tell the dispersive soil story. Your biggest problem is a soil problem. Your secondary problem is water and water velocity. You must first solve your soil problem before you try to solve your velocity problem. I have written over 50 books. I travelled Australia teaching this material before I retired. I have an extensive web site with all FREE pdf to download. You need to read my three-part series on Gully Erosion. All free. No ads. I gain nothing in return. I don't sell any products or do consulting anymore. I am retired. Search for the 'Catchments and Creeks' web site, go to Field Guides, go to Gully Erosion

[@reganperry]

Wow! Thanks for the genuine comments and feedback back, Grant. I’ll admit I’ve been ignoring a lot of the “advice“ in the comments section here because more often than not, it’s people who have seen one short ABC documentary and beyond that don’t know a lot more. So I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to give such a thorough response. I’ve only been in landscape management and agriculture for the last seven years so still feel very “green” in most respects, but as a former teacher, and lifelong student, I recognise credible advice when I see it. I’ve just given your website the quick once over and can safely say I will be digesting all of your material over the next few days. Much appreciated. Regan.

[@zeusgreat6321]

Superb feedback from a professional and an enormous volume of resources. Well done Grant. Enjoy your retirement. You've earned it :)

[@1DamienJ]

Grant thanks for sharing your knowledge, wisdom and providing the resources on your website. Much appreciated and happy retirement

[@RedTinHousey]

When started watching this video I commented that this looks like salty soil. .. Do some research as Grant says into gypsum/lime (depending on soil acidity) . there ton of very good video's about it. My limited experience is that first step is to get soil tested to see exactly what you are dealing with. (acidity, salt content etc) . then take from there.

[@McDuffOG]

Wonderful advice.

[@Radicalist-Manifesto]

Hey, suffered/faced similar problems like yours. Took time to find a workable solution, but finally nailed it. Dont fill the gullies, it will be a waste of resources that will wash out. DIG instead. Make/dig 1 acre plus deep ponds along the gullies at few strategic spots. Catch the water and create aquatic ecology plus recharge the ground watertable. Dig in steps with deepest at center and shallowest at edges where thrush and reeds can grow. Fence out your 4kms and release no interference goats. Your land can easily support 1000 (100 acres with dug out ponds). You can cull harvest 600 every year for meat industry with zero input cost.

[@davidrose2382]

BOULDERS ,CREATE DAMS WITH OVERFLOW,TO NEXT DAM,PLANTING NATURAL VEGETATION TO HOLD EDGES,WATER IS LIFE TRAP IT,ECO CAMPING WITH DAM VIEWS,GROW VEGES😅SELL VEGES,WAIT FOR DROUGHT

[@Preplair-lh9nc]

You have a LOT of downed material laying around. You’re on the right track about creating dams to slow down water. Beaver Dam Analogs will go a long way towards slowing and sinking water and rebuilding your soil. Tons of videos and research here on YT about them.

[@reganperry]

I'm liking this idea!

[@robertkubrick3738]

@@reganperry Also, stop the little tributaries, one at a time. Eventually the logjams in the big ones will not be swept away because you stopped enough of the little ones. Slow process but I think it would be satisfying.

[@paulcox9366]

I live illegally on my own land in a tiny home because rural councils are absolutely horrendous money grabbing pieces of crap.

[@johndoe1778]

Careful mate 🤫 insane you can't live in your own shed on your own land without bullshit permits -_-

[@chrisdewhurst719]

Rural councils have no money, most are massively in debt with enormous infrastructure back logs and a severe lack of staff. They are also lowest taxing in our entire federation, compare council rates to average income tax or GST for some honest perspective.

[@paulcox9366]

@chrisdewhurst719 I'll just with a 6200$ for a cultural heritage studying the property? Then there are 2 seperate fire studies over 3k each . Soil tests, tree serveys and the list goes on. They don't want people rural

[@brianwalker1933]

Agreed 💯%. They are a blight on the ratepayers/working class. They waste a huge proportion of ratepayers money on trivial projects, etc,etc, etc. I see them as criminals in suits and skirts and that goes for all government authorities!!...PROFESSIONAL LIARS...

[@sunriseboy4837]

Pack of egotistical retards!

[@hitiming]

You need to check out Peter Andrews, he is an Australian and an absolute genius on restoring land involving creeks that have washouts like yours. There are a number of KZbin videos available showing what he does. He has been doing this type of work for many many years. Many people thought he was mad when he started and did not believe what he did would work, now many people are now following his lead. He is brilliant. You should also look into getting a hydrologist to do a survey.

[@thejollygreendragon8394]

His book is, Back from the Brink - Peter Andrews

[@crazypaulshowto7700]

Is he the leaky dam/weir idea man, using the ground to store water

[@hitiming]

@@crazypaulshowto7700 yes that is him, a real Australian hero

[@donmason4974]

Peter Andrews is the GURU ! Get in touch with him and his son ASAP, you can thank me later !

[@dannyfrommyceswickfarm1758]

We have made a rubble berm along our rear fence line to slow the erosion and it's working a good 30 centimetres of soil has been deposited back into gullies

[@reganperry]

That's a great idea! 👍

[@DianaMJoice]

Hey, I love your plot of land. If you can make out the contour lines, the easiest and best way to start your water slowdown is to use the material that is around you like a beaver. You can then dig fairly wide swales on contour, that will probably be perpendicular to the galleys and access on contour and ridges. You don't need a lot of material to fill it. You have what you need. Make the problem the solution. It was great that you already observed the water's behaviour. Your first water block is the best when the highest up on the property. From there you can work your way down to slow down the water's velocity. With slower speeds, the water will drop the material and fill up the galleys fairly quickly in between the rocks or tree remains that you build up. Congratulations to this great piece of land and much success!

[@olsim1730]

Good onya mate. Regreening/land restoration content has long been my fave yt genre, fantastic stuff happening all over the world. You're a great communicator and it will be a pleasure to watch your progress. ❤ from NZ

[@reganperry]

ahh thanks, it's a mission, but one we're glad to have accepted.

[@morganchance9723]

Thanks Man! We bought our place a year ago. Fair bit smaller but it feels a bit overwhelming some times. This is encouraging.

[@reganperry]

@@morganchance9723 that’s awesome. TBH we’re only truly using/managing about 10% of the property at this stage. But it’s one step at a time and getting ok with a nice long timeframe that gets you there. What are your plans for your property?

[@jakeroberts5353]

Build a gabion, fill it with gypsum and silt. It will act as storage for water with a high content of gypsum. It dissolves in water. if there isnt enough after testing what it leaks, dig up some of the gabion and add more gypsum. Once you are happy with your gypsum content of the water being stored and slowly leaking from the gabion, then dam infront of the gabion to get the water into the soil surrounding the area. It will turn the subsoil walls into a temporary dam. Keep building gabions where you think it needs it then dam again. Slowing water filled with gypsum is a good idea. Once you have temporarily stopped the erosion regenerate what you can to get more stability. There will also be a lot of water in the gabion to help you get various root depths and hopefully a shitload of mulch eventually. Try stop the water from coming in quick and washing it all out.

[@Robbo0090]

excited to follow your journey!

[@reganperry]

Welcome aboard! 😁

[@leonhardtkristensen4093]

My initial thought was make a dam but at the end you talked about smaller ones and that is probably the best idea. I had land like yours years ago but without the gullies. We couldn't even use mobile phone. We had to go a couple of km's up the track to a high spot to make a call. You are doing the right thing in living there now while you are reasonably young. I have a property only 30k's or so from Ballarat VIC where I had planned to retire at 55 but work conditions and my economy changed so it was put off. I am now 78 and have health problems so city life with weekend at the farm is what I must restrict myself to. Hard work for you yes but if it gives result I am sure it will give you a lot of pleasure too.

[@bushguitar5469]

Add small leaky weirs with branches and rocks etc. at intervals along the water courses not to stop the water but to slow it down. This allows the the water to be held in place for longer and soak in, allowing plants and grasses to take hold to stabilize the soil, in turn holding more moisture in the soil. This can change the environment dramatically and positively. Looking forward to following your adventures.

[@reganperry]

i reckon we'll do a combination of both, leaky weirs to rehydrate the land, but with a directed swale base to take the excess water into a larger catchment at the lowest section of the land.

[@shaunwells4173]

Exactly what we are doing.overtime it makes a huge difference ❤

[@tanyiabailey4792]

i was just coming to say exactly this about leaky weirs and peter andrews

[@aromadoe]

Hi Regan. You're a neighbour!. We just moved to the Tara region. Great to see that others have found the beauty of this region.

[@reganperry]

Well hey there neighbour! Thanks, we're loving it.

[@turteltaube2277]

That "Sand Clay Hole" would make a nice OASIS of water source for wildlife

[@reganperry]

I reckon you’re right 👍

[@RomaniStar]

You can build beaver dams. There are a few companies in the states that build dams that mimic beaver dams. There’s also a few that will place rocks in wire cages in the same locations that beavers would build to create a similar effect.

[@SasquatchBioacoustic]

More affordable than hiring equipment and burning fuel, look into vegetative barriers instead of berms. Plants like vetiver grass or giant miscanthus planted perpendicular to the water flow do a masterful job of slowing down the flow and capturing nutrients before they leave your land.

[@kdegraa]

@@SasquatchBioacoustic good idea if possible but the landscape there is really rough. The above comment about an excavator is correct. Even the biggest regenerative gardener will get heavy equipment out to landscape on a big scale. This is probably the biggest issue, the scale of the damaged land. Big machines caused the problem. Nature will slowly fix the problem. In 10,000 years this land will have repaired itself. Planting grass will speed this process. However landscaping with an exacavator would speed the process right up. But this costs money. Hiring someone to come out could cost $1k a day.

[@reganperry]

Great suggestion. I’ve used vetiver before when building offgrid sewerage treatment systems. I think the idea would be a combo of both earthworks to do the initial water slow down and then vegetation to take it to the next natural stage.

[@justinblake420]

Giant miscanthus? This is Australia! what better way to ensure every square inch of your property will burn to the ground in a bushrire The trick is clearing everything

[@sherwinfarmsaustralia393]

It looked as though you had a metre or 2 clay layer, possibly more under the sand which had washed into the erroded gully.. A suggestion here is rather than even considering filling in the erroed area's, if you have clay you could use these gullies as the start of some rather deep swales.. Of course you would need to taper the banks to less than a 3 in 1 slope and you'd need to key each dam wall with clay.. then build your clay wall on top of that.. it could be enexcellent way to store water for stock and rehydrate the land.. It would be the megaswale project.. Something like a 5 to 12 ton excavator would be ideal.. if you keep them narrorw, eg. less than 10 metres wide a 5 ton excavator would be capable of dealing with this task.. Read up on the Stream order classifications.. this will let you know what water courses you can legally alter with out approval and which you can't.. Thanks for the excellent video Perry..

[@reganperry]

Thanks. And thanks for the suggestion. I think that’s how we’ll tackle it. Use the existing problems to create solutions.

[@knoll9812]

Swales on contour These are on fall line

[@Offgridlee444]

Hi, new subscriber here! Great land! We bought ours pretty cheap very overlooked. It had been logged twice but we’ve been here seven years now and it’s growing back to such beauty.

[@reganperry]

Nature does her thing hey!

[@AndyPat239]

​@@reganperrymate u have a nice piece of land there. please plant more local trees and local plants for the birds. apologies if you are already doing this

[@janeandrews4850]

We live about an hour from major supermarket but have iga half an hour away plus in small town with post office and petrol. It changes the way you shop.

[@reganperry]

It sure does! Our fortnightly "city trip" is a whole day event and has to be carefully planned.

[@gentlegiants1974]

A washout is just a canal without lock gates. If there was a way to create small berms from dead trees, brush, dead grass/hay every hundred feet or so to slow the water. Pretend you are a beaver, they just poke sticks into the mud and crap gets stuck and in a few years they have a pond. Once the process begins you could gentle taper the banks so it is safe for livestock and plant it to grass. Here we call them Grassed Waterways, they are everywhere. I can see bulrushes, reed canary grass, doing well and water for the cows to boot.

[@peterwalton1502]

Really interesting vlog. Looking forward to all your videos. Building a series of ponds seems to be a great idea & reasonably straightforward to do with an excavator. Best of luck you have purchased a wonderful place 🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@Kitty_cat2001]

I’ve just stumbled across this video & found it so informative. The dialogue was easy to understand & the plans moving forward are there. Great job. Central Victoria Australia 🇦🇺

[@theoriginalmonstermaker]

I'm far from a professional in the concepts of "permaculture", but i feel like you have some great opportunities there! There are various options requiring a vast range of effort, but a simple and easy place to start would be to just block off the end of a few of those washed away areas and converting them to natural, unlined ponds; as they collect water, heavily mulch and plant the shores, and use the ponds to irrigate the surrounding areas. By finding the high points, and connecting a series of those ponds so they run from one to the next, you can control the water as it crosses the property, and all future decisions will follow from there... this place could be an AMAZING system of streams ponds, bridges and walkways, with gardens and paddocks scattered throughout! I'd love to see what some good planning and concerted effort could do over the course of a few decades! Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide! 👍

[@evil17]

Good vid mate. Yep, leaky dams like beavers do, any old timbers or rock you can push across to slow flow will help to rebuild the landscape catching soil and rotting leaf matter and spreading the water flow. Slashing the area periodically helps to increase organic matter and bio activity, spread grass seed and induce stabilising growth also.

[@glassdaft]

Nice ❤ New subscriber from Scotland. Love the vibes, love the journey.

[@reganperry]

Thanks!

[@robertmiller2831]

This may sound a bit crazy, but a bit of dynamite can go a long way to helping keep vegetative blocks in place. You might want to look into using some of the land as training ground for mining /explosives.

[@reddog7024]

Good on you mate. I built a 16 hectare bush block into a little homestead. It was a fair bit of work and did outsource some jobs that i was shit at ie fencing as an example. I can repair them but redoing the whole place a contractor was the go. Started a business from there which sort of took off. These days i am there for about 2 weeks every month the two weeks are hunting and fishing in NSW or running my small business. I never get rich but bugger me it is a great lifestyle. All the best to you

[@jackylech6209]

Earth is such a beautifull playground for those who want to enrich life on earth . One day everybody will look for untouched landscape or possibly enrichable land to give life a new chance. Vimukta from France Thank you for exposing your joy of creating such huge project,

[@reganperry]

@@jackylech6209 well said - you’re most welcome

[@1DamienJ]

Hi Regan, thanks for sharing. I’ve just stumbled upon your KZbin. What you’ve described in the approach to looking for suitable land is good advice, especially for those of us with a limited budget. My family and I have just started down a similar path on a piece of land, fortunately we had a little more infrastructure established but nonetheless it’s been a steep learning curve so far and being off grid certainly has its challenges. Looking forward to watching more of your content and best wishes for you and your family

[@reganperry]

Thanks Damien. Yep, you don't need to have a fortune to start hey (but it would be nice - imagine the earthworks equipment!). Good for you guys - there's nothing quite like it.

[@douglasmcleod7481]

im really happy for you that you had the money to enjoy your great adventure

[@polnochkoshmary]

Would love to hear more about how you found out about the gas mines and such and how you went about checking into properties to see if they were suitable

[@annettehewitson6426]

p.s car tyre are good to slow water down and they fill up with dirt in return stop erosion plant trees or shrubs trees that grow quickly.

[@RogerAnderson-k8o]

G'day, I have a farm similar, I put in Leakey wears, they slow the flow and spreads the water out, good luck, 👍

[@reganperry]

Awesome! ..and, thanks.

[@rw-xf4cb]

I feel for you trying to look at fencing 4km neighbor and I spent $20K combined to do 1KM 4 strand split post - looks great! The other side will do with star pickets!

[@reganperry]

Woah! Luckily for us we have an onsite excavator and a sawmill so I think we can cut those costs right down.

[@oldbatwit5102]

Wow. What a lot of people giving bad advice based on a few youtube videos. Subscribed because I want to watch you tackle all the problems and come good. Best of luck.

[@rohantherockwiththerocketh7871]

Try using bags of concrete to create mini dams to slow down the water and collect material from erosion. If you do that where the gully's start you'll able to see what you need to do next probably more mini dams and you'll start reclaiming your land especially if you build up your soil levels with green manures etc...

[@BCLouise]

Lovely, open woodland. How exciting 😊👍

[@Zeusviolet]

You picked the perfect property to set up for a wood gasifier for ancillary power needs. Heaps of dead and fallen trees in your video. Also the neat byproduct is charcoal which would be perfect for helping build back your top soil from the sand mining. Check out the ben Peterson videos on building wood gasifiers and some of "the food network" videos about using the charcoal in the soil if you haven't already.

[@kdegraa]

Stewards of the land. If funds permit perhaps you could purchase a tractor with a front end loader. It could be used to move material into gullies to slow down the water flow. With a grader blade on the back it could level out the humps. A lot of work ahead.

[@reganperry]

@@kdegraa stewards indeed! We do have a tractor and so I think you’re right, just by manipulating a little bit of material and the structure of the gullies, perhaps we can influence the timescale that nature is using to ‘self-repair’

[@MrObvious125]

Owners of the land!

[@mgunning7362]

Look up Peter Andrews. Land reform guru from nsw. He slowed the flow by blocking streams, turned his land around.

[@InJusticeAustralia]

My soul aches for such space

[@marktaylor2645]

A bunch of beaver dam analogues, starting at the top of the property, and working downstream. Build a small fence across it, throw a bunch of dead wood in front of the fence, so water slows down and flows through it and over the middle (not towards the banks). Silt and plant matter will naturally collect and further slow (but not stop) the water, allowing it to hydrate the land, and stopping it from rushing and stripping the soil. Good luck, and subscribed!

[@reganperry]

I wonder what wildlife it would also attract. Can't wait to try this.

[@danqualman1]

have you considered putting in swales on contour? Putting in check dams. and leaky wires. Since you can see where the water originates from a 200 mm swales will slow the water down and allow it to soak into the land. I noticed that you had a lot of down trees They could be pushed into the gully's to slow the water down .

[@machinewrangler4682]

Thank you for the video and sharing an insight to your slice of paradise. Seeing what you have to work with there I’d highly recommend Peter Andrew’s for advice on the remediation. He does have a book published and is a wealth of information. Aside from that, I remember relatives selling their station in the SW corner of qld /NW corner NSW for around 50cents an acre that was a while back in 89. Andrew

[@laynelins9564]

Sugestão: Você precisa colocar galhos, troncos de árvores e pedras...dentro deste buraco...numa posição "atravessada"...para que quando a água chegar forte...não aumente este buraco. Você precisa plantar árvores que tem raízes profundas para estabilizar esta margem. O abacateiro é uma excelente opção...entre outras.

[@grayman7208]

17:40 do as the beavers do. build dams. slows the current. allows water to sink into the ground.

[@reganperry]

Exactly right! Let nature be thy teacher 😁

[@Peter-f4o4z]

No beavers in Australia

[@Mothy2014]

Be very interesting to see the land in 10 years time. I think it will look great

[@reganperry]

We hope so too!

[@Mothy2014]

@reganperry good luck with all the work. I think the beaver dam idea is a good start.

[@tonycrid3821]

Lol I've watched a few videos now because we bought 330 acres for $200k funnily enough in the same area. Ours is on the side of a mountain hence the price though. Had the same problem with access too. I had to create a goat track on an overgrown easement just to drive on to our land. Im learning heaps. Thanks

[@wolfweb]

Sorry for the bad news but anywhere in the darling downs is at risk from coal seam gas. Even if there are no PELs on it at the moment, there will be in the near future.

[@peterorth2149]

Enjoyed your video. I recommend Leaky Weirs. Lots of them. Ive seen some great videos about them and they will solve your erosion problems. Cheers.

[@deancarbery3766]

Maybe put some of the old logs in some parts in the gullies don’t block them just so water can pass through but slow it down and stop some of the erosion put them in long ways just a thought 👍

[@garrybrischke53]

Regarding repairing the gullys , planting bamboo ,clumping varieties only , in the gullys to accumulate debris , slow water flow and stabilise the soil . Trial this in the worst washout and observ how it works . Minimise soil disturbance. More power to you for taking up the challenges your property presents . Work with nature for better long term results .

[@reganperry]

Now there's a thought. i wonder if there are clumping varieties that do well in mostly sand...

[@uncommonlogic1698]

Downstream of your gullies, dig a lake/retention pond. Use the earth to fill gullies and make drainage ditches to feed pond. You will need a track hoe/excavator and a dump truck. To slow the speed of your water, a series of dams in the gullies will help. Widen the gullies will slow the speed down as well. Some of your mounds are probably topsoil, spreading it out will help nature return. It's always work!

[@midnighthorizon1]

Like you said the longer you can keep the water on your land the better and slowing the water will help and you use what you have like using the sand stone a 3 foot tall by 6 foot rock barrer will slow the water down you will need a few in that deep gully like every 15 meters a few earth and rock rises in the road will all so stop the track from being eaten out water at speed does so much damage and braking that top layer of dirt will let the water get down where it belongs

[@claytonbrown3321]

Swales will slow things…look up Wooleen Station in WA and their rejuvenating of their property!!!!

[@nighthiker8872]

Nice, sounds interesting! Texas!

[@Psilocybiant]

Remember this.. Its not the price of the land that's going up.. Its the value of our currency that is going down..

[@Christopher-ws5ub]

Demand has increased due to population growth, due to immigration. So the cost of land has gone up.

[@Psilocybiant]

@@Christopher-ws5ub yea a combination of both i guess

[@Robert-xs2mv]

@@Christopher-ws5ubnonsense. There is plenty of land available to sustain ten time our current population.

[@MrDaymien1]

@@Christopher-ws5ub No, the currency is being inflated in volume so its loss in value is represented by price. If no more currency was created but immigration grew prices would come down as there would be less currency for more transactions.

[@kingston163]

@@Christopher-ws5ub marginally, no immigrants want this land to live on, etc., the far greater % increase is due to money printing on computer keyboards and then press: ENTER!

[@kylewilson3751]

I think filling them would be counter-productive. If you used a series of check dams and "beaver" dams your property will instantly be brought back to prosperity

[@reganperry]

I definitely think this is part of the answer. But I want to make sure I do my research first before committing to a course of action. I reckon every property has a unique solution.

[@kylewilson3751]

@reganperry after watching some more of your videos, I'm sure you're on top of it and you'll be a wonderful steward for your land 🙏🏼

[@radioactive4388]

Looks like some good fossicking ground

[@reganperry]

@@radioactive4388 now wouldn’t that be nice 😁

[@AlexRixon]

frequent log and rock dams in the gullies will slow water and creat pools. The pools in turn will catch sediment. You will never stop the water, but you can slow it down.

[@greaterglider]

Wow nice bush

[@brad9529]

Dam the gully, massive water feature

[@johnread1984]

Swales would be very effective at slowing and retaining the water and soil

[@reganperry]

That's our hope!

[@TheOneMrBrown]

Hello from your extended family located in Canada !

[@howardhudson5054]

You need to create Beaver Dam Equivalents. Check out Dust ups.

[@lordviciousswede]

Time to cut swales. Backfill those deep cuts and add sand dams or rock dams to slow water. Add as much mulch, grass, and bushes to retain dirt and improve health of the soil.

[@thepotager9816]

Create swales off your gullies to redirect the water horizontally across your land

[@johndoe1778]

Awesome mate! Subbed for sure. Goodluck with everything, we got 5 acres for $20k just after covid started :D $250 to get a water meter connected! $4k in second hand solar and alibaba batteries and we have all we need :)

[@odonnellsaussiehomestead8257]

Hi i love what u are doing so i just subbed u .❤😊 I love improving properties and leaving it better than when i found it.

[@eliassolomou980]

Just an idea, pick the largest gully and widen and deepen it. Shore it up with rocks and turn it into a dam as a source of water for growing food and supporting the wildlife, bet you can raise yabbies in it. Use the material you accumulated from the dam to fill in the other gullys. Hire a dozer to improve the dirt roads, get a wood chipper to shred the wood and trees you don't want and start a mega compost heap to be used as natural fertiliser to rejuvenate the soil, I'd add livestock like goats, chicken etc to help .

[@AllSectorsHearThis]

Careful with goats on the soft soil.

[@Vinod-u6o3g]

Just put some small check dams in canal. It will fasten the healing process

[@JackSmith-x8s]

You'll need to build a series of contour banks and dams to heal that country.

[@gregnunn180]

I have been looking at Shaun Overton's Dustups ranch in Texas on KZbin. Your task is not dissimilar, and much closer!😁 Have you considered hosting self- sufficient visitors/ helpers?

[@reganperry]

Ahh cool, I know Shaun's channel. We used to host wwoofers/backpackers on the last farm that I managed. It could definitely be something we look at doing again.

[@knoll9812]

Appears to have a lot more trees and plants

[@gregnunn180]

@@knoll9812 that's true. I was thinking more in terms of reducing or eliminating erosion, and retaining water on the property.

[@hitiming]

Shaun Overton has nothing compared to Australian Peter Andrews. Mr Andrews is a genius on how to restore land badly degraded by erosion. He has been doing this work for many years and in the beginning was derided as being mad, but now has many followers. The man is brilliant.

[@Kat-pg5ye]

Be the Beaver!!!

[@reganperry]

Haha! True 😁

[@haydo5l292]

Looks like cutterbri pilliga area

[@MareeK4346]

Have a chat with the CSIRO

[@rw-xf4cb]

Think it was Allan Savory who would block sections to keep water to rejuvenate land

[@reganperry]

Allan Savoury is one of our heroes (as well as Charles Massey here in Aus.)

[@patriciachippendale2022]

Looks good

[@patmurphy7539]

Land is land i think in any condition,id say ye will make a good go of it,hope it all works out ,be great to see yer progress,,how many acres

[@tuvoca]

Watch the floodplain. The less appealing parts of the property (to other people) can be strengths, if you know what to do with it.

[@OilBaron100]

Wow, over 60K views! Good work.

[@MrDaymien1]

Could you use old car bodies to start filling the large craters slowing the flow and redirection . Sounds crazy but the cars will brake down over time as large rocks don' t. When ever we have to regenerate old MTB trails because erosion becomes too great, all we do is fill them in with organic matter and the do regenerate. Could some of the large craters be used as dams ?.

[@peacedreamerable]

Look into making Biochar to deal with the minerals , soil and water loss.

[@reganperry]

Interesting. I know about biochar. I don’t know how we’d use it at this scale though 🤔

[@sno4439]

Leaky Weirs That's what you need mate. Them and burms and weirs and leaky dams. They all slow down the water or stop it. BTW, I leave on 2 1/2 thousand acres about 4 hours out from Brisbane. It is free for people to move on to... the main bloke who owns it is very generous... hit me up if you are stuck and want to get off grid

[@theaussienurseflipper.8113]

Interesting video. When I was a kid at school, one of the teachers used to tell if you could buy acres of land, for a dollar an acre. I asked why it was so cheap and he said because it's all eroded and it's useless. I think he was just telling fairy tales. Remembering when he's a kid 60 odd years ago, cheers Graham

[@reganperry]

He may have been right - at least as far as remote rural blocks go. Best I could find with a little ChatGPT research is average rural land in 1974 was anywhere from $20 to $200 / acre. So I imagine you could've found $1/ac if you were prepared to go further out. Adjusting for inflation though, $20/ac would be $300 today.

[@Shane4theSavior]

IDEAL for AMP grazing !

[@reganperry]

That's actually how we might get started and just restrict their access to the sketchy areas until we can get them dealt with

[@jamest4424]

20acres near Millmerran starts around $50k today. I paid $43k for just over 20 acres. Crappy land but plenty of potential.

[@trentgreen8767]

Could you potentially slow the water an create damning ponds an inturn make some hydroelectric generation?

[@Brians_view]

Consider daming those gulleys starting from the highest points. Multiple dams Those gulleys will hold thousands of litres of water

[@Allwaysbizzy]

What websites did you use to find rural land.. all the realestate ones only have 'semi rural' on grid land connected to water power etc

[@LilacDaisy2]

I was really invested in your story, given the title. I wouldn't want that land, so it's great that there's something for everyone! 🙂 I was looking forward to hearing what you wanted to do with 150 acres, but you didn't say (I'm not sure there's anything you could do with it). The ABC (I think) had a story on a guy who keeps feral donkeys that are regenerating his land. They're super agile and don't have the trouble cattle do on rough, dodgy terrain. I lost my favourite cow in a tiny stream, on green pastures, because she got her hoof caught on a bit of old, hidden wire (held her face down hill). Cattle sure are out, if your land isn't gentle, but donkeys and goats ... FENCING is not cheap, but, hey.

[@reganperry]

I think we'll keep it mainly bush where we can, but we'll do a form of silvopasture eventually (grazing under trees). I saw that episode - that was brilliant. Shame he's got a fight on his hands though.

[@LilacDaisy2]

@@reganperry I've been thinking about your property a lot for some reason. Silvopasture would be ideal as something to aim for. My dad loves the book "Back From the Brink" where an Aussie bloke regenerates the land. You've probably heard of it or already read it, but I thought I'd say so anyway, as it could help the transformation. Gave me a different perspective of gumtree monocultures, lol.

[@garybaldy2907]

Finding firewood seems to be one of the smallest problem. 🙂

[@reganperry]

Haha- that's true!

[@australianlawnfanatics3535]

We have a coal seam gas well just over our boundary line. Wouldn’t know it was there unless we drive past it.

[@reganperry]

Interesting. How do you feel about its impact on things like the local water table? Maybe it’s better now, but when we originally looked there were some studies showing some nasty potential side effects of being near one.

[@australianlawnfanatics3535]

@ we have an old bore that was drilled way before any gas wells. It hasn’t changed at all.

[@adenscottthompson6042]

Finding similarities with Shaun overton and DUSTUPS ranch. Beaver dams and check dams...

[@RhyleyOliver]

I heard qld Australia and that just got you a subscriber

[@reganperry]

@@RhyleyOliver haha. Awesome 👊

[@sidmar200]

A mobile home on wheels is permissible in most rural councils without all the red tape and cost. Check out the imaginative versions or a structure on wheels.

[@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb]

Your property has potential. You have all those tree stumps/limbs to place in the washouts - no need to import any material. Place the stumps/limbs ~100m apart the entire length of the washouts - - it's decades-long process to restore your land. You'll need to slow the water to allow the silt to settle - the more weirs, the better - you literally can't have too many - think like a beaver - they hate the sound of rushing water and will plug/dam up every leak and turn the land into a marsh that teems with life year-round. I'd buy a small excavator and a rubber tire TLB (backhoe) with a 4-in-1 bucket (a bucket that can grab materials like limbs and stumps) to dig and transport the materials - forget agricultural tractors - they won't work. Good luck.

[@batyaseguin6307]

Make dams with the ton of trees laying on the ground.

[@reganperry]

That’s not a bad idea. They wouldn’t last forever but they’d make an easy start to the process of restoring the land 👍

[@Mr_Jamin007]

Yeah, there's a lot of biomass there. Take a lot to break it up for Hügelkultur beds and wood chips to spread around. Could definitely make a nice food forrest there thou.

[@bubblerings]

2.5 minutes into your video. Subscribed, just to see what you can do with the rainwater you put back into the land. Cheers! 🌈😁🌏🍻🙏🐳

[@bubblerings]

Even in the mountains in Hawaii. I almost pray to the woodchips... Drop down up to a foot of chips, and retain water, create soil... And, forget about weeds.

[@lewhone6325]

The real bargains aren't advertised, you have to search and ask people. We brought a waterfront property for $80k a couple of years ago and sold it for $420 and move on to another bargain.