Rehydrating Thirsty Land - Regenerative Rangelands

[@JeremyThomas_Environmentarian]

I've only got half an acre on the edge of the village but I dug swales on contour by hand during the 2019 drought/bushfires. It was hard dusty work and I questioned myself many times. But the difference it has made to my little plot is remarkable. I also do demi-lunes around all the trees as there is quite a decent grade to the property. The swales and demi-lunes I fill with organic matter that I bring from the city from my landscaping job. the burm is dry, but dig a little through the organic matter and the swale is damp still... All these little things sees my small plot in good health and hopefully will remain longer as this El Nino settles in.

[@lisadolan689]

I’m on 1/4 acre and the result has been brilliant

[@MakeTechPtyLtd]

Update ?

[@mrzoukdotcomzouklambadaboo8212]

The guys in the video should consider planting more trees to create shade....that will keep and store even more water.....

[@meganpower3620]

Wonderful (even emotional) to see this happening at scale in dryland Australia. There is such a groundswell of understanding how effective these low cost and micro-hydrology interventions can be. Ozzies turned beavers at work.

[@wvs3917a]

Emotional for me too

[@fionamcwilliam8703]

Brilliant to see the land being restored by these simple measures. The more grassland, the less soils will be swept away. And what a great carbon sink this will become. It will be interesting to see how those regenerated areas survive this new drought cycle. Great work people!

[@Invictus357]

I don’t care what anyone says, Australian farmers are second to none. A person who doesn’t want to improve their own land, and the whole country around them, shouldn’t be on the land. These Aussie farmers are an inspiration.

[@RichardB-nc8ru]

Sorry mate, but overall, you're completely wrong. Other countries have been doing this for decades, if not for thousands of years. And all without Landcare advising them to do so. The new green wall of Africa is 15 km (9 mi) wide and 7,775 km (4,831 mi) long. China has restored 154,000 square miles (400,000 square km) or eroded desert in the Loesse Plateau. China has planted forest covering more than 500,000 square kilometers (increasing tree cover from 12% to 18%) - the largest artificial forest in the world. The Paani Water Foundation in India have cut 7.006 km of continuous contour trenches (CCTs), built 4420 km of deep CCTs, built 14,960 km of compartment bunding and 3,989 km of nala stream deepening and widening. Australians could do a hell of a lot more. And the countries I mentioned don't have a fraction of the resources, wealth and earthmoving machinery per capita that Australian farmers do. Most 'farmers' including feed lots and very large cattle stations are very late to the game and totally abysmal overall, although this small video is promising and heartening(well done and huge respect to the farmers involved). In Queensland during 2018-19 alone, farmers and cattle graziers destroyed around 680,000 hectares of forest(chain dragged and bulldozed). If Queensland was a country, it would have been the ninth highest forest destroying nation globally in 2019, just above China.

[@MartinFALLS-j4d]

Good grief!! you are so down on people who are actually doing something. I would encourage them for taking the risk regardless of what other countries have acheived. I grew up on a wheat farm in WA. My father put in conture & grade banks back in the early sixty's. Get off your high horse and be part of practical improvement regardless how late people may be to the improvement. What they have actually done is different to in India, Africa etc.and is a very innovative tweak to water retention in the landscape. I congratulate them for tuning the concept to better fit their individual landscape. GO YOU GOOOD PEOPLE!!!

[@christreadwell]

​@@RichardB-nc8ru I suppose there will always be creatures like you that see the glass 1/2 empty instead of getting off your arse to save some water to fill the glass. Sure, many of the changes in other parts of the world are true. Many of the farmers around the world are constantly caring for the land in their care because the lands & environments around the world are just a stewardship as the lands will be there long after we are gone, just hope they will be better not worse. I do know my father continually built contours in the 1960's on any lands he had to stop erosion over the 50 years since he came to QLD. There are many continually Australians that are committed to improving the lands under their care. Peter Andrews, Tony Coote, Chris Henggeler are just a few that commit their lives to bringing the land back & teaching others. QLD farmers & graziers are sincerely invested in the properties they care for. But you want to compare Australia a huge arid country of only 25 Mil people with India with 1.3 Bil & China with 1.4 Bil? Really, maybe stop doing drugs go outside & make a difference?

[@zazzleman]

They resisted this for 50 years and called us commies for recommending it.

[@CQuinnLady]

Aussie farmers have been ignoring the advise for decades. Peter Andrews designed a system in the 1970s natural sequence farming. Farmers laughed at him for decades. Now some have taken on the system n watched their lands grow from it. Degradation of land is on thw farmers. Land clearing, drying lands, nothing now holding the water back n filling the tables.

[@nunyabizzness6468]

love it, if only all our vast country could have an open and proactive mind set like these true Aussie hero's then we'd have a far better/more diverse/fertile/productive/generally happy landscape that in turn would look after those whom look after it. Pull your finger out Australia and follow their lead, show the world how to get shit done proper... Many thanks to the ingenious hard working men and women of the parched outback... Hats off to you.

[@Aussiem8e]

Greening most of outback wouldn't be too hard, if people were allowed to by cheap land that's good for nothing, and turn it into something better, then the whole country will be better off.

[@Liesl_Frank]

This is what I love Ove been watching a lot of these style of videos from Australia, Europe, America, India and Africa and its all the same You have to slow down the water

[@ingebuchanan7517]

What a fantastic result. I can't help but think of urban areas where all the water is removed as quickly as possible, maybe more attention to water flows from roads into vegetated areas may actually help with bush fire intensity and the heat island effect. These farmers are leading the pack and providing inspiration to enable others to follow. Thank you very much for the video.

[@dingodog5677]

The key is the animal impact (grazing) to keep the soil healthy and reduce fuel loads. Without that you just get the grass growth and increasing fuel loads. It’s hard to graze urban areas especially in an organised way. I used to work for a LG in catchment management. Urban areas have their own challenges, but I agree, some of these thing could be applied eg engaging floodplains, slowing waters, creating wetlands ,leaving space for water and a less of a focus on hard infrastructure.

[@ichifish]

Great video. I appreciate hearing directly from the ranchers themselves. You guys are getting amazing results -keep up the good work!

[@anthony9600]

Hasn’t Peter Andrews been banging on about this for literally decades

[@vhierta8723]

Kenya and Tanzania has had great success digging "bunds" to slow down their rainwater. Can be done anywhere and probably less of a hindrance to animals moving around. This is great too but just wanted to supply an alternative too 😊

[@Secretlyanothername]

This used to happen with Australian megafauna digging and putting holes in the landscape, but they all died after the first Australians came here

[@Chapsikan2801]

Fantastic work by all involved. Gives a great example of how and why to do it.

[@quimblyjones9767]

I've always wanted to get into regenerative agriculture! Started on my parents farm, old sheep grazing with really hard, dry soil. Now it's pretty much a little forest. Just wish I had land I could do this with

[@ariadnepyanfar1048]

With so many awful things happening in the world in October 2023, this video brings so much hope that widespread change for the better is happening too.

[@danielwurf]

Incredible, simply incredible. Could not agree more, not everything requires loads of cash. Congratulations to everyone involved, may your examples and evidence be inspiration to many others...

[@dingodog5677]

Love this stuff. Slowing water, turn small events into bigger ones, increase infiltration. So simple and just a change in attitude from flood are bad to floods are good. 👍 better land management is how we keep our farmlands productive, help native ecosystem and build climate resilience.

[@JeffBilkins]

9:44 Love how one guy is always rolling a shaggy (rollup sigaret) whenever he's stepping out of the vehicle to talk.

[@Unsolicitedbias]

What did running that grader cost ya? $250 A a day and diesel? See the effect of making a swale every few miles across the "sheet-flow" pan. Before the cut, it would just wash down year after year. The earlier examples of "leaky dams" are being replicated in a lot of other dry areas. I've watched numerous similar projects on the Tube from Arizona and Colorado here in the States. Could it be that we are capable of fixing things? Looks like it.

[@666bruv]

You lucky buggers have the beaver. Here, they need to re plant the trees, to then grow old and die in place

[@martinjohnwotherspoon6244]

Australia’s 110 to 120 degrees for weeks on end does not help . Evaporation is cruel

[@EverH0p3]

Sitting here in my fluro lit office my heart yearns to be a part of this. I travel through our local hills and stretched out as far as the eye can see are dry barren hills made bare by ancient clearing practices and its all just so unnecessary. Can you imagine the potential increases in stocking rates and native biodiversity that are possible on these scales. We can feed the world and take natural ecologies thought to be on the brink back to abundance.

[@insAneTunA]

3:47 I don't think that Aussies come as more Aussie than this guy 😃Great to see that Aussie farmers can see such long lasting and high impact results from such minimal input.👍

[@stevem815]

Man i'd love to go and work on this stuff. I'm a builder and people think that's real work but it's not. This is the real thing.

[@wyattfamily8997]

Absolutely fantastic work being done. If we could harness these ideas and a "Volunteer Army" of retired folk ( I'd love to be involved), then just imagine what could be achieved at almost no cost.

[@TalRohan]

Extraordinarily easily fixed , well done to them for taking the inititiive and having a go in the first place.....Most environmental damage comes from inaction...not even necessarliy the wrong action but pure laziness and these guys have put heaps of positive work into making what you can see is a massive difference...in just a year its stunning.

[@createandliveyourbestlife]

THANK YOU for all your work in restoring and regeneration of the land. My Maternal Grandparents and relatives had property’s in NSW, the kept all the rees on the land and the wild stock they run on the properties loved resting under the trees, and there was trees around certain sides of the dams and this seemed to be standard practice many many years ago. Northbrook, Danderleaf, Nugal, and Wilgabar were wonderful places to spend holidays

[@kadmow]

So good to hear - keeping the water in the landscape keeps the country running for the long term (so much damaged and degraded grazing land all over the marginal lands. Banks swales and biological seeding - getting the land working again takes a lot of work (and workers).

[@grouchogroucho7743]

Awesome stuff. And some people would have you believe a lot of farmers don't care about their country. Keep on going with this low cost and effective solution to land degradation. Well done everyone.

[@MidnightMag]

This is why healthy soil is important it absorbs and holds water helping reduce floods and droughts #savesoil

[@jamesstepp1925]

We need this type of effort and coordinate support in the US southwest arid regions. If we could just get beaver established again would make a massive difference.

[@nicnacV]

Be the spark that ignites the change you need

[@OldFellaDave]

As much as I love 'the bush' and all that Australia has to offer, I can't help thinking that despite all the technological and societal advances we've enjoyed in the last few generations and will enjoy in the next couple, we are seeing this magnificent land at its absolute worst, and we are lesser for it. I'd love to retire (early) on 100 acres or so and spend the next few decades before I depart, replanting and regrowing what I can so that a generation or few down the track, will once again see the mighty forests that used to be here, and enjoy them.

[@roderickbowes2482]

Brilliant work -- it must be SO rewarding to see such simple yet clever and effective methods bring the lands back to life -- wishing you the best and and a wonderful future.

[@em945]

Top job. Must keep mining waste and toxic run off from industrialism out of the system everywhere. Water MUST be kept healthy.

[@jessheppell750]

Love it! So glad these permaculture ideas can be used at scale.

[@perigrine46]

This whole Climate Change narrative is about what man adds to the environment (Co2), but what these guys are proving is it is more what man takes away from the environment, ie destruction of native diversity, tree clearing, land degradation etc, by them now working with the environment and producing land reclamation techniques using revegetation methodology, and the management of water on the ground. Very well done and keep up the great work, pioneers in a more productive future for all.

[@Miamcoline]

Absolutely amazing initiative. Thank you for filming and sharing this!

[@glenhopes8233]

Well done, what a great educational video! You must all be very proud of what you have achieved in such a short time.

[@oldbatwit5102]

Great video. It is always good to see both the theory and the practice. I'd like to see more videos where the people on the ground tell you what they did and then show you the result.

[@Womble1252]

Legends, we're doing this albeit a smaller scale in our Chewton landcare, great vid ❤

[@GeorgeWashingtonLaserMusket]

Oh I LIKE this a lot. My going to use this in my D&D game for my druid. I live where it's wet, wet lands are normal, I value my wet lands. People don't understand the value of a healthy biome.

[@Alex-oe6ww]

This is the stuff that makes me feel so inspired and hopeful for humanities future!

[@isabellecompton]

amazing to see. Thanks for taking the time to tell this story. The potential is wild!

[@buster486]

How cool, great work by the hardest workers in Australia.

[@JaninaAnderson-c7x]

Projects like this will also help in the way of forest fire prevention. because land wouldnt be so arid/dry

[@andreasnewitsch59]

Fabulous. Save the water Save the land.

[@AndersJensen1977]

Simple and effective, love it (Y)

[@jamesmatheson5115]

More bird life will bring in the Foxes, Cats and Large Goannas, its beautiful to see the land coming back, water is king, I always felt that there isnt enough done to get the land healthy again.

[@gudapictures]

Reall good stuff, glad to hear that people are taking care of Country, sort of sad though that Aboriginal people won’t receive any credit for this whatsoever. This is what we were doing for thousands of years before colonisation and continued to do where we were allowed which was very limited areas. We’ve been advocating for this for decades and for people to stop European farming practices that destroy this unique landscape. There’s so many records of this and we know it within our own culture. Hopefully people realise we were much more knowledgeable than colonists made us out to be and gain more appreciation for our cultures. As long as people are taking care of Country that’s the main thing though.

[@HayesHomesteadAustralia]

Incredible video and incredible work. What an inspiring video, thanks for sharing.

[@marlan5470]

Phenomenal! The public must be aware that solutions exist beyond just giving money to governments and allowing them to over-regulate our lives. The solutions exist. Let's focus on Solutions and less on doom and gloom. In fact, people who profess doom but have absolutely NO real world solution are part of the problem. Don't be discouraged and focus on real world solutions.

[@MRTonyt8868]

Finally thats the oldest farming methodology used in the past and present in countries reconstruction of flood land. Nice work keep it up.

[@Luthanor1]

Amazing, I can barely imagine what the country will look like if it gets taken up everywhere

[@WakeUpToYourself]

Awesome video. Amazing results

[@petermcadam3132]

Great work Jody and Mark. Thankyou

[@lowesonia8551]

Happy to see Water gestion resolving Flood water Into Green fields. Quiet Logical. There is a solution for every Earth over miles Good Management.

[@soulshadoww55]

Sometimes all you have to do is add back the water that was taken. Mother Nature can heal herself.

[@LloydieP]

That's the amazing thing isn't it?

[@rolandtb3]

It's the snowball effect: water retention, gradual greening, less soil erosion, more drought resistance, increased biodiversity, ability to support trees/grasses/shrubs/flowering plants, encourage shading, more water in dams/streams/water table, all adds to better soil and yield.

[@nicholasbradley-qalilawa2934]

Wow that’s amazing. Really inspiring

[@selwyndyer8357]

What’s happening is people are realising that the land can be brought back to good use I think by studying ancient techniques and trying this out we may still save the land.

[@brian-doesnt-know]

we need more environmentalist to go out and speak with farmers. they know the land and what it needs, and enviro's can help get the funding through the gov offices. slow down water, not restrict. allow native plants to work with your crops. allow native animals to help fertilize and spread seed. bring back nature to boost agricultural wealth and abundance.

[@MartinFALLS-j4d]

Keep the enviros out of it all !!! They just want jobs to boss people around, and control what happens so they get the cudos. Real people on the land can figure out what to do with a little encouragement from thinking people who care.

[@ChimneyJuice]

I've often pondered why, aside from financial constraints, we couldn't simply redirect water back into the heartlands and the ancient lakes of Australia. It would indeed be a massive undertaking, but isn't that the point? Had we initiated such a project a decade ago, we might already be reaping the benefits?

[@Ifyouarehurtnointentwasapplied]

Stoked to see the up date

[@danbeard1168]

need more of this . good work.

[@xavierroy5254]

Amazing regeneration

[@Yesievenloveyou]

Beautiful work letting nature do its thing at scale

[@kennethwoolard5910]

Utterly awesome!

[@elenawalker3746]

farmers are the best landcare people.

[@Yit_gondwandering]

It's great to see action being taken to improve soil health in these western communities. I spent much of my childhood years in those areas and my early working career in some of these communities and the land degredation was something to behold. Sadly although these people are working to fix it in an agricultural sense most of the problem stems from tree clearing, over grazing and collapse of ecosystem function by removal of native animals and introduction of pest species. I hope more thought is put into fixing these other parts to restoring the land equation so we can all share a more productive and healthy landscape.

[@boundless-abundance]

So inspiring 👍

[@thechaosgardener]

I have a section near the edge of my property where I used to get runoff along the road like a river so I added a foot of mulch along the edge of the road and even during heavy rain the winecap mycelium that has grown into that mulch absorbs the water like a sponge and pulls it into my land

[@thechaosgardener]

I only have an acre so I might not be scalable but we get free unlimited arborist mulch from the arborists I’ve made friends with. It’s amazing how much an acre can change with a few hundred cubic yards of mulch

[@elizabeth2416]

This is so hopeful. How did we loose this knowledge? I know we came from Europe with that climate's mindset, but we just devastated this land. When England reports a drought, I think, if they can't conserve water in a place it always rains, no wonder they created vast tracts of cracked mud here. To think that what looked like barren land was in reality a wetland! I'm glad this knowledge is coming back and that the farmers are finding a cheap way to conserve water. It's so effective, that it will get past down generationally.

[@gudapictures]

This nation lost the knowledge because it genocided and ignored Aboriginal people who used and have been advocating these methods for thousands of years. It’s very well documented. Most Aussies don’t know Aboriginal culture which is intrinsically connected to this land in all its unique glory or the colonial history of their own nation.

[@gudapictures]

This nation lost the knowledge because it genocided and ignored Aboriginal people who used and have been advocating these methods for thousands of years. It’s very well documented. Most Aussies don’t know Aboriginal culture which is intrinsically connected to this land in all its unique glory or the colonial history of their own nation.

[@nicolasbertin8552]

In reality you're fixing a problem Australians themselves have caused. Over grazing, either from livestock, or from the overpopulation of kangaroos created by the abundance of water from those huge cattle stations, possibly over grazing from introduced animals like goats and camels, logging... all of this caused massive erosion that we have to fix today.

[@Kelsdoggy]

Well done!! Green the deserts!

[@44point5]

Bravo!

[@cedriccbass-jp8ky]

Great work guys. Im wondering Im a farmer in the south of Portugal and were heavily affected by aerosol spraying from aircraft the greatly reduces the amount of rainfall we get. is this something you have down in Oz too?

[@TheWomanattheWellJohn4v14KJV]

Chemtrails are here too. Weather modification too. Big cyclone called cyclone Tracey 1975 was merely a test run on use of weather modification used. Fortunately people (collective consciousness) are fighting back against NWO.

[@trev0437]

We’ll done guys

[@ynocoolnamesleft]

did he use the word country

[@peteranderson3390]

This film is the best thing I've seen in years. I worked through that country in the early eighties, and west of there. All I remember is the whole place hard baked bare country. This is bloody wonderful, keep up with this great work.

[@TheWomanattheWellJohn4v14KJV]

You work up around Winton QLD?

[@michellekerns1191]

Cheers from America! Jesus loves you!

[@Beparepa]

He loves us all❤

[@TheWomanattheWellJohn4v14KJV]

​@@Beparepayes Karen he loves us all.

[@TheWomanattheWellJohn4v14KJV]

Thank you for your beautiful words.

[@cliffordchristopher1]

❤ total respect

[@theboythatdid2495]

would beavers do well in australia?

[@sarcasmo57]

Cool. Good luck with it all.

[@dhruvky6612]

Just one good project can change The Water Situation of 80% Australia in all directions - East West North South. All smaller projects then will be more viable and efficient. If the Government agrees and also people have to agree it's doable in 3 yrs, giving results from the very 1st yr of start. Meanwhile people have to do what little they can.

[@Tao-Quantum-Healing-Events]

Why is this not on the news?

[@HabeasData-c2q]

Eso no le conviene a ciertas empresas😢😢😢😢

[@squashduos1258]

I would also put a lot the brush underground cover it up which will absorb the water and proliferate mycelium which in turn will provide plants with water and exponentially accelerate growth

[@TheShadowMan.]

Why are some of these guys using "feet and inches " ? They would have used metric for all of their schooling. Just wondering

[@narellemacpherson9759]

Fabulous!❤

[@michalstepanek6620]

Great work. BTW, what common problem have all this people with eyes ? Some kind of alergy to the sun light or dust ?

[@meganpower3620]

I think they are emotional. People who have been through drought, flood and hardship who are now taking an alternative approach to bring back life and biodiversity, are really feeling positive about restoring their land.

[@jessheppell750]

You might be referring to sun damaged eyes… pretty common across Queensland.

[@josephbrowning4220]

Great video. I do wonder why the embankments are placed with the trenches behind the incoming water has opposed to having the trenches being between the incoming water and the embankments. I'm certain there's a reason for it, but I can't figure it out.

[@jcjensenllc]

Spread the word. Let governments know.

[@racebiketuner]

Great stuff, but we never seem to hear about the larger issue - human population.

[@BamBamMaori]

Working with mother nature instead of fighting against it

[@Jim-yk9zw]

I have heard suggestion that much of Australia was heavily forested or even rain forest but the Indigenous actually desertified much of it by constantly burning it down. I personally think there's credence in it because from what the blokes here are doing it seems on a long enough timeline the land could very well completely rehydrate and recover to something resembling what it formerly was.

[@gudapictures]

Complete nonsense. This country was incredibly bio diverse with rich soil and wetlands all over pre colonisation. Indigenous people did small controlled mosaic burning or fire stick farming which helped the soil become carbon enriched and increased seed cultivation and biodiversity. We also managed waterways properly as is demonstrated in the video here, but white people have “rediscovered” and claim credit for. This is all extremely well documented in journals of explorers, anthropologists botanists and historical land records at the time. Also modern science has backed up almost all our land management methods once deemed primitive and misunderstood by colonialists. Read a bit about what the land was like at the start of colonisation and then throughout history how the land changed due to excessive grazing, lack of burns, blowing up river systems, introducing invasive species of plants and animals, destroying native vegetation and biodiversity from the colonialists. Racists do a lot to try undermine our culture, it’s worth researching yourself and not believing hearsay.

[@ross49452]

That's awesome

[@iancaldwell8451]

Natural sequencing.

[@christreadwell]

Peter Andrews?

[@aliceyoung2507]

God Bles You

[@nevnuance3480]

Work in with Mother Nature & she'll look after you.

[@david.b4186]

#EXCELLENT QLDER❤

[@Nick-me7ot]

very good bravo

[@pluki1357]

10:36 This view speaks for itself :) .

[@justinalias7969]

Couldn’t understand anyone in the video until I turned my Bluetooth earbuds upside down. Crazy

[@TheDarryl37]

Australia is "down under".

[@Aussiem8e]

Wish I could get my hands on 5 acres to regenerate, we could green up most of Australia.

[@idiotbox.]

Bloody Legends