Rehydrating Thirsty Land - Regenerative Rangelands

Graziers in Queensland’s rangelands have found effective methods of retaining soil moisture, resulting in productivity and biodiversity gains from interventions costing as little as $10 a hectare.
To find out more, visit landcareaustralia.org.au/land...
This video was produced as part of the Landcare Farming Innovations in Agriculture Series. Supported by the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program, the Landcare Farming Innovations in Agriculture Series is managed in partnership by Landcare Australia and the National Landcare Network.

[@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

[@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.

[@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!

[@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

[@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...

[@lieslfrankpsychickinesiolo4906]

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

[@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 😊

[@ichifish]

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

[@makarandjoshi5090]

At last SUPERIOR RACE understanding how to take CARE of Mother EARTH. Heartiest Congratulations.

[@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.

[@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.

[@rexjames0015]

@ingebuchanan see my comment above re what I do in Melbourne. You are right on the money

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@Chapsikan2801]

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

[@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).

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@jessheppell750]

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

[@cohort075]

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.

[@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.

[@Womble1252]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@RaniVeluNachar-kx4lu]

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.

[@billiebruv]

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

[@Miamcoline]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@glenhopes8233]

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

[@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.

[@AndersJensen1977]

Simple and effective, love it (Y)

[@Alex-oe6ww]

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

[@samlarkin8102]

Beautiful work letting nature do its thing at scale

[@elenawalker3746]

farmers are the best landcare people.

[@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.

[@rexjames0015]

I use a similar principle in south east suburban Melbourne, I have not had my storm water connected for over 20 years, It all absorbs on my property.

[@Luthanor1]

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

[@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.

[@Technoanima]

The power of cover cropping and swales to mitigate flooding.

[@WakeUpToYourself]

Awesome video. Amazing results

[@petermcadam3132]

Great work Jody and Mark. Thankyou

[@boundless-abundance]

So inspiring 👍

[@nicholasbradley-qalilawa2934]

Wow that’s amazing. Really inspiring

[@JeffBilkins]

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

[@danbeard1168]

need more of this . good work.

[@Kelsdoggy]

Well done!! Green the deserts!

[@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?

[@forgetful3360]

Bravo!

[@Bennie32831]

Stoked to see the up date

[@xavierroy5254]

Amazing regeneration

[@kennethwoolard5910]

Utterly awesome!

[@trev0437]

We’ll done guys

[@cliffordchristopher1]

❤ total respect

[@RAMSHACKLE28]

Biochar could really add value to this.

[@intimatespearfisher]

WAIT UNTIL THIS GUY DESCOVERS SWALES. Love that he is rehydrating the land. KZbin search: Bill Mollison Tuscon desert swales.

[@ross49452]

That's awesome

[@aliceyoung2507]

God Bles You

[@sarcasmo57]

Cool. Good luck with it all.

[@narellemacpherson9759]

Fabulous!❤

[@michellekerns1191]

Cheers from America! Jesus loves you!

[@mightyfraserriver977]

He loves us all❤

[@Nick-me7ot]

very good bravo

[@benjohnson6833]

Need to start planting some Pioneer trees and some nitrogen fixers like pigeon pea and Comfrey. Could bring it back super quickly

[@cheryll5496]

Letting the native trees and grasses grow works very well. Acacias and a bunch of native groundcovers fix nitrogen and will establish faster than introduced plants in these kind of soils.

[@deanharris7149]

Awesome

[@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

[@iancaldwell8451]

Natural sequencing.

[@stevehollis9121]

Good on yus

[@pluki1357]

10:36 This view speaks for itself :) .

[@davidhiggins8505]

Peter Andrews was right!

[@justinalias7969]

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

[@TheDarryl37]

Australia is "down under".

[@jcjensenllc]

Spread the word. Let governments know.

[@dhruvyerunkar6612]

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.

[@charliepayne3152]

Australia should give funding to farmers to just get a load of trench diggers in or pipe laying equipment (without the laying of pipe) as you get a berm and weir from the one process

[@Bennie32831]

Almost ready for baling✌️👍

[@Masterrobsen]

what about swales and making ponds for keeping water?

[@nomatterwhereugothereuare]

Wow👍👍👍

[@BikeAndFish1]

Wow.

[@jayjayspoon8824]

there are talks now of refilling lake mungo

[@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?

[@TheShadowMan.]

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

[@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.

[@peterfarrell8520]

I watched a D11 bulldozer build a supposed dam in a quick as possible time. The dozer was soon buried to 4 or 5 meters. And they called it a dam. No forethought as to the removal of the top soil or storage, no thought about the valuable level clay-with its water holding capacities, or secure placement. To be returned in situ to its needed place in a dam, Just like a valued canal built long ago, made to hold water and last. The dam that they built so quickly, wasn’t a dam but rather a hole. For practical reasons it was quick though but stupid?

[@nevnuance3480]

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

[@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.

[@peterfarrell8520]

When it floods like that , what about deep water containment in certain areas. For a more sustained ettempt At conservation. For livestock, future fire and preservation.

[@peterfarrell8520]

They say that if you live long enough, you’ll see just about everything. That old adage about history repeating itself, is to dam true. And sure as egg’s Australian Red Cross wasn’t wrong about holding onto money given to victims of summer fire-storms a few years back. Saying we will need the money for when the next floods come, which didn’t require a crystal ball. If they had a crystal ball they would have known that they were wrong about keeping the money. Which was specifically given for immediate help. But what frustrates the hell out of me, commonsense tells us it’s either feast or famine, drought or floods. It also tells us that building massive dams and infrastructure is money & time consuming. By building deep water containment storage with augmented pipelines. This way individual States and Private land holders can utilise labour and the fabricated means to a quick and efficient reliable solution. With conservation the name of the game. We waste at our own peril. At present farmers are screaming out for ways to help water retention in their soil. So what’s happening to society’s green waste & recycled carbon and maybe there are areas where certain plastics could be used to assist the water holding capacity in areas with out threatening existing water catchment’s

[@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.

[@badgey91]

Can someone please explain what they did?

[@austinlloyd9757]

Their slowing the flash rains instead of just going like a river ,,,water around for days instead of hours and water tables can raise a little each year

[@janosik150]

why not also build ponds for birds and fish ?? from higher elevation ponds feeding lower and so on...like they do it in India

[@ginalou5774]

This part of Queensland is very flat. There really isn’t any higher ground so that this would work. The whole area is actually seasonal wetlands that create enormous shallow areas of water during rain events and then dry out. However the environment has been so badly damaged and the natural water cycles changed it no longer functions the way it has for millennia. These agriculturalists are trying to redress the problem. Kudos to these amazing individuals

[@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.

[@adrianjos04]

Should just let Beavers go in Australia

[@snapon666]

You need some beavers ..Joking ..but that is what the beaver does naturally in north America

[@wildforestorganics7298]

The benefits of swales have been known for over 50 years. Why has it taken land owners so long to catch on?

[@annburge291]

Because it costs money to have and run an excavator...and most farmers are maxed out owning a tractor, harvester and milking set-up. The work here is very impressive. Saying the obvious, when you are in brittle landscapes an excavator could be the number one priority to help slow down, spread and sink water. It also could provide higher ground for livestock in a heavy rain event. I think it's important to re-establish the seed bank in the soils by purposely collecting seeds and planting them in pockets because Australia had many edible plants like orchids and root vegetables eaten by first Australians which have virtually disappeared. It's not enough to wait for the land to heal itself. How one moves livestock through the landscape is also important so that areas are not over grazed by grasses and other edible plants being grazed too frequently. Since cattle, sheep, goats and chickens are not native to Australia, I don't think it hurts the landscape to have non native trees and bushes that are edible by these animals in designated areas out of the wetlands areas. If we have watering places for livestock, I also think it's important to have watering places for native animals in expansive native bush and scrub lands. Many native plants edible by native animals need to be replanted, because a few straggling gums doesn't cut it. With the regeneration, the growth of more plants, it's important to think about how fire could flow through the landscape so that it can be channeled, burn less of an area and do the least damage to wildlife. In other words, it's important to have a mixture of woodlands, wetlands, scrub and pastures/meadows with a huge variety of plants in each.

[@gardnep]

So regenerative agriculture is clearing all the timber off to make timber walls? Sounds like a plan

[@cherylhmackie]

There were barely any living trees left on this drought ridden land. The trees were dying due to drought. Large plains of dead trees, absolutely stripped soils and dry land; terrible. They are just using the dead wood. Many Australian tree seeds/grasses etc will lie dormant for years waiting for water to regenerate. All the farmers are doing is slowing down the water run off to allow this natural process to happen. The land will regenerate with some water. Farmers are using the resources they have available to do that.