WICC Projects
Upper Hay Strategic Catchment
This project began in 2006 with community consultation and technical analysis of the feasibility of the plan to contain salinity in the Upper Hay sub catchment. The Upper Hay Catchment Plan is a community developed action plan that compliments the WINRAP by providing the strategic direction for implementation and coordination of activities that will contain salinity and improve the health of the catchment landscape and water quality of the Wilson Inlet, its waterways and associated wetlands.
This catchment plan represents only one step in a longer term vision for the catchment. Key areas will be tackled to give landholders an accelerated start for implementation of works to tackle nutrient, salinity, soil and biodiversity issues. This plan will establish participative R&D sites to look at key soil health and nutrient management issues with a view to driving practice change. It will also develop long term farm business plans that will be fully costed and based on the latest soil, hydrological and nutrient management information. The aim is to have a long term plan that can be implemented by the landholder over a realistic time frame.
In summary the total works that are proposed are spread over approximately 45,000 ha. The total proposed works are shown in the table below. All these actions will compliment the 466 ha of native revegetation and 8923 ha of existing farm forestry in the Upper Hay subcatchment.
Over $993,000 of funding has been received to implement the project until Oct 2009. Of this funding over $829,000 has been spent on on-ground works as shown below.
On ground work
|
Existing
|
Proposed
|
Completed
as of Oct 2009
|
Combined total
|
| Remnant & riparian vegetation fencing | 182km | 160km | 148.6km | 330.6km |
| Revegetation | 466 ha | 130ha | 117.5ha | 583.5ha |
| Deep rooted perennials | 1273ha | 3461ha | 3191.2ha | 4464.2ha |
| Phase farming | 100ha | 150ha | TBC | 250ha |
| Farm forestry (private) | 923ha | 125ha | TBC | 1048ha |
| Farm forestry (corporate) | 8000ha |
| TBC | 8000ha |
| Earthworks | 170km | 50km | 47.8km | 217.8km |
| Areas treated with lime/dolomite | 4458ha | 3000ha | 1675.2ha | 6133.2ha |
| Soil tests |
| 84 | 66 | 66 |
| Alternate water points |
| 42 | 45 | 45 |
| Stock crossing |
| 42 | 47 | 47 |
A copy of the Upper Hay Catchment Plan can be viewed or downloaded from the reports/downloads page
Wilson Inlet Nutrient Reduction Action Plan
From July 2005 to Oct 2009 WICC will receive over $910,000 from South Coast NRM Inc to implement the actions identified in the Wilson Inlet Nutrient Reduction Action Plan. The Action plan has been identified as a key target in the Regional Strategy (WINRAP). This funding will enable the continuation of the projects from the previous NAP project but with the scope of being able to achieve more on ground works with the substantial funding.
The WINRAP Project (as of Oct 2009) that has engaged over 100 Landholders who have:
| Activity | Overall achieved | Project output target | % achieved |
| Fencing priority waterways | 55.4 km | 60 km | 92% |
| Fencing waterways | 67.15 km | 78 km | 86% |
| Associated stock crossing | 62 | 65 | 95% |
| Alternate water points | 56 | 53 | 105% |
| Fencing remnant vegetation | 23.55 km | 27 km | 87% |
| Perennial pasture establishment | 551.5 ha | 551 ha | 100% |
| Flood plain revegetation | 46.4 ha | 60 ha | 77% |
| Waterways revegetation | 65.1 ha | 75 ha | 87% |
| Soil testing | 160 kits | 158 kits | 101% |
For more detail please read the Wilson Inlet Nutrient Reduction Action Plan
Waterway Protection and Restoration
One of WICC's newest projects, the Waterway Protection and Restoration project was implemented in October 2009. This project has an overall budget of $180,300, with Lotterywest as the major contributor to the funds. The aim of the project is to protect and restore riparian vegetation in the Wilson Inlet Catchment to improve the quality of the water entering the inlet by erecting fencing to exclude stock and revegetating degraded areas.
Works within this project will focus on the lower catchment and include erecting fencing to exclude stock; revegetation with local native plants; and the establishment of deep rooted perennial pastures, with the aim of protecting and restoring riparian vegetation in the catchment to improve the quality of the water entering the Wilson Inlet. The project will also promote activities to increase landowners awareness of effective nutrient management through soil testing and a nutrient management workshop. The establishment of deep rooted perennial pastures will also improve the uptake of nutrients in the catchment and improve water usage reducing the recharge into the waterways.
The project will enable:
- the construction of 20km of fencing to exclude stock from waterways within the catchment.
- the construction of 8 alternate water points if the waterway was the prime source of water for the stock
- the construction of 10 stock crossings to allow the management of stock in paddocks on the other side of the waterway.
- The revegetation of 20ha of degraded waterways
- The establishment of 100ha of deep rooted perennial pasture
- 40 soil tests subsidised for landowners participating in the soil health workshop.
- Water monitoring to determine changes in the nutrient levels
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