Our Projects

Farming Forecaster

CRPA is working with NRM South to support implementation of the Farming Forecaster decision-support tool in our region.

Developed with graziers, Farming Forecaster places soil moisture, local weather, pasture production and livestock performance information at graziers’ fingertips. See a video explaining how Farming Forecaster works.

Three CRPA member properties near Colebrook, Tea Tree and Richmond have been selected as dryland soil moisture probe sites, with data available on the Tasmanian platform on the Farming Forecaster website.

NRM South has also been providing our membership with forecasting workshops and training in the use drought-resilience tools, including Farming Forecaster.

Farmers can use Farming Forecaster to review trends at several sites to make comparisons with their own farms. Each site has details on rainfall, soil type, pasture, the livestock enterprise and past management to help you to understand which sites are most relevant to you.

Weeds Action Fund

In 2021, the Coal River Products Association was awarded a grant to support a landscape-scale project tackling invasive weeds across the valley over three years.

This grant is part of the Tasmanian Government’s Weeds Action Fund Targeted Large Grants, which provide a total of $1.5 million to large-scale projects over three years, with landholders also contributing to projects.

The Coal River Products Association will tackle several target weeds over 67 private and public sites across the valley. This will treat over 2,090 hectares within a 15,000-hectare area. 

Read the latest on our weed management project

26Ten

CRPA is working with the state government’s 26Ten program to improve adult literacy and numeracy in Tasmania. The agriculture sector has been identified as a focus area for 26Ten to lift literacy and numeracy skills.

CRPA committee member Hana Jones has taken on the role of liaison to help refer anyone in our sector and community needing help with literacy or numeracy to 26Ten’s specialised and judgement-free assistance.

Past projects

Some of our more important projects have included:

  • The report “Water crisis in the Coal Valley: Preliminary business case for a Water Infrastructure Fund Application to enhance the supply of Irrigation Water in the South East Irrigation District”, commissioned by CRPA and prepared by consultants Davey and Maynard, December 2008, provides detail on the current situation in the Coal Valley, including existing and potential businesses, and the need for improved water supplies.
  • One of our members, Anthony Houston of Houston’s Farms, has completed a project to establish their business’s carbon footprint, funded by Woolworths, the state Government and Horticulture Australia Limited.
  • Our members are involved in a Caring for Our Country funded project entitled “Building Resilient Farms in times of change” being managed by Serve-Ag Pty Ltd (Ms Sophie Folder, Project Manager). This aims at sustainable soil and water management via monitoring of crops, soil and irrigation systems.

Other projects include:

  • Continued African boxthorn control in the Coal River Valley (NRM South Tas)
  • Purchase of weed management infrastructure (Southern Tasmanian Councils Authority)
  • Fencing and revegetation of the Pittwater Ramsar fringe (DAFF)
  • Treating water for discharge (Willow removal and revegetation, Coal River – Australian Government Water Fund)
    water quality and reparian work water quality and reparian work (3373 KB)
  • Boosting agricultural productivity with biosolids (DAFF)
Further reading

Landcare in the Coal Valley

Coal River Products Association was formed in 1967 in response to the bushfire disaster, and has since acted to promote sustainable and profitable farming in the valley. The University Farm, commenced in 1984, was the beginning of organized Landcare activities, focusing initially on whole farm planning, then on fencing out and treating the problem areas. University students were involved in all activities, commencing with Daniel Sprod who led the first stage of planning. Rob Morey, a leading local farmer, had been developing his own property along the same lines , and led our Landcare committee of CRPA for many years. We initially concentrated on three problem areas, namely salinity patches low in the landscape, steep rocky hillsides on the upper areas, and on the Coal River itself, which was infested with willows.Demonstrations were set up on the University Farm (photos 1-4, see below), on a steep hillside at Birmingham Creek (photos 5-6), between Campania and Colebrook, and on the River.

Work since has continued along these lines, with a number of grants large and small. The river work included a Rivercare Plan (again by Daniel Sprod), and work in stages to remove willows (photos 7-8, fence out problem areas, and either plant or encourage natural revegetation (photo 9), which has generally been the most successful. This has necessarily included follow-up work over several years, with Kevin Harding our river coordinator.

Weed management in the valley has also been a major focus of our work, particularly African boxthorn (photos 10-11), which has the capacity to negate other landcare work by growing in fenced off areas and making other activities impossible.

Landcare activities in recent years have been focused on managing the good cropping and pasture land within our farm plans, with different tillage methods and machinery, use of biosolids and other amendments. We are currently involved in a major project to prepare our farmers for change , which involves having resilient farms capable of adaptation to changing conditions. This is, after all, what we have already been doing over the years.

Workshops

The CRPA regularly run workshops on a range of subjects our members find useful. Download the presentations and support documentation from some of our recent workshops below.

Coal River Catchment Natural Resource Assessment
Landcare Drought Programme – Restoring Sustainability in the Coal Valley
Precision Ag
Soil Information
Climate Change
Efficient Irrigation
IPM