Publication Date

12-1993

Series Number

Miscellaneous publication 14/93

Publisher

Department of Agriculture, Western Australia

City

Perth

ISSN

0725-847X

Abstract

It is now some 33 years since the Ord River Regeneration Project, the largest and most ambitious of its kind in Australian rangelands, commenced.

During this time there have been a number of publications and miscellaneous reports about the project, but this publication is by far the most comprehensive produced to date. Although the field work was undertaken in 1981, the findings recorded here will stand in a good stead as a detailed account and reference work for years to come.

Much has changed within the Regeneration Reserve area since the project commenced. Cattle and feral donkey numbers have finally been reduced to very low numbers. Revegetation of the vast, previously bare plains has been spectacular, but many gully systems are still only partly stabilised. A large part of the area in the west was gazetted as National Park and Conservation Reserve in 1987 and is now named the Purnululu National Park and Conservation Reserve and is managed by the Department of Conservation and Land Management.

Between 1960 and 1980, management policy revolved largely around regeneration works, fencing and annual cattle mustering and control of donkeys with the long-term objective of total exclusion of grazing animals. By the early 1980s, parts of the reserve had recovered sufficiently to be used as a research centre for a series of cattle grazing and management trials. These trials successfully demonstrated the advantages of weaning and Brahman infusion to the pastoral industry, but at the same time highlighted the fragility of the vegetation cover and the great difficulties of managing a complex mixture of recovered and still partly degraded country.

Currently the future of the Regeneration Reserve is under review. Grazing studies in southern parts (Fox River} have ended and future management is likely to be as a water catchment reserve with the objective of maintaining maximum,vegetation cover, In the north of the Reserve, an existing grazing management trial will continue until completion in. 1994, Ecological.studies and: vegetation monitoring, but not trials involving cattle, may continue past this date. Management will be on a care and maintenance basis as a water catchment reserve,

Number of Pages

103

Keywords

Ord River, Ord River Regeneration Reserve, Land degradation, Land regeneration, Western Australia

Disciplines

Animal Sciences | Biosecurity | Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment | Environmental Monitoring | Hydrology | Natural Resources and Conservation | Natural Resources Management and Policy | Soil Science | Weed Science

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