Notification of Annual General Meeting

You are invited to attend Terrain's Annual General Meeting:

Chjowai Hall, 18 McGowan Drive, Innisfail
3.00pm Friday 26th November 2010

Please come and join us to celebrate the year of achievements with our Board and new CEO.  Learn about engaging 'Gen Y' at the forum after the AGM.  Also Raymond De Lai from the Herbert Resource Information Centre (HRIC) will be presenting on the Regional Mapping Portal.

The Forum includes reporting back on those Area Forums recently held around the region and generating further discussion around what you as members/partners/community want from Terrain.

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Tricks for the Toolbox - Engaging Youth

Youth engagement was an item which came out of the recent local area Members' Forums as something that many are struggling with. We thought this presentation might be of value to you. We are working on getting some more local case study examples to present too...

Sam Morris (Wombat Creative) is our guest speaker who will be making an address as part of the 'Tricks for the Toolbox' component of our Members' Forum after the AGM next Friday.

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Visit a constructed wetland built to treat farm runoff

DEEDI is hosting a farm visit to Gaia banana farm at Cowley Creek on 3 December to demonstrate how a wetland that was built to treat farm runoff.

The farm was a case study for a workshop held in July 2009 on stormwater modelling and treatment. The field visit will explore how the stormwater modelling and design, developed as part of the workshop, were implemented in the field.

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Beyond Organic Local Farming - Joel Salatin

FreeRange Permaculture present an evening with the "worlds most innovative farmer" (TIME Magazine), with introduction by Costa Georgiadis from Costa's Gardening Odyssey.

When: 5th December 2010 - 6pm
Where: Shangri- La Hotel The Marina Cairns

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March 2011

Cyclone Yasi and Flood Recovery

The region has experienced 5 floods and Cyclone Yasi since Christmas. Yasi has left the area with a huge clean up, destruction of natural environments, structural damage to homes, schools, businesses and other infrastructure, significant impacts on primary and secondary industries operating within the area and an impact on morale of the people who reside in the area. The area will rebuild, but its going to take considerable time, patience and resources.

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March 2011

Cyclone Yasi Recovery

• On the 3rd of February 2011 Cyclone Yasi crossed the coast at Mission Beach as a category 5 cyclone. The cyclone caused severe damage to agricultural crops,coastal foreshores,native vegetation and waterways. This came on the back of Cyclone Larry in 2007. The only bonus of having two major events so close together was that we were able to implement some of the lessons learnt from Larry.
• Within a week of the cyclone Terrain and Casswoary Coast Regional Council worked together to get the local disaster environment recovery comittee together. This group met at the Terrain Offices exactly one week after Yasi to plan and comunitcate the priorites relating to the disaster recovery. These priorities included actions around threatened species (Cassowaries,Mahogany gliders), waterway and drainage management, coastal foreshores, invasive species and vegetation management.
• Communications were seen as a priority for the committe and on behalf of the group Terrain has been producing a fortnightly newletter to update the community on the recovery process.

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November/December

October was a great month for the Tablelands and their partners, with several grants coming through making next year look very busy up here!

Area work plan – consultation with Area and Program staff in developing the Area Team work plan. It is an excellent way of increasing the connection between Area Teams and Program areas.

Majuba Creek: This is a really exciting initiative, which will build a model for Traditional Owners to work on country as the preferred vegetation management service provider for Cairns Water. Majuba Creek in Ngadjon country is one of the Cairns Water intake areas, nestled within the World Heritage Area. Terrain has now entered into a 3-way contract with Cairns Regional Council and the Ngadjon Corporation to facilitate Traditional Owners taking on the management of this area for the next year.

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November/December

Revegetation - During the month of October, given the season we have had has made the maintenance of existing plantings challenging. During this period it is logistically a time for supplementary watering to the young trees & shrubs. With the wet weather we have been having it is more an issue of competing weed growth and getting access to undertake weed control. All hope for a true build-up to the wet season so that the revegetation teams can catch-up.

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Reef Rescue Update

Terrain's negotiations with the Commonwealth Government were successful in obtaining $6.355M in Reef Rescue funds for 2010/11, a significant increase from the original offer of $5.42M. While this is a great improvement on the 2009/10 allocation of $4.92M, it is less than the $7.8M awarded in round 1. The negotiations also resulted in the inclusion of dairy and wet grazing this year. Unfortunately the proposed inclusion of a small forestry component was not supported by the Australian Government. Read More

The Feds have come to Town

The Wet Tropics was lucky enough to have The Australian Government's Claire Howlett and Peter Cotsell drive through the region to get a glimpse of our landscape, activities and issues. Read More

John in Brazil - Nitrogen fixation by sugarcane

Terrain's John Reghenzani (Manager – Sustainable Industries) was recently sponsored to present at the 12th International Symposium on Biological Nitrogen (N) fixation by non-legumes held at Buzios, some 180 km north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The conference had over 160 attendees. Presentations were made by scientists based in the USA, UK, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Israel, India, Mexico and of course there were many representatives from South America, particularly Brazil.

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Traditional Owners capacity boosted

Terrain NRM is supporting an exciting new pilot through a partnership with Ngadjon-jii and Cairns Water (Cairns Regional Council) to rehabilitate a Council water intake at Majuba Creek near Mt Bartle Frere in Tropical North Queensland. Traditional Owners of the area are receiving mentoring in project management and on-ground delivery including ongoing site management.

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