Executive summary: land
Status 2007
Habitat losses through land degradation and vegetation clearing pose significant threats to Queensland's biodiversity. The main cause of habitat loss has been land use change to grazing, agriculture and urban purposes.
In this reporting period, the severe drought coupled with the retention of livestock numbers has increased the risk of land and pasture degradation. At March 2007, 63% of the state had been drought declared. Average pasture growth across the state was 29% below the long-term mean for the period from 1 April 2001 to 31 March 2007. All six years were below the long-term mean pasture growth. Grazing pressure remained high, with the land supporting over 10 million cattle and around 4.5 million sheep. Macropods still pose a significant addition to grazing pressure in selected areas, even though the severe drought has seen a general decline in macropod numbers.
The amount of soil lost through wind erosion increased during the reporting period, mainly as a result of an increase in bare land. The increase in bare land has also raised the risk of soil losses through water erosion once the drought breaks. Soil compaction and soil acidification remain problematic in cropping areas. A new indicator, the soil acidification hazard, has been developed to identify severely affected areas most in need of liming programs. Poorly targeted fertiliser programs can deliver excessive quantities of some nutrients with associated environmental impacts. The area of dryland salinity has anecdotally declined during the current drought but it is likely to increase again under wetter climate conditions. Irrigation salinity remains a problem in many irrigation areas because of rising and shallow groundwater levels.
Mining and exploration, which also can adversely affect land condition, have grown rapidly and have underpinned Queensland's economic growth. The area covered by mining, exploration and petroleum projects has increased by 58% from 41.7 million hectares in 2003 to 65.9 million hectares in 2006. The current rate of land disturbance caused by mining is estimated to be 5619 hectares a year, almost 30% higher than in 2002.
The state has maintained its rehabilitation program for mines. In 2006, 2429 hectares of existing mines were rehabilitated and in the period 2003-06, 240 abandoned mines were made safe in Charters Towers, Gympie, Eidsvold, Bluff and Tooliambi. This reporting period has seen an increased demand for aggregate resources (construction material) and a subsequent increase in quarrying activity.
Most contaminated sites are located on former industrial land in the near inner city environment. These sites have required clean-up (remediation) as a result of poor waste disposal practices in the past. In general, about 150 to 220 former industrial sites are fully decontaminated annually. In addition, around 200 permits are issued annually to dispose of contaminated soils and these have resulted in the disposal of over one million cubic metres of contaminated soil annually. Mining operations also cause site contamination. Contaminated sites, along with the contamination risks associated with new developments, are dealt with by local government in development approvals. The mining industry is active in adopting and promoting the principles of sustainable development.
Major contributing factors
Climatic variability and inappropriate land use remain significant factors faced by the state in dealing with land degradation issues in Queensland. Land use change to intensive agriculture, particularly irrigation and certain cropping activities, can make soil quality more susceptible to decline. The clearing of native vegetation can lead to soil erosion, land slippage and salinisation. There is a strong link between grazing pressure (that is, stock numbers), cover and rates of soil erosion. Rural financial pressure and associated stocking arrangements can also contribute to excessive stock numbers. Excessive use of some fertilisers can result in acidification, while under-fertilisation can result in soil fertility decline. Soil tillage and harvesting equipment contribute to soil compaction. Land degradation increases the risk of weed invasion, and poor chemical management and waste disposal result in land contamination.
Increased mining and quarrying activity has led to an increase in both the area disturbed by these activities and the potential for adverse environmental impacts and land use conflicts. The 1.5 million hectares held under mining leases and licences (open-cut or underground mines) pose the greatest potential for environmental harm since such activities disturb relatively large areas of land compared with quarries. Process waste from mines, particularly tailings and acid rock drainage from metalliferous mines, can cause significant contamination of waterways.
Policy response
Land management initiatives are broad, ranging in scope from mining and agricultural practices to urban and regional planning. Community-based land management has become a key mechanism. Pastoral workshop programs such as the Grazing Land Management Workshops deliver best practice land management training and information through a network of state government extension officers. Many of these initiatives have been funded by the Natural Heritage Trust, the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality, the National Landcare Program, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Meat and Livestock Australia, and Land and Water Australia.
Regional Natural Resource Management bodies are supported through the Natural Heritage Trust; they coordinate the views of regional communities in relation to environmental issues and are responsible for preparing regional natural resource management plans. The plans contain targets for managing the condition of natural resources, including soil resources through access to funding under programs such as the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality and the Natural Heritage Trust. State Planning Policy 1/92: Development and the Conservation of Agricultural Land Order 1992 and the Local Government (Planning and Environment) Act 1990 provide general guidance to local authorities on the conservation of good-quality agricultural land when carrying out their range of planning duties.
The National Landcare Program (NLP) is a longstanding program within the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry which supports the sustainable use and management of natural resources. The NLP encourages farmers to adopt sustainable land management practices, and improve land condition both on and off farms. Additionally, the Memorandum of Understanding between the Queensland Government and the Queensland Farmers' Federation on Farm Management Systems encourages the take-up of a range of management practices by agricultural operators that minimise, and in some cases eliminate, adverse environmental impacts. These include the Property Management Systems Initiative announced in the Blueprint for the Bush, the FutureCane program to promote sustainability and adjustment in the canegrowing industry, and the research, development and extension efforts of the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.
Queensland 's vegetation management framework, under the Vegetation Management Act 1999, regulates the clearing of native vegetation. Land degradation issues are tackled through greater conservation of native vegetation and consideration of related problems of soil degradation, erosion, declining water quality and salinity. Government projects formulated under the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality have led to the generation of important new data and new understanding that can be used in the management of salinity. New salinity hazard maps and the salinity risk assessment tools provide a means of prioritising future investment for dealing with salinity. The Department of Natural Resources and Water's Salinity Strategy, which is currently in preparation, will provide a framework for dealing with salinity issues into the future.
A new initiative, the State Rural Leasehold Land Strategy, will provide a framework for managing and using state land leased for grazing and agriculture, representing more than half of the state's total land area. The strategy will use a mix of regulatory and reward-based approaches to improve the productivity, profitability and sustainability of leasehold land. The details of the strategy, including the systems and processes needed to put it into practice, are being prepared and the provisions of the strategy will apply to all new leases issued after 1 January 2008.
Procedures aimed at assisting practitioners with the implementation of erosion and sediment control measures are being produced for both rural and urban areas through several publications such as Soil Conservation Measures-a Design Manual for Queensland, aimed at rural areas, and Soil Erosion and Sediment Control-Engineering Guidelines for Queensland Construction Sites, aimed at urban areas. Local governments are also dealing with water-sensitive urban design, water quality and erosion and sediment control through development approvals. In addition, the Soil Condition Hazard Mapping project, currently under way, will analyse information about soils, topography and climate as well as land use and management to determine the location and potential severity of erosion and other land degradation issues at the catchment and regional scale. The information produced will be used by regional bodies, agencies and industry groups to assist with target setting and strategic decision making in the control and management of soil erosion and other land degradation issues. The project will be linked to a range of water quality catchment modelling activities, notably the Great Barrier Reef Catchment Modelling Project.
A number of initiatives have been funded and developed in the past to deal with issues relating to management of land condition under variable climatic conditions. Some of these programs are education-based, while others provide tools and information. Examples include the Grazing Land Management educational program and tools and information resources, developed by the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, that give national state-of-the-art rainfall and pasture information through AussieGRASS and the seasonal outlooks for Queensland summer rainfall.
The adoption of best current practices for nutrient and pesticide management by landholders is supported through the provision of science-based decision support tools for qualitatively assessing the risk of off-site nutrient and pesticide movement developed for use in Reef catchments for the sugar and horticultural industries. These tools will be incorporated into Farm Management Systems. In the sugar industry, these tools complement the soil-specific nutrient guidelines that are being implemented in the industry through a roll-out of nutrient management workshops for canegrowers.
The Environmental Protection Act 1994 provides a number of statutory tools for reducing the pressures and protecting and rehabilitating the condition of the state's land including the regulation of wastes, dredging activities and mining activities and the management of the rehabilitation of contaminated sites. Further protection for mining and quarrying activities is provided under State Planning Policy 2/07: Protection of Extractive Resources, a statutory instrument under the Integrated Planning Act 1997. The Abandoned Mine Lands Program is responsible for abandoned mines located on state land. Negotiations are currently under way between the Department of Mines and Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency to establish criteria to determine departmental and landholder responsibilities for abandoned mines located on freehold land, leasehold land and state land held in trust, where the responsibility is less clear. Of the 15 000 abandoned mines listed on the Mineral Occurrence Database, priority has been given to those abandoned mine sites located on state-owned land for follow-up field assessment and final rehabilitation to make the sites safe. Additionally, the State Government has invested significant funds for long-term environmental rehabilitation at Mount Morgan and Croydon.
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Last reviewed 12 May 2011
Last updated 9 February 2009