![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nesptropical.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/March-newsletter-2.jpg\")
Aaron Linton is a third-generation cane grower from Leichhardt Downs in the Burdekin River Irrigation Area, near Home Hill. In partnership with NESP TWQ researchers, he is trialling an innovative software-driven automated irrigation system<\/a><\/strong> on his property that is more efficient than conventional systems. Aaron says the outcomes of the project are vital to protect both the Great Barrier Reef and his bottom line.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat it\u2019s doing is taking the guesswork out of irrigation, which is a big thing for us considering how high electricity prices are,\u201d Aaron said.<\/p>\n \u201cOn top of that if you\u2019re not putting more water downstream than you have to, you\u2019ve got less of your nitrogen getting out to the Reef, so there\u2019s both an environmental and an economic benefit in it for growers. Personally I\u2019d like to see [this new system] get up across the whole industry.\u201d<\/p>\n The Hub has other cane-related projects including \u2018Project 25<\/a><\/strong>\u2019, which was personally announced by then-Environment Minister Greg Hunt in September 2014 after discussion with growers.<\/p>\n In the past, water quality scientists have sampled water at an \u2018end of catchment scale\u2019 (at the river mouth) and measured pollutants like sediment, nitrogen and pesticides, then used modelling to determine their source. This method failed to distinguish between growers that followed environmental best practice and other possible sources of pollutants such as towns and civil infrastructure, leading to a lack of engagement with farmers.<\/p>\n Project 25 is changing this dynamic by getting cane farmers involved in the water quality monitoring process. These sampling sites include where rivers leave native rainforest, leaving canefields and finally at the river mouth. This technique is enabling a much more accurate monitoring of river water content, in turn allowing participating farmers to check if they are wasting valuable fertilizer or pesticides through excess runoff.<\/p>\n Other agriculture-related projects in the region include gully remediation using minesite techniques – erosion from alluvial gullies is a major problem for both the Great Barrier Reef and famers,<\/p>\n destroying valuable grazing land and also acting as a major point source of sediment flowing out to the Reef.<\/p>\n One NESP TWQ project<\/a><\/strong> tests the cost and effectiveness of various erosion-mitigation techniques in addition to evaluating their impact on the farmer\u2019s bottom line, with the aim of changing the perception that gully and scald management does not offer a lot to the beef enterprise.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the project team worked with NQ Dry Tropics and Greening Australia to select suitable Reef Trust gully sites in the Upper Burdekin, Bogie and Don River Basins.<\/p>\n This will provide important data that can be used in predictive modelling at both paddock and catchment scales.<\/p>\n Researchers on the project are testing the effectiveness of erosion-stopping techniques such as fencing, native revegetation and \u2018stick sausage\u2019 sediment traps at several farms in the Burdekin region.<\/p>\n In addition to its agricultural enterprises, the Whitsundays region is also home to 578 tourism businesses, 42 of which employ 20 or more people, and the industry generates $600-700 million annually for the region. This economic productivity and income is dependent upon the health of the adjoining Great Barrier Reef, and many NESP TWQ projects are working to boost reef resilience. Their findings will be critical in helping preserve the Great Barrier Reef and the tourism industry that it supports in the Whitsundays.<\/p>\n Whitsundays tour operators have spoken regularly about how important preserving the Reef is to their industry. Alan Grundy from Explore Whitsundays<\/a><\/strong> says he is very concerned about water quality on the Reef.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a tourism operator\u2019s perspective, my concern is particularly in relation to the quality of the water and the health of the Great Barrier Reef,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe tourists are coming here to snorkel and look at healthy coral.\u201d<\/p>\n A NESP TWQ project<\/a><\/strong> at the Australian Institute of Marine Science\u2019s National Sea Simulator Lab<\/a><\/strong> (SeaSim) at Cape Ferguson analyses the effect of sediments, turbidity, nutrients, light, salinity and temperature on selected coral species. The advanced technology available at the SeaSim enables researchers to test these conditions with greater accuracy than ever before, allowing them to fill critical \u2018knowledge gaps\u2019 about the effects of water quality on coral health and produce maps of water quality thresholds in the Burdekin region.<\/p>\n Research by Tourism Research Australia<\/a><\/strong> shows that tourists (especially Queensland tourists) are very sensitive to the idea of stingers at dive sites. Another Tropical Water Quality Hub tourism-related project is developing an \u2018early warning system\u2019<\/a><\/strong> for predicting the appearances of Irukandji jellyfish at popular swimming beaches and dive sites.<\/p>\n Our Hub is also managing research into the reproduction and distribution of the Crown of Thorns Starfish, which the Whitsunday Charter Boat Association<\/a><\/strong> have identified as a major potential future threat<\/a><\/strong> to the local industry.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Immediate benefits to end-users from Tropical Water Quality Hub investments in one of Australia\u2019s premier sugarcane and tourism regions Industries and businesses of many kinds in the Burdekin and Mackay-Whitsunday … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3375,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3377","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesptropical.edu.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesptropical.edu.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesptropical.edu.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesptropical.edu.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesptropical.edu.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nesptropical.edu.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3377\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesptropical.edu.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesptropical.edu.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nesptropical.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/March-newsletter-3.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nesptropical.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/LSP3912-lowreser-300x199.jpg\")
Back to the March 2017 e-Newsletter contents<\/strong><\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"