Doorstop at Richmond, Tasmania

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
RICHMOND
TUESDAY, 14 OCTOBER 2025

Subjects: Albanese Labor Government delivering better land management across Tasmania; Industry policy; Hobart Clinic.

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: So, it’s terrific to be out here on farm in Orielton with Peter Stronach from Landcare and also Lachie, who’s the farm manager here. This funding today is $3.67 million from the Federal Government towards Landcare’s $4 million program. As Peter has indicated, this program is about making sure that we work with land managers and landowners in Tasmania to improve dams and how they utilise those dams. This is about drought resilience and climate resilience going forward.  

Through the Future Drought Fund, we’re investing over $500 million. This program is around $40 million nationwide, and seven projects, and one of those projects is here in Tasmania. And to hear Peter talk about working with farmers is terrific. As he said, it’s not just about climate and the resilience, but it’s about improving productivity on farms for farmers as well. So, this investment here in Tasmania is good news for local farmers and, importantly, it’s good news for the climate and for sustainable farm management practices.  

I’m happy to hand over to Lachie to talk a little bit about what it means here for him.  

LACHIE VAN BALEN, FARM MANAGER: Lachie Van Balen. I am lucky to look after this farm and a couple of others. A couple of other little properties for a company called Gowing Roads, which is an Australian company. It sort of had their roots in retail back in the day in Sydney. They started in 1868, a lovely, it’s a listed company now, but they still sort of have good family values. And as part of their sort of journey into being more responsible with their sort of environmental impact, they look at ways that they could offset some carbon from [indistinct] New South Wales. And we fell on sequestering soil carbon in the agricultural system, and that’s what sort of led it into the farm here, yeah, into these wonderful projects. We always have an eye out for good environmental or positive environmental sort of opportunities to incorporate into the enterprise. And this is certainly one of those, particularly in South East Tasmania, where it’s bone dry. We have a really low average annual rainfall. I don’t think I’ve seen it yet in the few years that I’ve been here. So, water - protecting our sort of water resources is just as important in agriculture [indistinct] in general, let alone all those wonderful sort of environmental benefits and stuff that go along with it.  

JOURNALIST: Can you talk us through the role that a dam plays on a farm and the importance of healthy dams?  

VAN BALEN: Look, yeah, having water in your environment in general is really important for lots of reasons. Obviously, there’s the really obvious ones, which is stock water and irrigation. And certainly, those are very important. But also, it’s that, you know, supporting wildlife and sort of helping to encourage, you know, growth of remnant vegetation species and stuff. All of those things help to, you know, just keep water in the system. It’s hard to explain about experiencing one of those things where having a good store of water in a system in a piece of country that you spend so much time on, and the benefits of it are – some of them are intangible. Just having the moisture in the environment really supports the functions of all the rest of the systems that help to grow the, you know, organisms and the fungi and the soil, which help to retain their own version of water. It’s very multi-layered.  

JOURNALIST: And you said you hadn’t seen it this dry in a while. What concerns do you kind of have coming into summer?  

VAN BALEN: Stockfeed for us. So, the two things that we do here at the moment mostly is, we have a sheep breeding program, some Dorper sheep from the mainland, which is lovely. We produce them for meat, and obviously we need pasture to finish the lambs on. We don’t like to put too much outside sort of – we don’t like to put too much outside resources into our system, we like to grass finish what we can or finish with pasture, and obviously, the drier it is, the less grass we have and the harder it is to finish lambs.  

JOURNALIST: What’s the alternative then if you don’t have?

VAN BALEN: You have to bring feed in. You buy hay or you buy grain, you buy hay or you buy grain. And, you know, introduce it from people with a better rainfall than you or more advanced irrigation system, and then you’ve got to bring that. It’s just another input, basically.  

JOURNALIST: What, I guess, impact would that that have on your bottom line?  

VAN BALEN: Yeah, a big impact. If you grow your own feed, obviously that’s not a cost, but if you have to buy it in, it’s all cost. Also, you know, sheep, we really like to produce hight welfare and conscious product even though it’s a [indistinct] sheep. So, it’s just better for them, and we don’t want to introduce too much grain or too much hay. It’s really better if they can browse through a bit of native pasture or [indistinct] pasture to get the nutrients [indistinct].  

JOURNALIST: And in terms of dam management, do you kind of take on that on yourself? So, what’s involved in that? Can you give us a bit of an idea?  

VAN BALEN: So, what’s involved in this has been, so essentially, I’ve essentially, we’ve chosen this dam, this is the most exposed. As we’re all experiencing the wind, it’s a horrible day in some ways, and it’s a great example of the conditions. So, we have a lot of wind driven evaporation on this dam. And so there, also because there’s so much area around the bank, it’s susceptible to lots of compaction from stock grazing around the edge. So essentially, we eliminate that by fencing it off, so we just have strategic stock access points, one of which we’re standing in front of, which allows enough sheep to get in and drink abreast, if they’re really thirsty, they can get but it reduces the compaction around the rest of the dam. We’ve seen a really good return of some blown grass, nice prostrate native daisy species popped up that would have otherwise just been blown away and compacted. And then it’s the same thing. So, all of the – anything in a guard is a tree or a shrub, so under a mid-storey. And so essentially that’s trying to break the wind across the surface of the water so that we don’t have so much evaporation. Keeping in mind, the dam is also utilised by the TFS when there’s a fire in the area. It’s a great dam for helicopters to access because of where it is. And so, the plants we’ve used have kept the canopy height of the finished trees and grown trees low enough that the helicopters can sort of still come in and access it. But we really do want it pretty well covered, surrounded and nice and scrubby for wildlife. Lots of birds. We see there’s some swans out the back here. We get lots of musk ducks and shell ducks and wood ducks, and all of the nice native species of native hens and all of the waterfowl come in. And I’ve seen them breed here for a few seasons now, and it’s rare that they get all of their young through the season that's a bit exposed and they get predated sea eagles or again, a lot of exposure. And so, they might get lost or separated from their parents through those sort of conditions. So, just encouraging that sort of native vegetation system around the dam will help for it to function and support the populations of those as well.

JOURNALIST: [indistinct]

VAN BALEN: So, we've got, there's about 500 head of breeding ewes on the property at the moment. It's brought in from a stud that the company had established in Central Western New South Wales. We have dorper sheep down here that are self shedding, which is not very traditional in Tasmania. Usually it's fine wool merinos, but we're interested in using those in an sort of agricultural management system as a tool as well. And the fact that they are self shedding and that they were developed in South Africa means that they have a really good tolerance for these sort of arid conditions. So, yeah, we're trying to develop a line of those dorpers that will be bred to Tasmanian conditions.

JOURNALIST: How big is this farm overall?

VAN BALEN: It's 320 hectare. So, yeah, it basically follows this valley floor, which is wonderful. And then, the two peaks behind us which I'm pointing to, you won't be able to see if you can, but the two peaks behind us are part of the farm as well. And then there's a little bit of country on the leeward side as well on the eastern side.

JOURNALIST: And how long have you been working with Landcare?

VAN BALEN: Since I got here, on this property or in general?

JOURNALIST: On this property?

VAN BALEN: On this property the entire time since we got here. I reached out pretty well straight away. I grew up working with Landcare. My father's a property manager as well in the northern Hunter Valley and I remember planting tree lines as kids with Landcare in our local area. And so yeah, they also have a really good relationship with an uncle of mine, Glenn Morris, who manages some country up in the New England and on the Clarence. They've had a lot of successful projects working together with the same sort of intent, basically productive agricultural enterprises with an environmentally positive impact.

JOURNALIST: And just how many farms. Oh, sorry, how many years have you been on this farm exactly?

VAN BALEN: Since the company bought it, which is not long, so nearly three years. Yeah.

JOURNALIST: And I guess just with the funding as well. What changes would you expect to see with the dam as well?

VAN BALEN: Oh, look, yeah, who knows? Hopefully lots. All of the ones that we've already spoken about. So, you know, the, the introduction of the native vegetation to support all of the, the wildlife communities, but hopefully just less loss of water. So, the, the water in the Coal River Valley has the most extreme differences in dam levels I've ever seen in my life anywhere in the country. I spent time in the Northern Territory and all the way down through New South Wales and Queensland, all over the place. And this is the most extreme fluctuations I've seen in weather conditions anywhere. And so essentially what we're trying to do is just keep the water in the system and a dam is a great place to store it and we can access it then once we have this sort of established and we can sort of take advantage of that extra water and then bring it out and put it in the system and try and get it through the park to support the rest of the ecology on the farm as well.

JOURNALIST: How much water can the dam support?

VAN BALEN: It has a 70 megalitre capacity in this dam, which is reasonable. It's a good sized dam. So, yeah, I've never seen it full and I'm not sure that I ever will. But you know, fingers crossed that all of this sort of work certainly will go a long way to making that more, more possible.

PETER STRONACH, CEO LANDCARE TASMANIA: So, my name's Peter Stronarch, I'm the CEO of Landcare Tasmania.

JOURNALIST: So, yeah, I guess if you can explain a bit about Landcare's overall role in helping farmers kind of look after their dams, especially coming into summer.

STRONACH: Yeah. For the last couple of years Landcare Tasmania has been undertaking a couple of pilot projects to see which, what are the best ways for farmers to improve their dams. And so, like our farmer Lachie has introduced today, it's about halving off some of those areas, so you don't have stock going into the river or the creek or the dam. And the other part of it is to just try and reduce evaporation. And like we're experiencing at the moment across Tasmania, we've got really variable climatic conditions. So, it's those really dry periods when you're trying to hold on to as much water as you can that these activities that we're trying to achieve will be giving that farmer a little bit more resilience around the landscape.

JOURNALIST: We heard the conditions down here aren't like other places in Australia, what do you kind of put that down to?

STRONACH: Well, where we are in Coal Valley today, we're kind of in semi, believe it or not, semi-arid conditions. But then when you get to the North West of Tasmania, they have experienced extreme drought as well. So, Tasmania is one of those states that has the best of both worlds, and it does have dry conditions, but also has really wet conditions. And if your farm is used to having a lot of wet conditions and it receives dry conditions, then it's really hard to adapt.

JOURNALIST: And does your job kind of get a bit more complex coming into warmer months?

STRONACH: Landcare Tasmania supports about 250 groups across Tassie. So, really, we're looking at what the farmers and the landholders are actually, and that's a diverse amount of activities just to support them on the ground. So, we vary from like [indistinct] weed control right through to pests and to- Sorry, we vary from our support from weed and pest control right through to restoration and protection of some of the natural assets, actually keeping these catchments healthy enough to be able to produce stuff and also to protect the native wildlife that actually lives in it.

JOURNALIST: How many farms will benefit from this funding?

STRONACH: So, over the five years we're offering about $30,000 per farm. So, over the five years we're offering up to $30,000 per farm to get involved in this project. But we'll also be doing a number of workshops and information sessions so that if somebody's a bit unsure about how to get involved, they can come along to one of those field days and they can also look at some of the demonstration sites that we've already set up around the state.

JOURNALIST: It's starting in Tassie, but do you think other states would benefit from a similar initiative? Is that something that you'd like to see expanded in the future?

STRONACH: Yeah, well, our pilot project originates from a partnership with ANU, so the Australian National University and their sustainable farms program. So, we were working with them to get as much information as we could about what the benefits were for farmers. And so that helped us to get better uptake for the initial pilot project, and now it's about rolling it out across the state and beyond. Can I just talk about quickly, just the partnerships? So, it's a consortium of partners that have been involved in the pilot, now will help us to roll out the program. So, we have three regional NRMs, we have Tas Irrigation, the Tas Farm Innovation Hub, and there's also the ANU, the Australian National University, the will help us to roll us out.

JOURNALIST: So, I guess, you know, we've just heard that it is a bit of a pilot program, but if it is deemed successful, would you be looking at potentially further investment in other states around Australia?

COLLINS: Well, as a government, since we've come to office now, we've invested around $2 billion in rural and drought supports and programs across the country. This program that we're announcing funding for today is part of a broader program across the country. A $40 million program and seven projects across the nation. I think what Peter and Landcare are talking about here is that we had a pilot. This is about expanding that pilot here in Tasmania to more farms. And certainly our government wants to continue to work with farmers right across the country. And particularly, as you know, my home state of Tasmania, I'm very conscious that, like other parts of the country, some parts have had really dry years, some parts are doing very well and this is about making sure that we help farmers be more sustainable into the future.

JOURNALIST: So, we could see it in other states?

COLLINS: We certainly want to continue to work with Landcare and other organisations across the country to see these types of programs roll out across the country.

JOURNALIST: Tim Ayres is set to meet with the Premier to talk about the issues affecting major industrials this week. Does the Federal Government have a greater role to play?

COLLINS: Well, obviously we want to continue to work with those industries. I know Minister Ayres has been in close contact with the companies in Tasmania, particularly, you know, Liberty Bell at Bell Bay, Bell Bay Aluminum and indeed Nyrstar and others across the state. What you've seen from our government already is an investment obviously in Nyrstar to make sure that we can continue to have that valuable workforce and that valuable work happen here in Tasmania. We want to continue those discussions with the Tasmanian Government and with the industry and Minister Ayers has been very active in those days discussions.

JOURNALIST: Federal Government rule in or rule out [indistinct].

COLLINS: Well, obviously that will be up to, you know, the discussions that are occurring. What we know is that we need, first and foremost, for the Tasmanian Government to lock in a power contract for Bell Bay Aluminum. This is a 10 year contract. They've been known it's coming up for some time. So, one of the reasons that Bell Bay Aluminum is here in Tasmania is because of those power contracts. And I really would say to the Tasmanian State Government, they need to get on and resolve that.

JOURNALIST: [indistinct] Federal Government, in terms of helping out the State Government in saving the Hobart Clinic?

COLLINS: Well, I'm really pleased to hear that there are discussions going on in relation to the Hobart Clinic at Rokeby. Being the local member, I've seen the fabulous work that this clinic has done and I'm aware of the anxiety it's causing across the community, particularly in southern Tasmania. And certainly in Tasmania where there is already a lack of a lot of mental health support, this has been a critical role for many people in terms of their recovery. So, I understand how important it is. I've had a discussion with Minister Mark Butler early last week in relation to this and I'm pleased to hear that that Minister Bridget Archer is working with the company and the company are coming up with some solutions. Let's see what that holds. But certainly, I understand the anxiety in the community about it.

JOURNALIST: Was your discussion with Mark Butler successful? Was it [indistinct]?

COLLINS: Well, Minister Butler understands how important it is to Tasmania and to southern Tasmania, particularly in terms of people living with mental ill health.