Land-based pollution is accepted by the scientific community as a risk to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), yet this level of acceptance is not uniformly reflected in GBR communities. Based on a GBR Water Science Taskforce recommendation, the Queensland Government funded two Major Integrated Projects (MIPs) in the Burdekin and Wet Tropics to test a range of tools and approaches to improve water quality.
The Wet Tropics MIP was designed through an intensive eight-month stakeholder consultation process. Local-scale water quality monitoring emerged as one of five project activity areas. Landholders asked the project team to: ‘show me it’s my nitrogen’; demonstrate the benefits of actions already being undertaken; and test what else could be done. With this knowledge, landholders could make better-informed decisions regarding on-farm practice change.
Nutrient, sediment and pesticide monitoring was undertaken in waterways adjacent to different land uses, and under different stream-flow conditions, to demonstrate pollutant sources and high-risk periods. Sub-catchment pollutant loads were used to explore the relative contribution of different land uses, build trust in the Queensland Government’s pollutant models and understand the magnitude of change required to achieve targets. Reductions in the frequency of pesticide detections and guideline exceedances, and early indications of reduced nitrogen loss at the paddock-scale, assured landholders their actions were making a difference.
A range of extension methods were used to share water quality data with landholders, with the ‘shed meeting’ forming the cornerstone. Independent project evaluators reported increases in landholder understanding of water quality issues (e.g., 84% of Johnstone growers indicated their thoughts/beliefs about water quality had changed). Local-scale water quality monitoring has been funded beyond the MIP to integrate with whole-of-farm practice change projects being led by the cane and banana industries. Approaches for delivering meaningful and enduring engagement between the scientific and farming communities will be presented.