Kangaroo Island bushfire recovery projects to be delivered in 2022
In August 2021 the Minister for Primary Industries and Regions, David Basham MP announced a $1million boost for innovative KI recovery projects.
“This new $1 million funding to Livestock SA and Agriculture Kangaroo Island will help deliver new projects which support long-term recovery and resilience. This is recognition that the road to recovery can be a long one and by working with industry we are making sure support is targeted and effective.
Livestock SA and Agriculture KI ran a tender process in September 2021 to seek projects that would benefit farmer groups and help make the community more resilient to improve the ability to respond to events in the future.
On Monday 31 January, 2022 Minister Basham, alongside Jamie Heinrich (AgKI Chairman), announced the approval of twelve projects totalling $976,014 under the funding scheme. Ten of these projects will be administered by Livestock SA in collaboration with third party applicants who developed project concepts during the tender phase.
|
Applicant |
Location |
Category |
Description/Summary |
|
Private landholder |
Western River |
Weed control |
Controlling weeds with drones in inaccessible country of Western River, reducing dangerous fuel load in area with high laterite with high lightning conductivity. |
|
Private landholders |
Karratta |
Weed control |
A group of producers combined have 1000ha of pasture with blue gum saplings regrowing. The applicants are seeking to use aerial spraying to apply metsulfuron prior to removing the trees with an offset disc prior to returning to productive pasture for livestock. |
|
AgKI |
Kangaroo Island |
Community resilience |
This project will enable AgKI to engage an Extension and Stakeholder Officer (ESO) who will work with board members to re-invigorate and strengthen board and help build AgKI to be a “One-Stop-Shop” for agriculture and recovery projects on Kangaroo Island. |
|
Kangaroo Island Landscape Board |
Kangaroo Island |
Weed control |
Attaching high definition and multispectral cameras to drones, creating accurate 2D and 3D high definition and NDVI images. This data will then be used to calculate the amount of herbicide needed and apply it much more accurately to the plants using a deployment drone. |
|
AgKI |
Kangaroo Island |
Weed control |
Roadside weeds have proliferated since the 2019/20 bushfires. These weeds impact on neighbouring farms. The fire has provided a window of opportunity to control these weeds before the scrub regrows and makes access difficult. |
|
AgKI |
Kangaroo Island |
Community resilience |
This project will establish an additional 7 soil probes across Kangaroo Island and make the data readily available to local farmers. An expanded soil probe network will enable farmers to make more informed decisions in an increasingly more variable climate, enabling them to maintain production and efficiently. |
|
Bugga Bugga Creek & Timber Creek Landcare Group |
Haines/Macgillivray |
Infrastructure |
Feasibility study to utilise the new seawater desalinisation plant and pipeline from Penneshaw to Kingscote being built later this year. This project will improve farmers productivity and profitability by reducing the risk of lack of access to stock water plus provide access to water for firefighting purposes in the Haines/MacGillivray area. |
|
Private landholder |
Stokes Bay |
Infrastructure |
The installation of an on-farm poultry micro abattoir is an innovative idea that enables the processing of a range of poultry species on Kangaroo Island. |
|
AgKI/SARDI |
Kangaroo Island |
Other |
This project aims to develop an innovative solution that can be used to manage high oestrogenic subterranean clovers (sub-clover, Trifolium subterraneum) that are responsible for reducing sheep fertility on Kangaroo Island, as well as other broadleaf weeds that have become widespread following recent severe bushfires. |
|
AgKI/Stephanie Wurst |
Kangaroo Island |
Pest control |
A program that incentivises farmers to trap and remove feral cats from their properties through education and collaborative trapping efforts. |