July 2004

In a first for north Australia, a comprehensive and integrated guide to managing for healthy rangelands in a tropical Australian river catchment has just been released.

At more than 240 pages, Healthy Rangelands: Principles for Sustainable Systems, Focus on Australia’s Burdekin Rangelands , brings together an extensive array of information on land use, management and biophysical systems in the Burdekin catchment of north Queensland.

The book combines scientific information from a variety of sources, including the Tropical Savannas CRC, Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries and Environmental Protection Agency in Queensland, CSIRO and James Cook University.

Co-editor Marnie McCullough, a DPI&F extension officer, said the book was an attempt to bring together a host of scientific research and present it as useful recommendations to researchers, students, local government, land managers and natural resource management groups.

“Information is presented in a way that links sophisticated scientific insight with practical management approaches, focusing on the special features and challenges of the Burdekin catchment.”

Issues facing natural resource managers in the catchment are both localised, such as the long-term sustainability of the resource base for grazing and other land uses, and external, such as the relationship between the catchment and the neighbouring Great Barrier Reef lagoon.

CEO of the Tropical Savannas CRC, Prof. Gordon Duff, said the book will make a valuable contribution to a shared vision for healthy savannas.

“It will contribute to the leading role of the Burdekin catchment in mapping out a sustainable future for Australia’s savanna regions,” he said.

Healthy Rangelands: Principles for Sustainable Systems, Focus on Australia’s Burdekin Rangelands will be launched at the Australian Rangelands Conference in Alice Springs on July 5.

It is available to purchase for $49.95 from the Queensland Government Bookshop; see link at right, or Phone DPI&F: 13 25 23 (toll-free). Or you can purchase from the Tropical Savannas CRC, click here to go to our Publications section.