About the Hopkins River Restoration Project
(Officially called "Landscape-scale remediation of Western District agricultural properties - project #08/640".)

This Project has brought together three farmers, scores of community volunteers, 18,500 trees and over 20km of fencing to give one of Australia's most pressured landscapes a fighting chance to recover.

Funding from the Australian Government enabled Conservation Volunteers Australia and Conservation Enterprises Unlimited to plan and manage the Project, creating significant improvements to soil health, water quality and the connectivity of native vegetation. By re-establishing a large number of trees and other native plants, the Project is also an investment in future mitigation of the water-table induced salinity that is already common in the region.

The turnout so far has been amazing. Community volunteers contributed about 500 days, or 15000 volunteer hours assistance in activities such as fencing and tree-planting. The farmers - Jim Cochran, Peter Coy and Andrew McDonald - have all put in considerable amounts of their own time (and money) to transform the Project from a collection of worthwhile activities, to one that is now delivering exceptional results.

Now, the Hopkins River, Bushy Creek and other surrounding areas of the catchment are all better protected. Cattle can no longer access waterways where they contributed to much soil erosion. Native vegetation has a chance to e-establish, forming a corridor along the Hopkins River. And the dwindling roadside vegetation of the Dundas Tablelands has made its first tentative steps towards expansion again.

Another exciting part of the project has involved the use of EnSym, a catchment management scenario generator. EnSym is an innovative piece of software that allows actual or proposed land-surface changes (eg, plant a tree, exclude stock from an area etc) to be factored into expert decision support systems, and to then describe quantitative changes to connected land attributes (such as soil mobility, dissolved nutrient movement and carbon sequestration rates). Conservation Enterprises Unlimited is working under licence with the Victorian Government's ecoMarkets group to use and test EnSym as an adjunct to the Project.

Many people have assisted with the project, including a stand-out contribution by local agronomist Jo Fay. Jo's commitment to a productive and sustainable landscape is apparent in all her work and she has been a strong and important contributor to the Project over its lifetime.

If you would like to know more about the Project, contact Patrick O'Callaghan at Conservation Enterprises Unlimited in Victoria, Australia on tel.+61.(0)430.22.4343