Read our latest news, keep up-to-date with our activities, and review our research and technical papers for findings.
In 2020, QTFN moved to implement the Accounting for Nature® Framework model at Aroona Station – a scientifically credible and trusted natural capital accounting standard used to measure the condition of environmental assets and inform investment and management decisions. As an approved provider of co-benefit verification under the Land Restoration Fund, Accounting for Nature® is […]
Aroona Station features around 200 hectares of core habitat for the vulnerable brush-tailed rock-wallaby. In 2020, as part of our ongoing research into these unique Aroona residents, we completed our third year of breeding season monitoring programs using motion-sensitive wildlife cameras strategically positioned in known brush-tailed rock-wallaby hang outs. The monitoring program again showed Aroona […]
As the carbon offset or carbon farming market grows in its maturity, there is considerable interest in how biodiversity co-benefits can be harnessed and developed as a complementary market. QTFN’s Counting the Co-Benefits project will demonstrate how landholders can create a sustainable agribusiness by leveraging environmental markets to diversify their revenue streams. This initiative is […]
In November last year, Traditional Owner Samarla Deshong spent a week on Avoid Island with QTFN’s Dr Renee Rossini. Samarla and Renee spent time walking the island, which is on Koinmerburra saltwater country, identifying plants and setting up direct seeding experiments across the island. Samarla shared her knowledge of traditional uses of the plants, bush […]
In 2020, QTFN wrapped up a three-year weed and marine debris clean-up project supported by a Queensland Department of Environment and Science Community Sustainability Action grant. With the assistance of volunteers, we have reduced the presence of the invasive Mossman River grass (Cenchrus echinatus) year-on-year, ending the program with a 99 per cent reduction in […]
Avoid Island’s unique combination of fruit-rich coastal scrub, open eucalypt woodland, mangrove and tidal flats, provides habitat for an estimated 84 species of migratory and resident birds. In the last half of 2020, experts from the Mackay chapter of BirdLife and the Queensland Wader study group joined us on the island to document bird diversity. […]
Mysterious and majestic, flatback turtles are the only sea turtle to nest solely on Australian shores and Avoid Island is one of four island rookeries favoured by the turtle’s southern population. In 2020: More than 108 turtles had nested on the island at the start of the October to December 2020 nesting season, laying an […]
In December 2020, QTFN and its project partners, Koinmerburra Aboriginal Corporation and Mackay and District Turtle Watch, were awarded a $200,000 grant from the Great Barrier Reef Foundation Reef Islands Initiative. The grant provides funding for the joint delivery of land management, education and threatened species research outcomes over a four-year period, and a part-time […]
A major highlight for QTFN during 2020 was establishing and strengthening our relationship with the Traditional Owners of Avoid Island, the Koinmerburra people. Together with the Koinmerburra Aboriginal Corporation, we are developing a Memorandum of Understanding which will see us embrace a two ways land management approach on the island. Work has commenced on the […]
As we increase the habitat for koalas at QTFN’s Koala Crossing, we are also creating habitat for a host of other native species. In 2020, with funding from the WIRES Landcare Wildlife Relief and Recovery Grants Program, we installed 40 nesting boxes and water drinking stations across the property. The nesting boxes, which were made […]
QTFN’s trial roll out of the award-winning Accounting for Nature® Framework at Koala Crossing provided an initial Environmental Condition Index (EcondTM) score/s for the property in 2020. A score between 0 and 100 that describes the condition of the asset relative to its undegraded state, early estimates of the the Econd™ for Koala Crossing point […]
QTFN’s research partnership with the University of Queensland’s Koala Ecology Group is providing vital information on the movements, health and habits of the koala population at Koala Crossing. Data from Spot Assessment Technique (SAT) surveys conducted in 2015 and 2019 show Koala Crossing’s koala population has increased in density, with the proportion of sites with […]
