How landscape boards can help

Do you look out at the beautiful landscape around you and wonder who is looking after this land?

There are nine landscape boards across South Australia who work with communities to look after our natural and productive landscapes.

Watch our video or read on to learn more about community members who have worked with their local landscape board to achieve great outcomes.

‘Our landscape board has enabled us to be able to look after the Fleurieu Swamps and add the indigenous values’ – Ngarrindjeri/Ramindjeri man, Mark Koolmatrie , Hills and Fleurieu

Mark is passionate about working with the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board to restore Aboriginal knowledge and values into the conservation and management of the swamps around Yundi – some of the most biodiverse and productive habitats on earth,and important to the survival of many rare and endangered species. The swamps have cultural significance for the Warki, Ramindjeri and Ngarrindjeri people and the project aims to restore understanding about the ecology as experienced and imagined by First Nation’s people from the eastern Fleurieu Peninsula and Lower Murray regions.

‘My landscape board’s Youth Environment Program is a great opportunity for me to give back to my school and community, learn about the environment and make a difference for our city’ – Hunter (with Oliver, Courtney, Lucy and Oscar), St John the Apostle School, Christies Beach

The Youth Environment Council (YEC) of South Australia gives young people a voice in environmental issues facing South Australia, and opportunities to take action to achieve a more environmentally sustainable future for SA.

Supported by Green Adelaide, it’s targeted at teens and pre-teens to boost their environmental knowledge and leadership skills through a fun camp, workshops, online forums and the delivery of an end-of-year environmental project.

Read 15-year-old Keira’s story about her involvement in the Youth Environment Council and the idea she had to help protect marine life on the east coast of Eyre Peninsula.

‘Our landscape board helped us on the path to regenerative grazing’ – James Wright, Buckleboo Station, South Australian Arid Lands

James Wright is the Business Development Manager for Buckleboo Station, set on 250,000 acres just north of Kimba. He credits his local landscape board with providing support for property management planning that’s resulted in a move to regenerative grazing practices and a more resilient, sustainable enterprise. But it didn’t stop there. The landscape board also supported a recent stickybeak day at Buckleboo, a proven way to share learnings with other farmers, aiming to encourage practices that increase productivity and sustainability.

See and hear more of the Buckleboo story

‘Our landscape board has helped us purchase tree guards, stakes and plants and develop habitat corridors along the Princes Highway’ – Paul Johnston, Kanmantoo-Callington Landcare Group, Murraylands and Riverland

The support of the local landscape board has allowed the Kanmantoo-Callington Landscare Group to build on a 15- year revegetation project to eradicate weeds and re-establish native vegetation along the Bremer River and the Callington Hill Grassland Reserve.

Funding from their landscape board has brought landholders and volunteers together to restore and revitalise native vegetation around Callington, improving habitat and attracting a more diverse range of native fauna to the local environment.

For the first time in several decades, red-capped robins have been spotted back in the district.

Learn more about the Grassroots Grants program that supports this kind of work across the state.

‘My local landscape board provided planning assistance and actual trees on-ground’ - Chris Heinjus, agribusiness consultant and farmer, Northern and Yorke

The 2015 Pinery fire burnt right up to Chris Heinjus’ home at Freeling. In the aftermath of the fire, it was important any revegetation was carefully planned. Chris’s local landscape board and their partners helped to tactically select native species that will help give some protection from future fire events while maintaining a vegetation profile consistent with our the landscape.

ABC interview: Recovering from Pinery: How re-planting has helped heal emotional and environmental scars from the blaze - ABC News

‘They help us look after Country for our future generations’ – Dale Furley, Ranger Coordinator, Far West Coast Aboriginal Corporation , Alinytjara Wiluṟara

The Far West Coast Aboriginal Corporation (FWCAC)is the entity that manages the Far West Coast land – the land between Western Australian border and Tarcoola to the north and around Streaky Bay to the south – representing the six cultural groups who hold the Native Title over that area.

Watch as a team led by Alintjara Wiluṟara Landscape Board ecologist Brett Backhouse, supported by rangers from the Far West Coast Aboriginal Corporation, head to remote Yellabinna to search for the elusive sandhill dunnart.

‘With the help of our local landscape board we won some major grants that will involve First Nations people in cultural burns’ – Robyn Campbell, CEO Burrandies Aboriginal Corporation, Limestone Coast

The Limestone Coast Landscape Board provided support to write the applications for this project, which also helped expand the First Nations labour hire crew for environmental projects such as weed control in scrubland and revegetation on Country.

The board is committed to walking with First Nations to manage the landscape, as demonstrated through the adoption of the Lartara-Wirkeri Cultural Governance framework which incorporates song and dance, hunt and gather, and ceremony and talk.

Find out more about First Nations engagement in the Limestone Coast region.

'The rabbits were just getting out of control’ – Cheryl Aitkinson, landholder, Eyre Peninsula

Cheryl and Steve Aitkinson were concerned about the damage feral rabbits were doing to their garden and local natural habitats, so they got in touch with their local landscape board who advised the best way to combat these pest animals.

The Aitkinsons helped to coordinate a group of people from their neighbourhood to bait rabbits at the same time using pindone carrots, with input from local landscape officers.

Cheryl and Steve are thrilled with the support they received – as well as seeing the regrowth of vegetation once it was no longer being destroyed by pest rabbits.

Find out more about pest rabbit control on the Eyre Peninsula.

More information

You can get in touch with your local landscape board for advice and support for managing pest animals – go to landscape.sa.gov.au to find contact details for your board.

Interested in the statewide picture of how landscape boards are working with communities to care for land, water and nature? Subscribe to keep up-to-date with news from SA’s nine landscape boards in one place.