AN initiative to improve the quality of the water flowing through Bathurst’s water catchment at Ben Chifley Dam has got the seal of approval from Bathurst Regional Council.
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Council will give a $7000 grant to John Owens of The Lagoon from its 2015 Land Improvement Awards program.
Mr Owens, who with his sons Dan and Steve runs the family property “Nanena”, also picked up a $10,000 grant from Local Land Services to further enhance and expand their initiative.
Their project is one of three council grants of up to $10,000 being made available to landholders in the region who commit to undertake activities on their property which ensure the maintenance or enhancement of the land’s ecological values, or the improvement and sustainability of their agricultural enterprises.
According to Dan Owens, their aim is to help revegetate an area of land in the Daveys Creek catchment which flows into the Campbells River downstream of the dam.
That water finds its way into the Macquarie River where it is pumped to the water filtration plant at Gormans Hill.
“Basically we want to do the work so we can put stock in the paddocks around Daveys Creek,” he said. “That means that during dry times we can leave land free of stock at the back of the dam where inflows occur instead of it being chewed up and degraded by sheep and cattle.”
Part of the Owens’ environmental initiative also includes constructing earth banks and sediment traps for as part of a confined stock management project.
The riparian management and sediment control project aims to preserve ground cover and ultimately help protect Bathurst’s water supply.
Members of the judging panel included councillor Jess Jennings, council’s manager of strategic planning Janet Bingham and Central Tablelands Local Land Services team leader Clayton Miller.
They inspected the three sites and said they were impressed with what they saw.
The standard of the three submissions was so high that the judging panel recommended council award funding to each of the project applicants.
Mr Owens said the project would also see major fencing undertaken as well as tree planting.
“It’s all about doing work to improve the quality of Bathurst’s water supply which we think is very important,” he said.
Council also awarded a Landcare grant to local couple Gina and David Sykes to create a series of corridors at their Eglinton property, complete with clump planting of native species.
They received $6500 towards creating these fenced corridors, ensuring stock can’t access the two gully areas, and creating designated crossings for horses.