Fencing, pipeline and water mean grazing can be rotated for future benefit
For George and Marion Whalan, looking after the land at Ukalunda Station is about more than managing cattle — it’s about setting the property up for the future.
Located near the Burdekin Dam, approximately 80 km south-west of Collinsville, the 7,100-hectare property supports a mixed herd of Brahman, Brangus, Charolais and Santa Gertrudis cattle.
With their daughter Julie, the family manages a diverse landscape of alluvial flats, ironbark country, box country and rocky hills within the Sellheim River catchment.
Like many graziers across the Burdekin, the Whalans understand that healthy landscapes underpin productive grazing businesses.
In recent years they noticed parts of Paddock 1 were showing signs of decline due to preferential grazing, particularly on the more productive pulled flats where cattle repeatedly returned to graze the same areas.
Monitoring data confirmed the issue, with sections of the paddock recording low land condition scores, reduced pasture diversity and a dominance of Indian couch. In contrast, the less accessible rocky country retained stronger pasture biomass, better ground cover and a healthier mix of pasture species.
Rather than accepting the decline, the Whalans chose to invest in practice change to improve the way the paddock was managed.
Through the Grazing Resilience and Sustainable Solutions (GRASS) project, Paddock 1 was divided into two smaller paddocks with the installation of 1.8km of fencing, 1.2km of pipeline, a water tank and two troughs, enabling the adoption of a rotational grazing system.
Julie said the changes were designed to spread grazing pressure more evenly across the landscape while providing longer recovery periods for pasture.
“Cattle naturally prefer the flats, so we fenced the hill country to help manage grazing pressure and encourage them to utilise other areas of the paddock,” Julie said.
“Rotational grazing allows us to move stock around, make better use of the younger green feed on the hills, and give pastures time to spell and recover.
“We also installed additional water points on both sides of the fence to help spread stock more evenly,” Julie said.
The new layout works alongside the neighbouring paddock as part of a three-paddock rotation system, increasing pasture rest periods by around 60 days. During the wet season, when pastures are actively growing, grazing periods can remain relatively short, while longer dry season rotations can be carefully managed to avoid overgrazing.
Julie said recent seasonal conditions had highlighted the benefits of the approach.
“We’ve had a couple of good wet seasons and we’ve seen good amounts of seca stylo and speargrass,” she said.
“By rotating mobs through the paddocks, we can give pastures a chance to rest, grow thicker, and create opportunities for more desirable species to establish.”
For the Whalans, the changes were about improving productivity and long-term sustainability.
“The whole system is designed around improving our grass,” Julie said.
“Better pasture means better ground cover, more productive cattle and greater resilience during dry periods. It also helps reduce erosion and protect the soil when the wet season arrives.”
The motivation behind the changes was clear, to improve productivity, make the property easier to manage and ensure the land is in better condition for future generations.
By increasing pasture recovery time and improving grazing distribution, the project is expected to improve ground cover, increase pasture biomass and improve land condition across previously degraded areas. Healthier ground cover also plays an important role in reducing erosion and sediment movement during rainfall events.
With Ukalunda sitting within the Sellheim River catchment, these improvements extend beyond the property boundary. Reducing sediment runoff helps protect downstream waterways, the Burdekin River system and ultimately the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.
The project highlights how practical infrastructure improvements and adaptive grazing management can support productive grazing enterprises and healthier, more resilient landscapes for the future.
The Charters Towers GRASS workshop was hosted by the Grazing Resilience and Sustainable Solutions (GRASS) project, funded through the Queensland Government’s Queensland Reef Water Quality Program and delivered by NQ Dry Tropics and the Department of Primary Industries. The Queensland Government’s Industry Recovery and Resilience Officer program, jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments under Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) also contributed to the delivery of this event.
The Bowen workshop was supported by the Landholders Driving Change (LDC2) project, funded by the Queensland Government through the Queensland Reef Water Quality Program, and the Burdekin Landscape Repair project, funded through the Australian Government’s Reef Trust program.
