GRASS project a ‘leg-up’ for couple wrestling land back from weeds
Eddy Croker and Jo Vance photographed on the wall of the biggest of three dams on their Charters Towers block.
Each time they pull out another bellyache bush from their 250 acre block near Charters Towers Eddy Croker and Jo Vance are proving the truth of the tenet that drives them.
“Anything is possible, if you’re willing to put the energy into it,” Jo said.
They’re proving the truth of that as they work to turn the vision they had for the weed-choked block when they bought it.
They have slashed, mulched, ploughed, ripped, graded and sprayed a lot of energy into their block, mostly clearing bellyache bush and rubber vine, but also repairing dams, and building fences and other infrastructure.
While they slogged away knocking the land into shape for the past two and a half years, there was also the small task of building somewhere to live.
For a long time, they lived exclusively in their semi-trailer mobile home, focusing all their energy on unveiling what they knew would be productive land beneath the fence-to-fence weeds in every paddock.
Eventually, they were able to put some work into their dwelling overlooking one of the paddocks they’ve already cleared. It’s resting this wet season to give pasture a chance to establish.
Very early in the mission, Eddy and Jo approached NQ Dry Tropics to get involved in the Grazing Resilience and Sustainable Solutions (GRASS) project.
Senior Grazing Field Officer Cameron Sims, with Eddy and Jo compiled a land management action plan identifying those areas of the block with poor, or degraded land that needed attention.
To help them achieve the management changes outlined in the plan, they applied for funding to help them with watering points, including a tank, pump and pipe to move the water between the three new troughs.
GRASS also supported them with fencing to exclude cattle to prevent erosion damage around the biggest of the three dams.
Jo said the new infrastructure helped them establish a grazing regime whereby most of the property was being rested at any one time.
They have bowled over the majority of the rubber vine and bellyache bush in most paddocks.
Jo’s dad Lenny, driving his dozer, pushed the bulk of it into heaps for burning with Eddy on the grader coming in behind to scrape away the shallow roots of those missed by the dozer.
Eddy Croker and Jo Vance… every time they move through a paddock, it’s an opportunity to pull bellyache shoots before they’re properly established.
NQ Dry Tropics Senior Grazing Officer Cameron Sims, left, with Eddy Croker assess the job ahead at the top of property the couple had not yet tackled.
They followed that by spraying metsulfuron to catch any stubborn shoots before spreading a pasture mix including buffel, panic, lucerne, millet, rhodes and signal grass, burgundy bean, a couple of stylos and sorghum.
Along with the native grasses coming through, it’s yielding a productive and diverse mix, but even in areas cleared of weeds two years ago, Eddy and Jo find they are stopping every few metres to pull out yet another young bellyache plant and identifying young rubber vine plants to be sprayed.
“The bellyache has really shallow roots and, particularly after rain, they’re easy to pull out,” Eddy said. “It’s just that you have to keep doing it.”
They have some Brahman-cross steers on the place now, some of the calves from their 150-strong breeder herd agisted on Nunkumbil Station near Belyando.
The infrastructure improvements they were able to make with the help from the GRASS program will enable them to rest most of the property for most of the time.
The 250 acres they’re lovingly bringing into prime condition at the Towers represents a few ambitions for the couple who have been together for more than 30 years.
The first paddock “rescued” from beneath the bellyache bush and rubber vine. It has been seeded with a mixed pasture and will be rested through the coming wet season to give the new plants a chance to get established.
“We travelled for years, doing all sorts of things, mostly rural work, but we always wanted to have a home,” Jo said.
Their strangest job was not too long ago. They were employed — at what seemed like film star rates — to drive a film crew around as a series of an American television survival-type show was shot in the wild country around the Towers.
Mostly though, their work was as contract musterers, fencers, mechanics … anything they could turn their hands to.
This block of red dirt outside Charters Towers, however, changed all that. They fell in love with it, even under its cloak of bellyache bush and rubber vine and obvious shortcomings in terms of water.
They sold a proportion of their precious breeder herd to purchase the block and they set to work determined to remain debt free while still pushing forward with what needed to be done.
“This is us stopped and settled though,” Jo said.
“It will be a really, really good place when we’re finished.”
When will they be finished?
By Jo’s reckoning, they will be finished:
- When they have a veranda they’re both happy with (there have been three in almost as many years so far);
- on a house that is pretty much complete;
- when the bellyache and rubber vine battle is largely won; and
- having healed their little patch of country, Eddy can concentrate on his real passion: healing people.
Judging by the spectacular outlook from Veranda 3.0, the block will be an integral part in that endeavour.
The Grazing Resilience and Sustainable Solutions (GRASS) program is funded through the Queensland Government’s Queensland Reef Water Quality Program and delivered by NQ Dry Tropics and the Department of Primary Industries.
The view the couple used to have of the paddock pictured above…. fence to fence bellyache bush and rubbervine.
NQ Dry Tropics Senior Grazing Field Officer Cameron Sims at one of the new watering points installed to help Eddy Croker and Jo Vance move cattle around the block for the purpose of resting paddocks.
More reading and resources about this project
GRASS a helping hand
The Grazing Resilience and Sustainable Solutions (GRASS) program is aimed at helping beef producers improve areas of poor or degraded land condition.
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