Project has an inclusive approach
The Burdekin Landscape Repair project’s inclusive approach, particularly in integrating Traditional Owners and FIrst Nations groups, is vital for ensuring cultural sensitivity and long-term success in reducing sediment runoff from reaching the Great Barrier Reef.
Traditional Owner representatives sit on the Regional Steering Committee, Regional Working Group and Tender Evaluation Panel. Refer to the Governance and Guidance section for more information about the governance structure.
By involving the region’s Traditional Owners — including the NQ Dry Tropics Traditional Owner Management Group — throughout every phase, the project aims to foster trust and ensure that restoration efforts are aligned with the cultural and environmental priorities of the Traditional Owners.
This collaborative model, which brings together grazing land managers, contractors, Traditional Owners, and the wider community, creates a strong foundation for achieving environmental and economic goals. The integration of Traditional Owners’ perspectives ensures that landscape interventions respect heritage while addressing key issues such as sediment reduction.
The project’s focus on building regional capacity — through training and expanding the local contractor base — supports the sustainability of these efforts.
This strengthens the local economy and equips the community with the skills needed to continue landscape restoration and sediment reduction well beyond the project’s timeline, creating lasting environmental benefits for the region.
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Key initiatives in the Burdekin region include:
Cultural Heritage
This project is engaging Traditional Owners to conduct heritage assessment across project sites ensuring development doesn’t cause inadvertent harm to cultural, historical, and archaeological sites and artefacts.
Building capacity
NQ Dry Tropics hosted VegCAT and Photo Point monitoring training for Traditional Owners and First Nations groups of the Burdekin Dry Tropics region at Mt Pleasant Station, near Bowen.
