6. Tasmanian Midlands - To The Rescue/Help At Hand
Farmers Profiles
Julian von Bibra
If you are wearing a woollen jumper there is a high chance it comes from a sheep shorn in Australia, the world’s biggest producer of wool. If you are wearing merino it could come from Ross in the Midlands, the heart of Tasmania’s fine merino wool production that dates back to the 1800’s. Tasmania has a population of half a million people and 2.2 million sheep.
Julian von Bibra is a fifth generation sheep farmer of Beaufront at Ross. His family have lived on the property for over 100 years. “My great-grandfather purchased the property in 1916. So we've had it passed down through four generations of the family," he said. "So we have this enormous connection with the land and you see big changes over time.”
Julian says that after a hundred years, he feels immensely connected after four generations. A relatively short time compared to Julian two hundred years ago when the Palawa people had over 40,000 years of connection. Rich waterways and remnant stands of big old growth trees show what the landscape may have looked like before European agriculture. An Aboriginal stone quarry is scattered with sharp tools where Aborigines made and exchanged with meeting tribes. It is overlooked by big sandstone caves with devil scats and views to the mountains.
There is open woodland that has been burned according to Aboriginal methods.
Julian and Annabel von Bibra are excited about restoring the biodiversity of the Midlands while successfully farming merino sheep. On this agricultural land you will see native grasslands with waving red kangaroo grass and silver tussock. The von Bibra property is habitat for the endangered Tasmanian devil, bettongs, bandicoots and spotted-tail quoll.
The family is supporting the health of the Midland’s ecosystem along the Macquarie River with plantings as part of the biggest riparian (riverside) restoration in Australia. "This area has been put aside for conservation. It has been so rewarding to see the plantings grow tall and dense. One of the best outcomes of the plantings has been seeing the local wildlife return. We have noticed an extensive wombat burrow network on a sandstone terrace overlooking the river. This species has been under threat in many parts of Tasmania, so supporting a healthy Midlands population is a great result.”
The Von Bibras are part of a broad partnership with landholders who have recreated more than 6000 hectares of new habitat by planting trees and understorey plants in the Midlands. This Greening Australia project has created natural corridors for native wildlife to cross the paddocks across farms in the region. The vision is to link the Eastern and the Western tier," Julian said. "It is planting out wildlife corridors giving rare and threatened species the ability to move safely through the landscape, to ensure they can adapt to climate change. "They can migrate through these corridors and find food and shelter."
Planting can be expensive with the need to cage plants to protect them from deer and rabbits. The von Bibra property has been used for direct seeding trials where seeds are sown directly into the ground and covered with a variety of netting and plastic protection.
Looking to the future, Julian von Bibra said as a landowner he had become a "small part of the solution in responding to climate change and the human impact and on biodiversity.”
In addition to managing extensive areas of native vegetation, Julian has been working with the State Government, the University of Tasmania and Greening Australia to revegetate degraded riparian vegetation, including climate-ready plantings. Recent projects on the farm have investigated the impact of fragmentation on the distribution of critical weight-range mammals across the property and the role of landscape fire for conservation outcomes, as well as an exploration of how architecture and art can be used to communicate and reinstate the importance of ecology in agricultural landscapes to the general public.
“Two hundred years ago, they had over 40,000 years of connection. Now, after a hundred years, you know, I feel immensely connected after four generations.”
Henry Foster
Naturalist and farmer, Henry Foster has been absorbed and enamoured with the Midlands region from his earliest memories. Exploring all the nooks and crannies of his family farm as a boy, he kept a close eye on how the landscape has changed and evolved in his lifetime focussed on his Midlands farm of Mertonvale. Henry has been a sheep farmer for many years, aiming to maintain a healthy balance of grasslands and woodlands. Famously friendly and generous with his time, Henry has hosted many community events, research endeavours and restoration efforts at Mertonvale.
In recent years Henry had noticed that the number of wallabies in the landscape has reached a very high number. He reflects on the impact the facial tumour disease has on the devil population, so that the wallabies continue to breed without any pressure from their main predator. Additionally he has observed how the number of deer, previously never sighted on Mertonvale, have continued to grow in the area.
As a keen community-minded man Henry led ‘Big Nights Out’ at Mertonvale. Henry guided everyone through the landscape, passing on his immense knowledge of the region. Henry’s enthusiasm for increasing community awareness and participation in landscape restoration sets an amazing example for us all.
Rae Young
Rae Young is a botanist and landholder at Lewisham, a sheep farm just off the Midlands Highway south of Campbell Town. Rae loves plants, especially the little paper daisies and ground covers. She has established a nursery on her property to grow thousands of native plants from local seed for biodiversity on the farm. She has welcomed students to help her plant on her property and run workshops at the local school on seed germination. Students are growing the plants to sow back on Lewisham. Rae acknowledges that she is the caretaker of the land just as the Palawa people cared for it for over 35,000 years. Rae hosted an Aboriginal Immersion Day with Aboriginal students who hugged the old growth trees and put their heads into the big wombat burrows on her farm before planting seedlings. Many student teams have helped Rae plant natives to help restore the under-storey biodiversity and help to create a healthy future for the farm.
Roderic and Kate O’Connor
Roderic and Kate O’Connor see themselves as custodians of the land continually protecting and improving its native vegetation, grasslands and apply similar principles in the improved grazing country so that their children – Philippa, India and Lachlan – may continue to enjoy it for generations to come.
Roderic is a direct descendent of his fore-father Roderic O’Connor who arrived in Tasmania on the Argent from Ireland in 1824. His property Connorville covers 18000 hectares. Today this has commercial forests, sheep grazing, bushruns and native grasslands. 3500 ha is protected for its carbon storage value as trees in the ground. 1500 ha is a working forest with lower quality, harvestable trees and shelter country. 4000 ha is in perpetual covenants for conservation.
O’Connor sees his role as a nature conservationist not just as an aside to his profession as a wool grower, but complementary in every respect. “The only way to do that, to get more production out of your [sheep] stock,” he says, “is to look after your land and look after the animals. By increasing the quality and quantity of grass, the sheep grow better with more wool”
It will take my entire life to get things set up so that I can pass onto my children something that’s better than what I inherited,” he says. “Climate change means the management of the land is really, really difficult, but through soil conservation and grassland conservation, the planting of new trees, then we can hopefully help to halt some of that change by lessening its impact on us and what we do here.”
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the original owners, the Palawa people and the use and crossing of the Midlands where we meet with our partners to share, learn and raise awareness about the land:
Paredarerme nation people, Laremairremener and Poredareme tribes, Luggermairrerpairrer tribe and the Tyrrernotepanner tribe
