Managing Crown Land for the Community
See what we have been up to below
💧The Opal Reserve has completed the installation of water storage for the Grawin community for bushfire preparation💧
🔥This will assist the Grawin Club in the Scrub, as they have been nominated as a Neighbourhood Safer Place (NSP) by the local Bushfire Management Committee for the opal fields community.
🔥The Grawin Community will now have water in readiness for emergencies in a long-lasting asset.
💰This purchase was only possible through the use of grant funding from Community Building Partnerships 2022.
👍Thanks to our local member Roy Butler MP for allocating us funding and supporting us with amendments for this purchase.
👍Thanks to PW Concrete and Gravel for prepping and installing the pad.
👍Thanks to Kingspan Water tanks for installing the tank.
👍Thanks to Rod for carting water to fill up the tank for use.
❌Removing livestock from the Reserve is an illegal offence❌
Any unauthourised activity such as mustering or livestock poaching will be reported to the Rural Crime Investigators.
All stock on the Reserve is property of Crown Lands and the Crown Land Manager.
If you see any illegal activity, be sure to notify the Land Manager on 0457 203 814 Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
The memorial for Captain Leo Fransen was held recently out at Glengarry.
Family members of Capt. Leo Fransen attended along with members from Diamond Beach Brigade, our local brigade members, and other official RFS representatives, along with local paramedics and members of the local community.
There was a brief laying of a wreath ceremony at the site followed by a plaque unveiling at the Sheepayrd's War Memorial.
Big thank you to the Glengarry RFS Captain Paul, for preparing and creating the site.
Big thank you to Sheepyard War Memorial for the plaque installation.
Big thank you to RFS for organising the tribute and for their continual community support.
🌵Hudson Pear is everywhere, but things are happening!! We are on the ground doing our best to control it. So too are CMCC, LLS and landholders across the Shire.
🌵Spraying is one of the control methods we use on the Reserve.
🌵We operate our weed management plan with grant funding, which can only stretch so far.
🌵Look out for us in the field as we spray Hudson Pear near you!
🌵🌵🌵The Reserve team have been out spraying Harrisia and Hudson Pear🌵🌵🌵
💰We have been able to use our equipment which was acquired through grant funding within Crown Lands, known as the Crown Reserve Improvement Fund or CRIF.
🛺The equipment includes an Ultra-light Utility Vehicle, Spray Reels and devices known as Ultra Flow Trackers or UFTs, made by Rapid Logix at Rapid Spray.
🗺All spray work is GPS logged, weather data is captured simultaneously, and quantities of chemical products discharged for the day are calculated.
🐛The bio-control for Hudson Pear, known as the cochineal bug, has been showing good results recently in distribution and effectiveness.
🌵We are collecting from field nurseries that have critical mass cochineal to harvest and spread to areas heavily infested with Hudson Pear on the Reserve.
🐛The bio-control practice is used in conjunction with spraying, as both are necessary to assist in the control and spread of Husdon Pear.
🌵We have mapped out release site areas and will monitor its progress over the coming months as the cochineal breeding cycle increases.
🔥Mitigation crews from RFS were out at Grawin clearing the area around the Club in the Scrub to make it suitable as a Neighbourhood Safer Place (NSP).
🔥NSPs are used when all other options in your bushfire survival plan can't be put into action safely.
🔥This mitigation work is underway protecting the community at Grawin for the next bushfire season.
👥The Reserve teamed up with Castlereagh Macquarie County Council for field inspections to see how the biocontrol was working to control Hudson Pear.
👍Great results were seen, with critical mass of the cochineal bug prevalent across large areas of infestations.
🐛These areas will be utilised as field nurseries to collect from and to then redistribute to heavily infested areas.
🌵This is a great result considering how serious the Hudson Pear threat for the North West is and we look forward to monitoring its progress.
👏Great work from Castlereagh Macquarie County Council, Department of Primary Industries, Local Land Services and everyone else involved in the program.
🔥The Opal Reserve had a visit from Crown Lands, Rural Fire Service and Soil Conservation Service to assess the bushfire risks and the mitigation plan for the next 5 years.
🔥This meeting was actioned after Lightning Ridge had been identified as a 'Focus Area' by the Bushfire Management Committee (BFMC) of the North West Region, which the Opal Reserve is a member of.
🔥This tour took us across the 20,000ha of land we manage from Lightning Ridge, Glengarry, Coocoran and Allawah, all of which had varying degrees of bushfire risk.
🔥Within the mitigation plan are hazard reductions, strategic fire trails and asset protection zones mapped for the entire community.
🔥These will all be reassessed frequently to determine the ongoing risk and if it is been managed effectively.