Revegetation demonstration to manage watercourse erosion in the Barossa region

BIGG received a 25th Anniversary Landcare grant from the Federal Government to set up a demonstration site to compare how effective different plant communities are at stabilising watercourse banks.

The selected location is a winter stream which runs into the North Para that gets extremely boggy in winter months. BIGG is trialling four different options to see which will most effectively improve bank stabilisation. The site has been planted with the different vegetation systems; native grasses, shrubs and ground covers, hardy reeds and rushes, and a control area with restricted stock access.

The site (pictured), located on dairy farmers Ben and Murray Klemm’s property at Moculta, has been fenced 10 metres either side of the watercourse for 250 metres, to prevent stock access and pugging of the soil by cows. The first step after fencing was control of woody weeds such as briar rose, artichokes and thistles, after which planting commenced in July 2015.

This project is being run in conjunction with Natural Resources AMLR and Barossa Bushgardens.