17 March 2026. John Baker, Central Queensland Regional Director.
What a start to the year we've had in Central Queensland.
Flash flooding in January from ex-tropical Cyclone Koji cut off the small community of Clermont for a number of days. Dozens of properties were without power, stock losses were reported and about 60 homes were affected, with helicopters coming in to assist those people who were stranded.
Isaac Regional Council invited the Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins for a tour recently to see how the area has bounced back, and where work still needs to be done.
While the Minister was in town AgForce was able to have a chat with her about the changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act and how that's potentially going to massively affect our agricultural producers.
She was very attentive and understanding of the issues that we raised. So that was encouraging.
We also had discussions with the Minister about the challenges of roads and telecommunications out our way, and also the interesting issue of how to get young people back into agriculture. What pathways do we need to create for that to happen - an agricultural apprenticeship perhaps? We need to encourage more young people to move into agriculture and come to the bush.
We also hosted the Federal Environment and Water Minister Murray Watt for a visit to David Hill's property Clarkwood at Clarke Creek in February. Minister Watt made a few promises about improvements they were going to make to the EPBC legislation to make it a bit easier to get along with. But we're still waiting to see that detail in writing. It was great to get some clarity from Minister Watt on the changes, and show him the actual implications these changes to the EPBC Act will have on the ground.
Also on the good news front we've seen some improvements around pasture dieback that our reference group has been looking at for five years or so now.
We've confirmed that it's mealybugs that are causing the dieback. We've identified a few different treatments, with an emphasis now on trying to plant pasture and grasses that are resistant to dieback. Some of it entails putting fertiliser out and ploughing all the pasture that's infected, then taking out and replanting with a different pasture, but obviously that approach isn't going to suit everywhere.
So there's a few options for people to have a look at and see what might work in their circumstances.
