Sediment runoff is highly visible. Dirty brown river water funnelling into the ocean is evidence of a problem, whether that’s a collapsed streambank, gully erosion or runoff from urban development. But when it comes to two other land-based pollutants – nutrients and pesticides – we are dealing with something that’s invisible.

And that’s where local-scale water monitoring comes into play. Up until recently, most water monitoring results were amassed from a large area with lots of different users and uses. They provided the big picture but were too large-scale to be practical for farmers.

Now projects in the Tully, Johnstone and Murray River catchments include many different types of monitoring – from sub-catchment and shallow groundwater to paddock run-off and on-the-spot nitrate monitoring. There’s also sampling during heavy rainfall events and in-stream continuous monitoring. Together, it’s giving farmers direct and highly relevant feedback on the impact for waterways of land management practices.

Alicia Buckle, Water Quality Science Leader at Terrain NRM, says local scale monitoring is building trust among landholders in water quality science.

“We’ve been presenting data to farmers in shed meetings in these catchments for five years now. We’ve all got to know each other, and there’s a better understanding of both water quality concepts and farmers’ challenges.

“We design our programs around the farmers’ needs. They know we are genuinely interested in working with them to help create a sustainable farm business as well as a healthy reef.”

Deb Telford, Extension Coordinator at Innisfail Canegrowers, says local scale water quality monitoring has been invaluable to extension officers working with farmers to make land management practice changes.

“Growers are always asking whether what they are doing on farm is making a difference, and rightly so. In times gone past, they only had access to a very broad data set which didn’t drill down into their farming area.

“Having this locally relevant data, which specifically details water quality trends in their own district’s creeks and rivers, provides greater conviction that what growers are doing is in fact making a difference.”

The initiative is also beginning to bring good results for waterways. Alicia says the local scale monitoring data corroborates results from the larger scale Paddock to Reef Integrated Monitoring, Modelling and Reporting Program, and is starting to show positive trends.

“Over time we are seeing a downward trend in pesticide runoff in our local scale monitoring,” she says.

“As a scientist, there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing your work create practical change for the better. I’d be happy working on projects like this for the rest of my career – working with people and doing science that is useful and practical to them.”

This program is funded by the partnership between the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Queensland Government.

Photos: Queensland Government.