Conservation on a Cattle Station ft. Garry Riggs, Lakefield Station

When Garry Riggs and his family acquired Lakefield Station in 1999, it was a bare block.

Located on the Sturt Plateau, Northern Territory, Lakefield is home to savannah bushland, floodplains, swamplands and freshwater lakes, with an annual average rainfall of 800mm, delivered often in a tropical wet season.

As development infrastructure to support cattle production on the 58,000 hectare property progressed, so did the development of conservation sites.

In this episode Garry shares his experience of working with Territory Natural Resource Management over the past decade on two projects – a Territory Conservation Agreement, and a Practice Change Partnership.

A Territory Conservation Agreement supports land managers to protect areas of conservation importance on their properties.

They are a 10-year voluntary agreements between Territory Natural Resource Management (TNRM) and a land manager. The program is supported through funding from the Australian Government's National Landcare Program. The agreement is a contract, but it is not registered upon the title of the property or binding to future owners.

My name is Steph Coombes, and for this episode I travelled to Lakefield Station to learn about the TCA and PCP projects.

Just a heads up – this episode was recorded at the homestead, so you might hear some authentic background noise from time to time.

This episode is supported by the Australian Government's National Landcare Program.