Land and Water Link

September 2002

Mallee project Wins National Landcare Award

The Mallee Sustainable Farming project, with major scientific inputs by David Roget and Gupta Vadakattu and technical assistance from Bill Davoren and John Coppi – all from CSIRO Land and Water – has won the BHP Billiton National Landcare Award for scientific research. This follows wins for the project in the South Australian and Victorian State finals for the same category.

Mallee Sustainable Farming Project Inc is a community organisation formed in 1997 to enable the improvement in the sustainability and profitability of farming in the mallee of New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. Marion Murphy, CEO of Mallee Sustainable Farming Inc, says ‘The organisation has had fantastic support from CSIRO as well as the University of South Australia and state government agencies in three states.

This award follows the NRE Hugh McKay Science award, and the River Murray Catchment Environment Awards. We also made the finals of the Banksia Environmental Awards.’ The Mallee Sustainable Farming Inc has a further three years of funding from the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

The project has also been supported by the Natural Heritage Trust, Landcare Australia, Primary Industries and Resources SA, Natural Resources and Environment (Victoria), Land and Water Conservation (NSW), NSW Agriculture, South Australian Research and Development Institute and Pivot Agriculture.