The Reef protection regulations address land-based sources of water pollution flowing to the Great Barrier Reef. This includes agricultural and industrial sources of nutrient and sediment pollution from all six Reef regions —Cape York, Wet Tropics, Burdekin, Mackay Whitsunday, Fitzroy and Burnett Mary. The regulations are an action under the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan.
Over time, unsustainable grazing practices reduce pasture and ground cover which increases the risk of valuable topsoil being lost when it rains. Reduced ground cover also increases overland flow causing gully and streambank erosion and sediment and nutrient run-off to waterways.
The regulations for grazing focus on retaining and improving ground cover and land condition to minimise soil loss. Ground cover is a key indicator of land condition and refers to pasture plants, plant litter, tree leaf litter, twigs and woody debris that can protect the soil surface from erosion.
For more information on the impacts of nutrient and sediment run-off, visit threats to the Reef.
In the Cape York region, the Agricultural Environmentally Relevant Activity standard for beef cattle grazing does not apply as the water quality targets have been met in this region.
There are requirements for agricultural advisers, such as agronomists and fertiliser sellers, when providing tailored advice about matters covered by the Agricultural Environmentally Relevant Activity standards. For more information, visit requirements for advisers.
What do I need to do to comply with the Agricultural Environmentally Relevant Activity standard?
To comply with the standard, you must:
take actions to retain or improve land condition
make and keep records.
The standard does not mandate any particular action or measure for land management. Instead, graziers are required to determine their own action to improve land condition where land is in poor or degraded condition. Land condition is measured by the amount of ground cover at 30 September each year. On paddocks where ground cover is less than 50%, land is considered to be in poor condition, and less than 20% is considered degraded condition.
It is recognised that:
for some land types it may not be possible to achieve 50% ground cover at 30 September each year even when taking all reasonable steps
it may be impractical and cost prohibitive to improve some areas of very degraded land, e.g. severe gullying or scalded areas. If so, measures must be taken to prevent these areas from further degrading or expanding.
Records can be in any format but must be made within three business days and kept for at least six years.
Records need to be made available for inspection when requested by an authorised person such as a compliance officer from the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation. These records will be assessed to determine compliance with the standard conditions.
Information collected by the Queensland Government must only be collected, stored and used in accordance with the Information Privacy Act 2009. You can read more about the department’s privacy responsibilities.
How does compliance work?
The Queensland Government assesses compliance with the Reef protection regulations. For more information, visit compliance.
Other programs and support tools are provided by the Australian and Queensland governments and industry organisations to help graziers identify opportunities to improve farming practices. For more information, visit land management for graziers.
What must I do to convert grazing land to commercial cropping or horticulture?
Graziers may need to obtain an environmental authority (permit) before converting grazing land to commercial cropping or horticulture in a Reef region if the land will be on five hectares or more that does not have a cropping history.
A cropping history is when the land has been used for cropping or horticultural activities in at least three out of the last 10 years. There are transitional provisions that allow some extra time to develop a cropping history for any cropping that only started in the three years prior to 1 June 2021.
Detailed overview of the Reef protection regulations for graziers in the Wet Tropics, Burdekin, Mackay Whitsunday, Fitzroy and Burnett Mary regions.
Duration 0:02:12
Reef protection regulations apply to all beef cattle graziers across the Wet Tropics, Burdekin, Mackay Whitsunday, Fitzroy and Burnett Mary regions.
If you’re a beef cattle grazier in one of these regions, you need to comply with the regulations.
Here’s a quick run-down – but more detailed information is available online by searching ‘Reef regulations’ or calling 13 QGOV, that’s 13 74 68.
Firstly, ground cover is important under the regulations.
Good ground cover is desirable at all times of year. But closer to the onset of the wet season is when it’s most important for water quality. The regulations reference the 30th of September each year for measuring ground cover.
The regulations require grazing land with less than 50 per cent ground cover at this date to be managed to increase ground cover.
How you do this is up to you, but it must be something that will go towards improving ground cover, such as wet season spelling, or adjusting stock or watering points to manage grazing pressure.
Whilst the regulations don’t stipulate stocking rates or land management plans, these may be of benefit to you.
For some areas of very degraded or gullied land with less than 20 per cent ground cover, it may be too expensive or too impractical to fix, instead you need to manage these areas so they don’t increase in size or get worse.
Secondly, you must keep records.
You need to record what actions you take to maintain and improve your ground cover, as well as any action you take to prevent degraded areas getting worse.
If you apply fertiliser products, you also need to record this.
How you keep records is up to you, but they must detail the particulars of the grazing activity, as well as what and where action has been taken.
Remember, you can order an information kit with guides and factsheets and find detailed information online by searching ‘Reef regulations’ or calling 13 QGOV, that’s 13 74 68.
Short video of the Reef protection regulations for graziers in the Wet Tropics, Burdekin, Mackay Whitsunday, Fitzroy and Burnett Mary regions.
Duration 00:00:31
Reef protection regulations apply to all beef cattle graziers across the Wet Tropics, Burdekin, Mackay Whitsunday, Fitzroy and Burnett Mary regions.
If you’re a beef cattle grazier in one of these regions, you need to comply with the regulations.
You can order an information kit with guides and factsheets and find detailed information online by searching ‘Reef regulations’ or calling 13 QGOV, that’s 13 74 68.
