Last year we received a grant from the former Beaudesert Shire Council (now part of the Scenic Rim Regional Council) to erect a long electric fence on our property to separate the rainforest regeneration area from the horse-grazing area. Hoofed animals and habitat restoration don’t generally go well together in Australia, and horses (like cows and sheep) eat some plants, trample others, cause erosion on steep slopes and bring in the seeds of weeds.
Our regeneration project will help to protect the edge of the rainfrest of Mt Chinghee National Park and improve the corridor for animals from there to our forest remnant by the creek, as there are only a few parts of the national park which extend down to the water’s edge.

We have isolated 20 plots which we have cleared of weeds alternating with 20 from which we haven’t, and will be noting how soon each starts harbouring new rainforest plant species. We did some baseline bird and butterfly surveys and mammal trapping in early 2008, and this will continue over the next few years or decades to monitor changes in biodiversity and density of populations as the regeneration proceeds. If the movement of pollinators and seed dispersers is enhanced, this should also help to speed the return of our slopes to something approaching their original diversity. Additional habitat for the black-breasted button-quail and other relatively uncommon or threatened species on the property should benefit also.

The grant money helped us to buy the materials and to employ Jason Taylor of Beaudesert to help clear weeds from the experimental plots and from the line through which the fence was to run, and assist with the erection of the fence itself. The electricity is supplied by a photovoltaic cell, so the whole setup is environmentally sustainable, and our only maintenance is the checking of the battery box and clearing any vegetation that threatens to short-circuit the system.

Jason and Darren working on the fence to protect our rainforest regeneration