A dose of good advice goes a long way when tackling difficult revegetation sites like saline waterways. Supported by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulations’ Clean Waterways funding and Wheatbelt NRM, 14 community members took advantage of the opportunity to learn from two of the wheatbelt’s most experienced and knowledgeable native seed propagators in Rob and Beth Boase.
In early December 2023 attendees were welcomed to wander through a successfully revegetated saline waterway and an adjacent naturally saline Threatened Ecological Community (TEC) located on the Boase’s property in Cunderdin and learn about the plants and techniques that secured the projects’ success and those that naturally thrive in saline conditions.
Pivotal to success in such projects is making informed species selections. It can be difficult to find species that occupy the most saline niches in the wheatbelt. This workshop was designed to help landholders fill that gap by showcasing native plants that are viable in saline conditions and can be easily and cheaply propagated from seed. Among the hardiest plants showcased were Tecticornia pergranulata, Juncus kraussii, Frankenia pauciflora, Disphyma crassifolium, Melaleuca thyoides and Melaleuca zeteticorum.
Caring for saline waterways is a labour of love in the Wheatbelt. Those who choose to accept the challenge must navigate harsh site conditions and commit themselves to a long-term project that requires persistence, trial, observation, good planning, learning and more persistence. The wins are hard fought but those who have had success bringing a degraded waterway back from ruin are duly rewarded.
For more details about the information delivered during this workshop, contact Dimity dboggs@wheatbeltnrm.org.au.
Resources relating to restoring saline waterways:
Samphire for waterlogged salt land
Establishing samphires in the Avon catchment
Managing waterways in the Avon wheatbelt
Riparian Land Management Technical Guidelines Volume Two: On-ground Management Tools and Techniques
Riparian plants of the Avon Catchment
Flora Licenses for seed collecting purposes