Renaissance on Lanark Renaissance on Lanark LANARK LIST (1956–96) compiled by Murray Gunn, with John and Cicely Fenton R ENAISSANCE ON 1956 Purple-crowned Lorikeet Yellow-billed Spoonbill Crimson Rosella Swamp Harrier WOODLAND SPECIES Eastern Rosella Buff-banded Rail Whistling Kite Budgerigar Lewin’s Rail Brown Falcon Pallid Cuckoo Baillon’s Crake Peregrine Falcon Fan-tailed Cuckoo Australian Spotted Crake Red-rumped Parrot Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo Purple Swamphen ANARK Blue-winged Parrot Shining Bronze-Cuckoo Dusky Moorhen L Barn Owl Southern Boobook Black-tailed Native-hen Yellow-rumped Thornbill Azure Kingfisher Eurasian Coot Red Wattlebird Laughing Kookaburra Common Greenshank Willie Wagtail Superb Fairy-wren Common Sandpiper The return of almost all Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike Striated Pardolote Red-necked Stint Australian Magpie Brown Thornbill Sharp-tailed Sandpiper the that once Australian Raven Striated Thornbill Curlew Sandpiper Little Raven Little Wattlebird Black-winged Stilt Welcome Swallow Yellow-faced Honeyeater Red-capped Plover inhabited the region to Singing Honeyeater Double-banded Plover WET GRASSLAND White-plumed Honeyeater Black-fronted Dotterel the Fentons’ grazing Black Swan White-naped Honeyeater Red-kneed Dotterel CONSERVATION THROUGH KNOWLEDGE Australian Shelduck New Holland Honeyeater Silver Gull property in Victoria’s Pacific Black Duck Tawny-crowned Whiskered Tern ACN 004 076 475 Grey Teal Honeyeater Clamorous Reed-Warbler 415 Riversdale Road, Hawthorn East, Vic. 3123 Western District is White-faced Heron Eastern Spinebill Little Grassbird Tel: (03) 9882 2622; Fax: (03) 9882 2677 Email: [email protected] Jacky Winter White-necked Heron Birds Home Page: perhaps the greatest of Australian White Ibis Scarlet Robin WET GRASSLAND http://www.vicnet.net.au/~birdsaus Straw-necked Ibis Golden Whistler Cape Barren Goose Founded in 1901, Birds Australia (Royal Australasian Lanark’s many miracles. Brolga (disappeared until Grey Shrike-thrush Golden-headed Cisticola Ornithologists Union) is Australia’s oldest national ’96) Restless Flycatcher conservation organisation, dedicated to the study and Latham’s Snipe Grey Fantail GRASSLAND conservation of native birds and their habitat. New members Masked Lapwing Olive-backed Oriole Spotted Harrier are welcome. by Graeme O’Neill White-fronted Chat Masked Woodswallow Magpie-lark White-browed Fairy Martin Woodswallow 1976–96 arrivals Dusky Woodswallow Main photo: Wetlands, woodlands and GRASSLAND Grey Currawong WOODLAND SPECIES Published with the assistance of Bushcare – a key program of grazing sheep: Lanark is a model of the Commonwealth Government’s Natural Heritage Trust. Stubble Quail Red-browed Finch Little Eagle sustainable farming. Bushcare has the ambitious goal of reversing the long-term Black-shouldered Kite Tree Martin Common Bronzewing Photo by David Neilson decline in the quality and extent of Australia’s native vegetation Wedge-tailed Eagle Rufous Gang-gang Cockatoo Insets (from left): Stubble Quail, Eastern Silvereye Rainbow Bee-eater communities, in order to conserve biodiversity and contribute Black Falcon to the ecologically sustainable management of natural Spinebill, Straw-necked Ibis Nankeen Kestrel Spotted Pardalote resources. The vision and commitment of the Fenton family at Photos: (quail and spinebill) by Graeme Banded Lapwing WETLAND White-browed Scrubwren Lanark shows that ambitious goals are achievable within Chapman; (ibis) by Tom Putt Flame Robin Blue-billed Duck White-eared Honeyeater acceptable time-frames, even in seriously degraded landscapes. Richard’s Pipit Musk Duck Pink Robin Local action on a national scale, with the support of Brown Songlark Australian Duck Eastern Yellow Robin Bushcare and other programs of the Natural Heritage Trust, Australasian Shoveler Varied Sittella can make a real difference in restoring our rich heritage of and wildlife communities; maintaining the AERIAL Chestnut Teal Rufous Whistler productive capacity of our land and water; and ensuring White-throated Needletail Pink-eared Duck Rufous Fantail prosperity and quality of life for future generations. Fork-tailed Swift Hardhead White-winged Triller Australasian Grebe White-winged Chough Hoary-headed Grebe Bassian Thrush 1956–76 arrivals Great Crested Grebe Darter WETLAND WOODLAND SPECIES Little Pied Cormorant Magpie Goose Brown Goshawk Little Black Cormorant Plumed Whistling-Duck Australian Hobby Great Cormorant Freckled Duck Diamond Dove Australian Pelican Intermediate Egret Yellow-tailed Black- Little Egret Spotless Crake Great Egret Wood Sandpiper Wingspan is the quarterly membership magazine of Birds Cockatoo Australia. Additional copies of this supplement Long-billed Corella Nankeen Night Heron Banded Stilt are available from the National Office. Galah Australasian Bittern Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Glossy Ibis WET GRASSLAND Printed on recycled paper. Musk Lorikeet Royal Spoonbill Brolga (returned ’96) Supplement to Wingspan, vol. 9, no. 1, March 1999 ii Renaissance on Lanark Renaissance on Lanark iii

LANARK IS A GRAZING PROPERTY like no other in Victoria. It’s not just the visual differences – the patchwork of farm forestry plantations, the angular lines of Transformation invertebrates in the moist ground between the house 1963 view of Lanark, pre- Below: October 1992 view of Thirty years ago Lanark was a typical Western and the lake’s edge have brought the soil to a fine wetland restoration and Lanark, with wetlands at shelter belts interspersed with pockets of native woodland, or the chain of restored District grazing property. The wool industry was tilth – even if they have made a vegetable garden mass tree-planting – high water mark. Note the natural wetlands curving north and east around the homestead. ravaged by inappropriate indigenous plantings and booming. In good years, the Fentons were impossible. The green, tree-filled landscape initially commands attention, but it is only when grazing. (Photo is taken aquatic species around the producing nearly 200 bales of wool from the At dusk one of mainland Australia’s rarest from opposite angle to that wetlands, and sheep, the visitor’s car engine falls silent that Lanark’s distinctive signature becomes audible: property’s 800 hectares, and raising fat lambs for the mammals, the Eastern Barred Bandicoot Perameles on p. II. See shearing shed shelterbelts and farm domestic market on its improved pastures. gunii, forages quietly in the grassland and associated above house.) forestry plantations in the birds – hundreds of birds, of many species. Their calls emanate from every quarter, the But like most Australian rural properties, it understorey of the native woodland around the Photo by John Fenton background. All these cheerful symphony of an environment in irrepressible health, inviting – insisting – that systems – agricultural, could veer wildly between plenty and hardship. On homestead. At night, from the wetlands, frogs – forestry, aquatic habitat, the visitor be silent, be still … and listen. a wall of the Fentons’ home is an aerial photo, among the most sensitive of all wildlife habitat, etc. – are Something remarkable has occurred on Lanark, in the undulating basalt country taken in late summer, 1963. The image shows a creatures to environmental intrinsically interlinked to property ravaged by inappropriate grazing, almost disturbance – maintain a create a more ecologically of Victoria’s Western District, south-west of Branxholme. In little more than four bereft of grass or tree cover. The homestead is nocturnal racket. And by day, and agriculturally decades its owners, John and Cicely Fenton, and their sustainable system overall. marooned in a stark red landscape, estranged from in the skies above the farm Photography by Lindsay family, have transformed their once-ravaged sheep the green, living world. and from every tree across the Stepanow/photo supplied by property. Through the diversification of traditional grazing In 1967, an El Nino-induced drought sent property, birdsong attests to Thomson Hay & Associates and cropping with large-scale farm forestry, and the Lanark spiralling into economic and environmental the miraculous transformation crisis. During the drought, many of John’s close that has occurred on Lanark. Inset: Cicely and John Fenton. restoration of natural habitat, they have demonstrated that Photo by David Neilson friends, leading farmers and graziers, suffered consid- it is possible to develop systems of farming that are both erable physical, emotional and financial hardship. Tree planting more ecologically and agriculturally sustainable. John Fenton was chastened: if the ‘best’ graziers When the NSW Surveyor- could be so vulnerable to nature’s vicissitudes, there General, Major Thomas had to be something seriously wrong with the way Mitchell visited the region in in which the grazing industry operated. It was a 1836, his description of salutary warning that the production levels of the western Victoria’s sunlit eucalypt woodlands and occasional ‘boom’ years were unsustainable, and that grasslands as ‘a nobleman’s park on a gigantic scale’ the human and environmental costs of pursuing triggered a rush for grazing land in the area. these levels through the lean years in-between were By the 1840s, the new settlers were too high. systematically clearing western Victoria’s woodlands That insight, and Lanark’s own plight, precip- and draining its wetlands. An extensive article from itated a radical change in the way John managed his the Hamilton Spectator, dated 1886, chronicles the farm, and with it, his attitude to the land, to his business, to family – to life itself. He embarked on a program that went beyond Lanark: farm land use drought-proofing the property, and sought to ‘re- Lake 7 ha 0.9 % create the balance’ between the farming enterprise and the natural environment, to the overall benefit Amenity planting 8 ha 1 % (indigenous, native and exotic species) of both. At a time when other Western District Water meadows 12 ha 1.5 % farmers were still clearing native vegetation and draining wetlands on their properties, John set about Shelterbelts 14 ha 1.8 % (indigenous, native and exotic species) doing the opposite – reinstating the wetlands that Habitat planting 16 ha 2 % had once been a natural feature of the local (native and indigenous species) landscape, fencing off large parts of existing Swamps 44 ha 5.5 %

paddocks and planting trees. By creating an Farm forestry 48 ha 6 % environment in which wildlife could co-exist with (indigenous, native, and exotic species) livestock, he hoped to buffer Lanark’s production Pasture 651 ha 81.3 % (native and exotic species) systems and its profitability against climatic diversity and so ensure his family’s – and the land’s – future. Property size 800 ha Today, the Fentons still produce wool, raise fat Land use summary Wetlands 63 ha 7.9 % lambs, and grow occasional cereal crops. But since Trees/shrubs 86 ha 10.8 % 1967, in an intensive program of farm forestry and Pastures 651 ha 81.3 % revegetation, the family have planted over 80,000 Rainfall Reliable 700 mm pa trees and shrubs in shelterbelts, plantations and Soils Grey/brown silty loam over native woodlands featuring species endemic to the gravelly loam, with distinct clay subsoil. local area. Stock 7500, predominantly 22 micron Through their kitchen window, they can now sheep, including Border Leicester x watch ducks, waterhens and Black Swans gliding on Merino and fat lambs. Small cattle breeding and fattening enterprise. Lake Cicely, the largest water body in the system of wetlands surrounding the homestead site. Eastern Source: ‘Lanark’: Farm Forestry, compiled by Rochelle Rudduck, Rochelle Rudduck & the Fenton Family Swamp Rats Rattus lutreolus delving for roots and ‘Lanark’, 1994. (Second edition, 1995) iv Renaissance on Lanark Renaissance on Lanark v

carefully selected indigenous habitat species, often creating the financial conditions for an overall from local sources. lowering of stocking pressure, especially in the more Today, trees cover some 85 hectares (10.8 per environmentally sensitive areas of the property. cent) of the property, 48 hectares of which are In 2009, John will be 74. Thus it is John and commercial plantations of native, indigenous and Cicely’s children – or rather, their grandchildren – exotic species. Shelterbelts account for 14 hectares, who will ultimately directly benefit financially from while a further 16 hectares are managed as wildlife their commitment. habitat (see chart, p. III). Lanark resembles a For the financial sector, which – as John patchwork quilt of tree plots across the landscape, indicates – seems unable to fully cost or understand each one individually managed in the Fentons’ the value of the work done on Lanark, such constantly evolving farming experiment. economics make little sense. The Fentons have been urged to improve the property’s profitability. Native pasture But if Lanark were to move to more intensive Fifty per cent of the property is sown to improved production by raising stocking rates and increasing pasture, and stocked at around 14 dry sheep their current fertilising and spraying regimes, it equivalent (DSE) per hectare. Thirty per cent is native would threaten some of the environmental gains of pasture, interspersed with clover and ryegrass, stocked the past 30 years – and perhaps compromise the at a maximum of eight DSE per hectare. direct benefits that are already occurring: sheep But the native pastures are also managed, deaths from exposure after shearing are down, and indirectly, for wildlife, providing buffer zones lamb mortality has fallen as a result of the increased recent changes on the 3240-hectare Bassett estate, of between improved pastures and sensitive areas of shelter; some of the plantations are already which Lanark was then a part. The whole area, wildlife habitat that are vulnerable to contamination producing timber for fence posts, fodder and originally ‘heavily timbered with gum and and nutrient runoff. firewood, and are a valuable resource for local honeysuckle [banksia]’ was systematically cleared, ‘We’re trying to find a balance,’ says David professional seed collectors. burnt, ring-barked and drained. In fifteen years, the Fenton, who has taken over management of Lanark The Fentons’ long-term aim is to demonstrate landscape was unrecognisable: from his father. ‘The more fragile areas of pastured that farm forestry, particularly clear wood This remnant bushland on an adjacent property, only a I was not prepared for the transformation the place land have not been fertilised since 1969. production, is a viable option for western Victorian few hectares in area, is all has undergone. The forests have almost disappared ‘Except for low concentrations of herbicide to farmers – John believes many farmers do not need to that remains of the original and with the exception of the bleached weather control thistles and for weed control associated with be convinced of the environmental benefits of trees, local vegetation. boats in trunks of the larger gum trees, there is our revegetation program, we don’t use pesticides, but need to be persuaded that trees can also provide Surrounded by improved nothing to indicate they ever existed; the main because we don’t have a serious problem with red- a reliable income. But for this, farmers – like pasture and grazed by sheep, it has little chance of branches have all fallen and cleared away, while the legged earth mites or other pests. The sheep on the agricultural economists – need to cultivate a long- surviving. Birds such as the honeysuckles have vanished, root and branch. The for commercial farm forestry for nearly 20 years. native pastures are drenched only once a year term vision and commitment to the land. , however, native grasses are thick and … their sweetness is Twice – in 1973 and 1974 – they knocked back the because the low stocking rates minimise worm Modern agricultural and economic systems do can hang on in remnants proved by the manner with which they are grazed, Fentons’ application for a farm forestry grant. infestation. On the improved pastures, we drench not look beyond a time horizon of one human like these, and this may and a complete absence of tussocks which were so Nevertheless, for nearly two decades the Fenton four times a year.’ lifetime, much less two or three. John talks of account for this species’ early return to Lanark. prevalent in former days. family continued with substantial plantings for ‘weaning people away’ from the concept that a tree Photos: (bush) by David When John Fenton and his sister inherited shelter, and for woodland and wetland habitat – Farm economics must be planted and felled during a person’s Neilson; (songlark) by Lanark from their father in 1956, it was almost often in the face of considerable scepticism from When the decision was made in the late 1960s to working life. Graeme Chapman devoid of trees. Typical of most Western District some in the neighbourhood. Learning by trial and diversify the property’s production base, there was a The Fentons’ own philosophy is perhaps best properties, its empty paddocks rolled to the horizon, error, from a few knowledgeable nurseries and what dearth of information about the economics of farm embodied in the ‘Quercarium’, a grove of 600 trees unbroken except for a few radiata pines Pinus little was left of the original vegetation in the forestry. Alienating a substantial area of land for containing a dozen species of ‘old world’ oaks, radiata and Sugar Gums cladocalyx. In district, they tried to piece back what was growing in 25–50 years, in the uncertain prospect of future planted in 1993. The oaks will not reach maturity John’s own words, he ‘decided to get the whole place the area before it was cleared in the 1860s. profits, could jeopardise Lanark’s short-term for another 150 years. geared up’ by ploughing in the existing hardy native A radio broadcast on the potential of native trees viability as a grazing property. pastures and replacing them with more productive, on farms inspired John to begin small-scale John and Cicely have spent nearly 40 years – Birds on Lanark improved pastures. experimental plantings of eucalypts and wattles. By most of their adult life – planting trees, for very little In 1954, two years before John Fenton took over Yet even then, he recognised the value of trees as the late 1970s, his advice on farm tree planting was financial reward. At a nominal cost of $4 per tree, Lanark, Murray Gunn, a naturalist from nearby shelter, and planted a few lines of cypresses across much sought after by farmers in western Victoria and and excluding the cost of re-establishing the Hamilton, began visiting Lanark regularly to observe Lanark’s windswept landscapes. His first tentative New South Wales. wetlands, they estimate that their investment birds and record their presence and abundance. foray into farm forestry was made in spring, 1961, The Fentons’ big break came in 1984, when the approaches $320,000. Little of this will be returned For nearly 45 years, Murray has meticulously when he planted 642 radiata pines to screen the Forests Commission changed its view and declared in their lifetime. monitored the property’s bird fauna (see birdlist, house from the roar of trains passing along the Lanark now suitable for farm forestry after all. John According to Jeff Tombleson, from the New p. XVI), and chronicled perhaps the greatest of railway line which forms the property’s south- obtained a loan from the Commission and began Zealand Forest Research Institute, by the year Lanark’s miracles: the renaissance of almost the eastern boundary. At the time, the Forests establishing plantings of cutting-grown P.radiata 2009, the area of Lanark planted to high quality, entire suite of bird species that inhabited the Commission Victoria advised that it was not and some eucalypt species. clear (pruned) radiata pine could exceed 52 region’s native woodlands and wetlands more than a economically viable to establish P. radiata in the Many other trial plantings have followed, hectares. At that time, approximately 2 hectares on century ago. district commercially, and so the trees were left including native hardwoods, Monterey Cypress average could be harvested annually. That is, the Even at the current level of vegetation cover, unmaintained. Cupressus macrocarpa, a potentially valuable source approximately 6 per cent of Lanark planted to 155 resident or itinerant species of native birds have The Forests Commission maintained their of high quality timber, and provenance trials of high quality clear wood could generate up to 70 been recorded in the property’s woodlands, position that the Hamilton district was not suitable eucalypts and acacias. Each plantation includes per cent of the net farm income – thus eventually wetlands and pastures – compared with fewer than vi Renaissance on Lanark Renaissance on Lanark vii

40 species in 1956. With a few notable exceptions, Such a landscape is unsustainable. The isolated the most recent census (1996) includes almost all trees are dying because of the effects of the the species estimated to have been present in the surrounding land management; the remnants are region in pre-European times (see 1840 bird becoming degraded by insect and fungal attack, chart, p. XI). rising water tables, salinity, overgrazing, weed The birds are not merely passive beneficiaries of invasion and soil erosion. Water bodies are Lanark’s restored environment – they have been an contaminated by pesticides or nutrient runoff, integral part of it. For Dr Geoff Barrett, Co- leading to eutrophication and algal blooms. Native ordinator of Birds Australia’s nationwide Birds on grasslands are so depleted that they scarcely support

Small, experimental Farms project, the return of native birds to Lanark as their constituent species. woodlots test the effects on a result of changed land management practices The loss of native birds to this landscape signals tree form and timber value makes the property a model for a more enlightened both the breakdown of native ecosystems and the of hardwoods grown in era of farm management in Australia. wider loss of Australia’s agricultural capacity. configurations other than ‘Since birds occur close to the top of the food ‘Birds and trees are mutually dependent’, says traditional plantations. These 10-year-old native chain’, he says, ‘they are good indicators of the Geoff. ‘Their disappearance from Australia’s rural hardwood plantings with health of the environment. landscapes has been disastrous both for the indigenous understorey, ‘Their presence in a landscape indicates that environment and for agriculture.’ ready for harvesting in mammals, reptiles, insects and a diversity of native Australia’s grazing and cropping systems are another 30 years, will trees and shrubs will also be present – all part of a dependent upon healthy ecosystems, which provide attract canopy-feeding birds such as the New healthy, functioning ecosystem. And if its native biological controls against insects that attack crops, Holland Honeyeater ecosystems are healthy, a farm is likely to have a pastures and farm trees. The farm trees and shrubs (above) and provide habitat long-term future.’ in turn prevent rising water tables and soil erosion, for ground feeders such as The return of birds to Lanark, he explains, and prevent losses in productivity due to exposure to the Common Bronzewing reverses a trend seen virtually everywhere in rural harsh climatic conditions. (below). Photos: (landscape) by southern and eastern Australia, where birds – like all David Neilson; (birds) by other native fauna and flora – are declining at a Graeme Chapman precipitous rate. Across large tracts of land, less than 10 per cent of the original woodland remains, primarily as scattered trees, roadside vegetation and small, isolated remnants in a vast sea of agricultural land. Wetlands have been drained; native grasslands turned over to cropping or replaced with more productive ‘improved’ pastures. What makes the Lanark experiment so that, if there is no change, many farms will not be instructive, explains Geoff, is that coupled with viable in the future. Murray Gunn’s bird list and the Fentons’ own bird ‘If our agricultural system continues to increase record, the property’s 40-year history provides us applications of fertiliser on improved pastures, we with the opportunity to test the interdependency of will get a boom in productivity, and in the short trees, birds and farm productivity (see ‘Birds on term, the balance sheet will look great. But the Part of the 3.5 km P. radiata Farms: lessons from Lanark’, p. X). longer term prospects are dubious, to say the least. and habitat planting When the bird record is aligned with the With a more moderate strategy, we can have a (established 1985) along the better environment and economic stability into the railway-line which forms the environmental changes on Lanark over the last four south-eastern boundary of decades, a consistent pattern emerges: the timing far future.’ the property. Managed and nature of the improvements on the property A more enlightened view of the place of farming according to silvicultural correlate with the return of particular bird species – in Australian life – for which, perhaps, Lanark is the techniques, these pines will indeed entire guilds of species. pre-eminent model – will embrace not just the be ready for harvest in another 10–15 years. Sheep From this, says Geoff, farmers can now virtually production of commodities like wool, wheat and graze under the plantation, predict which birds are likely to return to their meat, but will see farms as havens for native wildlife while the fenced indigenous properties as they plant particular trees and shrubs and flora. species in the outer shelter or make other environmental improvements. And Farms would gain direct benefits: protection for rows (Drooping She-oak, the subtle ‘threshold effects’ that shape the natural livestock against wind, and extremes of heat and Bursaria and Melaleuca sp.) provide a habitat corridor environment are illuminated: how much tree and cold, water conservation and protection against along Lanark’s southern shrub cover is required to support a diverse bird salinity, and environmental services such as pest boundary. Many native birds fauna? At what point do waterbirds decide that a control and nutrient recycling. such as the Rufous Whistler wetland is good breeding habitat, rather than a ‘The challenge for Australian farming is to will forage in exotic tree convenient stopover on the way to somewhere else? repair our food-production systems and make them plantations such as pines, as long as there are local native When does vegetation diversity and structure begin sustainable. We need to ensure we can continue to trees and shrubs nearby. to influence bird diversity? put food on the table 100 years from now. Photos: (plantation) by ‘The connection between farm ecosystem health David Neilson; (whistler) by Sustainable farming and productivity has to be made – we must Graeme Chapman For Geoff Barrett, Australian agriculture has no understand that conserving birds on farms is choice but to pursue sustainability – all the signs are securing our food future.’ viii Renaissance on Lanark Renaissance on Lanark ix

Like many Western District graziers, the Fentons live with debt. What makes their situation

different is that they have built up a substantial View across Lake Cicely, the reserve of what new-wave economists call ‘environ- largest of Lanark’s restored mental capital’ – the soil, water, , mammals, wetlands. Indigenous birds, invertebrates, fungi and microbes on which plantings around the lake’s agriculture depends. The natural environment works perimeter provide habitat for over 50 wetland bird for them, not against them. species, including open The real value of natural resources – natural water birds such as the capital – typically appears on farm balance sheets Blue-billed Duck (top inset) only after they have been so degraded that the and reed-loving species damage is beyond the individual farmer’s capacity to such as the Purple Swamphen (bottom inset). repair. The resilience of natural systems tends to Photos: (lake) by David mask such damage until it reaches a critical Neilson; (duck and threshold beyond which the capacity for self-repair swamphen) by Graeme or renewal is rapidly lost. Chapman Today, the Fentons’ farm and its production systems seem well insulated against environmental adversity – drought, salinity, water contamination, (continued on page XV)

The Lanark way Lanark’s transformation is a miracle in progress, and the costs have been high. Beyond the expense and physical effort, the Fentons have had to endure the costs of daring to be different – social alienation, even ridicule. Trees and shrubs A few detractors may still regard them as interspersed with grazing dreamers in a harsh world in which economic forces pasture create an ideal rural landscape. Birds such rule everyday life. But in the age of Landcare, and as the Superb Fairy-wren the movement towards sustainable agriculture, there (left inset) arrive early after is an increasing recognition that the Fentons were – tree planting, and are are – decades ahead of their time. followed by species such as Their personal quest to reconcile the demands of the Shining Bronze-Cuckoo (right inset), which require their own economic wellbeing with that of the breeding birds as hosts for environment has been a 40-year experiment, raising their young. conducted without benefit of formal controls. But, Photos: (landscape) by the success of their project – and the lessons learnt en David Neilson; (birds) by route – signpost the way from Australian agriculture’s Graeme Chapman profligate past to a more sustainable future. Today, the grazing industry in Victoria’s south- west is in deep economic and environmental strife. Figures from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural Economics show the average annual grazing profit for a 450-hectare grazing property in the region from 1993–96 was just $311, before tax and interest. Caught between falling commodity prices and creeping environmental degradation, many graziers have accumulated debts they can no longer service, and face an uncertain future. x Renaissance on Lanark Renaissance on Lanark xi

BIRDS ON FARMS: LESSONS FROM LANARK ‘Australia Felix’: Lanark in 1840

In the 1980s, the Fentons’ efforts to restore Lanark’s Tree cover natural environment attracted the attention of One of the key indicators of ecosystem health is the Professor Jim Sinatra, from the Royal Melbourne percentage of tree cover on a farm. Recent research Institute of Technology's School of Landscape suggests that if environmental and economic stability Architecture. Elizabeth Jacka, then a landscape are to be balanced, the optimum tree cover on a grazing/ architect student at RMIT, began visiting Lanark to cropping property is around 30 per cent. Within this observe the changes in its environment. Using Murray 30 per cent, one-third should be dedicated wildlife habitat, Gunn's bird records and the Fentons’ own extensive and the rest could be managed for wood production. bird and planting diaries from 1956–96, she has Today, trees cover nearly 11 per cent of Lanark, as devised a series of birdcharts that graphically depict commercial plantations, shelterbelts and wildlife habitat. the changes occurring on the property since European The return of birds that require healthy, dense tree cover, settlement (see pp. XI–XIV, also bird list p. XVI). such as the Brown Goshawk, Restless Flycatcher, Olive- Beginning with a hypothetical representation of backed Oriole and Crimson Rosella (between 1956–76 the bird species thought to have been present on the – see bird list, p. XVI), and the Gang-gang Cockatoo, Rufous property in 1840, prior to European settlement, the Fantail and Spotted Pardalote (between 1976–96), tracks charts graph the return of birds to Lanark in 20-year the improvement of the woodland ecosystem on Lanark. intervals, until 1996. For Geoff Barrett, Co-ordinator of The Fentons’ ultimate aim is to increase the tree Birds Australia’s Birds on Farms project, these charts cover on their property over the next 40 years, to together with the bird and planting record for the last around 280 hectares, or 35 per cent. 40 years, give us the opportunity to assess the benefits of both farm ecosystem health and productivity of Wildlife habitat pursuing a revegetation program. Sixteen hectares on Lanark – 2 per cent of the property The natural environment, he says, can be regarded as and just under one-fifth of the total tree cover area – a set of building blocks that fit together in time and space: are managed primarily for wildlife. The Fentons aim to by setting aside areas of bushland, restoring natural increase this area to about 80 hectares (10 per cent) of wetlands, preserving old, large trees, and planting trees the property. and shrubs, farmers like the Fentons are re-building the natural ecosystem on which agriculture depends. The land Remnant vegetation management goals for bird presentation are consistent Prime wildlife habitat generally occurs in remnants of with those for sustainable farming. native vegetation that have never been cleared. One of the problems that John and Cicely faced when embarking on their revegetation program was that there were no native bushland remnants left on Lanark: the property had been cleared over 80 years beforehand, thus providing nothing to build on. The nearest About seven years after indigenous seed source is often up to 10 km away. planting a mix of native species, such as these she- oaks and acacias in the ibis Area and distance between habitat areas rookery area, many small Research in Australia indicates that the minimum size birds such as the Rufous for patches of native vegetation to remain healthy is Fantail (above) and the around 5–10 hectares.

Red-browed Finch (below) Elizabeth Jacka Although most of the wildlife habitat on Lanark will move into this habitat. Photo (bush) by occurs in small patches (< 5 hectares), where possible, David Neilson; (birds) by such areas have been enlarged by planting trees Graeme Chapman adjacent to the site. This then serves as a buffer against Bird chart by ‘edge effects’ caused by exposure to the elements, or Woodland Wet Wetland Woodland the impact of grazing stock. Strong winds can strip grassland 3.5% 93.5% loose bark from trees and disperse litter, removing 3% foraging habitat for native birds like the Grey Shrike- thrush and White-naped Honeyeater, and the Varied Elizabeth Jacka’s first chart is a hypothetical survey plan of the Parish of Branxholme (includ- Based on current lists of bird species Sittella, all of which have now returned to Lanark representation of bird species that may have ing Lanark), dated 1857, provides a useful pic- indigenous to the area, and additional advice (between 1956–76, and 1976–96 respectively) as the been found at Lanark in 1840, prior to Euro- ture of the type of vegetation cover that existed provided by naturalists Alan Reid and Murray habitat areas have become more sheltered. pean settlement. This chart was compiled by on the property at that time: woodland of Gunn, it is estimated that close to 200 bird Where possible, the wildlife habitat on Lanark has researching the different habitats that may Swamp Gum Eucalyptus ovata and Manna Gum species may have occurred on Lanark prior to been connected to other areas of tree and shrub cover have occurred on the property at the time, E. viminalis, with an understorey of wattles and European settlement, almost half of them by strips of planted trees and shrubs. These corridors and by identifying the indigenous bird species other smaller species. Areas of swamp are also being dependent on the wetland habitats. act as flyways for birds moving about the farm, and that are likely to have occupied these differ- indicated on the plan. Species that require extensive wooded areas also as shelterbelts for stock. ent habitats. A nearby remnant of indigenous vegeta- such as the Barking Owl and Spotted Quail- Livestock are reluctant to walk long distances for While the land around Branxholme was tion also provided a good indication of the thrush, as well as open country birds such as water or shelter. The same also seems to hold for birds occupied by squatters in the early 1840s, wide- shrub species that would have occurred on the Bush Stone-curlew and Plains-wanderer, and other wildlife – early on, the Fentons planted isolated spread clearing did not occur until much later. A the property. are likely to have been present. x11 Renaissance on Lanark Renaissance on Lanark xiii

Riding on the sheep’s back: Lanark in 1956 Wetlands and woodlands: Lanark in 1976 Elizabeth Jacka Bird chart by

Grassland Wet Woodland Grassland grassland 0.3% 93.2% 6.5%

Existing bird By the time John Fenton inherited Lanark in 1956, the Of the 200 or so bird species estimated to have been landscape had been transformed. The wetlands had present on Lanark prior to European settlement, fewer been drained, and the woodlands cleared before the than 40 remained (see bird list, p. XVI): a handful of turn of the century, and were by now replaced by open grassland species, such as the Black Falcon, Stubble Quail pastures broken only by a couple of rows of exotic trees and Flame Robin; and a small group of robust woodland and small dams for livestock. Less than 0.3 per cent of birds (14 species). Birds requiring standing water, such as the property’s original tree cover remained. Three very the cormorants and grebes, had also disappeared, to be small plantings of Sugar Gums and radiata pines had replaced by birds like the Straw-necked Ibis and been established in the mid-1930s. Australian Shelduck that feed on wet grasslands.

patches of trees up to 700 metres apart, and well away birds from small woodlots, resulting in the trees Elizabeth Jacka from water; few birds colonised them. Now they aim for becoming vulnerable to insect attack. a maximum of 400 metres between tree plots. Old trees Bird chart by Habitat diversity About one-fifth of Australia’s native birds require The Fentons’ systematic approach to increasing habitat tree-hollows for nesting. Retaining old, senescent trees Grassland Wet Wetland Woodland Grassland Grassland 2.7% 1.9% 88.9% diversity in Lanark’s farm vegetation has been a and stags – even fallen logs – is essential for attracting 6.5% significant factor in the return of birdlife to the property. these species. Nesting boxes are a poor substitute. Because of their small, broad wings, most Most farmers would be astonished at the number understorey-dependent birds are unable to fly long and diversity of bats that also roost in hollow trees on distances without dense shrub cover. As well as their properties. Research suggests that the decline of Twenty years later, by 1976, tree cover on Lanark – populations of small song birds which can act as hosts Existing bird planting shrubs in the wildlife refuge areas, the bats may be a key factor in the rise of insect pest mainly for shelter and wildlife habitat – has increased for their young.

Fentons have planted understorey shrubs adjacent to problems on farms. from less than 1 per cent in 1956 to 2 per cent of the Restoration of the wetland areas has seen the New bird their commercial plantations. This attracts birds into the Unfortunately, all of Lanark’s old trees were property. This small increase has neverthless resulted in return of 45 wetland species. These include diving birds woodlots, where they remove insects from the trees. removed during the initial clearing of the land. the return of 46 woodland species. Of particular that require deep, open water such as the grebes, coots Many native birds will forage in exotic tree Although a number of hollow-dependent species such interest is the return of understorey-dependent birds and cormorants; and waders that feed in the shallows, plantations such as pines, as long as there are local as the Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo, Southern Boobook such as the Brown Thornbill and Yellow-faced such as spoonbills, pelicans, the Black-winged Stilt and native trees and shrubs nearby. and Tree Martin returned to Lanark between 1956–76, Honeyeater; and the Brown Goshawk, which requires Black-fronted Dotterel. Reed-loving species, such as the The appearance of the Brown Thornbill, Superb they must nest elsewhere. As it is, Neville Bonney from dense vegetation and a regular supply of smaller birds Australasian Bittern, Lewin’s Rail and Dusky Moorhen, Fairy-wren, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Grey Fantail and Greening Australia, has indicated that the initial on which to feed. have also been attracted to the dense vegetation on Red-browed Finch (between 1956–76), and Rufous Fantail plantings at Lanark will not begin to senesce for at Cuckoos such as the Fan-tailed and Horsfield’s the water’s edge. and White-browed Scrubwren (between 1976–96), mark least another 140 years. Bronze-Cuckoos are classic successional species; their Wet grassland birds such as the Cape Barren Goose, the establishment of dense understorey vegetation and a arrival marks not only the establishment of understorey as well as the Spotted Harrier which utilises grassland gradual ‘connecting up’ of the wildlife refuges on Lanark. Mistletoes vegetation but also the presence of breeding habitats, have also returned. Mixed-species vegetation, that will provide both Mistletoes, viewed by many farmers as pest plants, are habitat and a diverse source of food year-round, is also also vital to a healthy woodland ecosystem, providing important to farm ecosystem health. As a general protection for birds seeking refuge in their dense guide, when planting shrubs, only one in five should be foliage, and also fruit, nectar and possible nesting sites. a nectar-producer. Too many nectar-producing shrubs Honeyeaters, such as the Yellow-faced and the White- creates a ‘honey pot’, which will be taken over by naped Honeyeater, will move throughout a rural aggressive honeyeaters such as the . Miners landscape in response to the flowering of mistletoes; have not been recorded on Lanark but are becoming a while visiting they will also pollinate trees and remove problem elsewhere in Australia, as they exclude other leaf-feeding insects. xiv Renaissance on Lanark Renaissance on Lanark xv

Farm forestry: Lanark in 1996 If there is enough tree cover on (continued from page IX) a property, mistletoes will co-exist algal blooms, lethal temperature extremes, insect pests harmlessly with their host trees. and disease. And, by attempting to stabilise one key Even after 40 years of diverse variable in the economic equation – the environment – planting, there is only one mistletoe they hope eventually to achieve a measure of protection on Lanark, in a she-oak. against the market’s erratic cycles. Their debt was incurred improving the Stock management environment, not in running down its resources and Lanark’s wildlife habitat areas have services. In effect, the Fentons have repaid a debt to been fenced off to allow better nature, and are now accruing interest in the restored management of grazing stock. The Lanark was the first working family farm environmental resources and services. By any selected as a release site in a captive breeding resulting improvement of the program for Victoria’s most endangered objective measure, their property and their business ground ecosystem is marked by the mammal, the Eastern Barred Bandicoot. are in better shape to survive in the long term. arrival of birds such as the Rufous Beginning with an initial release of ten Money is a necessity, but for the Fentons, as for Songlark and Grey Currawong on the property in 1994, a population of at many farmers, wealth is almost incidental to the (between 1956–76), and the least 50 has now successfully established itself business of farming. Life on the land is also about in the woodlands around the homestead and Common Bronzewing and White- Lake Cicely. The dense shrub cover and grassy family, continuity, order and aesthetics – values that winged Chough (between 1976–96). understorey in the wildlife refuge areas create emerge in a simple love of the land. Like Research suggests that low ideal bandicoot habitat, while a systematic environmental amenity, such values resist levels of grazing may be necessary predator control program against foxes and mathematical description, and have no place in the for maintaining bird species cats ensures the best chance of survival for conventional economist’s austere vision of efficiency. these most vulnerable of creatures. richness in small farm woodlots. Photo by Kay Aldridge How do you quantify the pleasure given by the call of a bird as you walk from the farm to the wool Native pasture shed? Or the security of knowing that this soil, these Another important indicator of farm ecosystem health is the percentage trees, this water, will sustain your children’s children? of native pasture on a farm: as this percentage rises, bird diversity also On the eve of a new millennium, this is the direction increases. in which Lanark beckons us. Today, pastures cover just over 80 per cent of Lanark, 15 per cent of this area being native pasture. The combination of this native pasture Graeme O’Neill is a freelance science and with the planting of trees has seen the arrival of ground-foraging birds environment writer. He is based in Red Cliffs, Vic. such as the Jacky Winter, Rufous Songlark and Red-browed Finch (between 1956–76), and the Common Bronzewing, Eastern Yellow Robin and White-winged Chough (between 1976–96). The ideal balance of native to improved pastures is not yet known, but is probably around 50:50. Beyond this threshold, the dominance of improved pasture begins to impact on the health of farm ecosystems, and farm profitability. The most obvious manifestation is eucalypt dieback, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Elizabeth Jacka which has been conclusively linked to fertilised pastures: huge numbers Many members of the Fentons’ extended ‘tree family’, through of chrysomelid beetle larvae feed on the pastures’ roots, competing with the generosity of their expertise, encouragement, skilled planning livestock and reducing productivity, and then emerge as adults to and physical labour, have contributed to the success of the Lanark defoliate nearby eucalypts, pushing even resilient, mature trees beyond experiment. Those whose inspiration and input to Lanark have in Bird chart by the point of no return. particular helped shape the ideas discussed here include: Dr Rod Woodland Bird (Department of Agriculture); Neville Bonney (Greening Grassland Wet Wetland 11.0% Grassland 78.34% grassland 6.0% Australia); research scientist Dr Rob Davidson (retired); Elizabeth 4.66% Birds and pest control Fenton (Larapinta Nursery); architect Graeme Gunn; Bill The value of Australia’s native birds as natural control agents for insect Middleton OAM (Trust for Nature, Vic.); Arthur Lyons (Private pests is poorly studied, but experiments in which individual tree branches Forests, Tasmania); author and naturalist Graham Pizzey; Roger Young (Rural Trees); environmental planner Richard Walter; and have been enclosed in bird-excluding mesh have resulted in rapid, near- forester and environmental planner, the late Andrew Thornley. Existing bird Extensive farm forestry plantings began on Lanark in Wetland habitat now accounts for almost complete defoliation. Researchers estimate that a healthy, diverse bird For their help in the production of this supplement, Wingspan 1984, and trees now cover almost 11 per cent of the 8 per cent of the property, and wetland species now community consumes 50 to 70 per cent of the insects that attack trees. thanks: John, Cicely and David Fenton (Lanark); Professor Jim property. A further 15 woodland birds have returned, include the Plumed Whistling-Duck and the rare Defoliation and the eventual death of individual trees intensifies Sinatra (RMIT); landscape architects Elizabeth Jacka and David New bird Hay; naturalists Murray Gunn and Alan Reid; Geoff Barrett bringing the total of woodland species to 75. These Freckled Duck. Wood Sandpipers, Magpie Geese and insect attack on those that remain; because trees act as natural (Birds Australia); Peter Goldstraw and Mandy Watson include the Common Bronzewing which, along with Banded Stilts have also returned. groundwater pumps, their loss accelerates rising water tables. The result (Department of Natural Resources and Environment); Kay the White-winged Chough, Eastern Yellow Robin and The Brolga is another welcome return to Lanark. In is soil salinisation, which accelerates the destruction of plant cover, Aldridge (Friends of the Eastern Barred Bandicoot); photog- White-browed Scrubwren, indicate that the ground 1956, Brolgas were nesting on the property, but soon exposing the soil to water and wind erosion. raphers Graeme Chapman, David Neilson, Tom Putt and ecosystem is improving as a result of better after disappeared for 40 years. They had returned for the By protecting trees, woodland birds play an unseen and undervalued Lindsay Stepanow; Andrew Campbell and John Williams (Environment Australia); and Rob Youl (Landcare Victoria). management of grazing stock. 1996 count, but are yet to resume breeding on Lanark. role in stabilising farm health and securing productivity. Open-country, pasture-foraging birds also play a role in keeping a In particular, we thank landscape architect Rochelle Rudduck, farm healthy. A breeding colony of Australian White Ibis has been whose book Lanark: Farm Forestry provided the basis for much established on Lanark since 1984, attracted to the dense reedbeds in the of the research behind this supplement. She is at present original 15-hectare swamp, which was reinstated and fenced in 1960. An compiling a companion volume Lanark: Ecology Matters. adult ibis will eat 200 grams of pasture insects a day, including chrysomelid beetle larvae; a flock of 2000 birds is estimated to remove Edited by Merrilyn Julian and Geoff Barrett; layout and production half a million pasture grubs each day. by P.A.G.E. Pty Ltd; printing by Buscombe Vicprint Ltd.