03-06-2004

Land & Water Australia has congratulated one of their Community Fellows John Ive for being shortlisted for two prestigious United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day Awards to be announced on Friday night.

For more than 20 years John and his family have been working to rehabilitate and restore to sustainable and productive use a 250 hectare grazing property in the Yass River Valley of southern New South Wales.

In 2002 the Ives received a Land & Water Australia Community Fellowship to share their natural resource management success story.

When the Ives bought the property in 1980 it was suffering due to a history of poor land management and was generally rundown with areas of salinity, soil acidity, erosion, and poor pasture cover.

They named it 'Talaheni', an Arabic word which means 'wait awhile', and set about addressing the problems by instituting a range of environmental management solutions.

Today they have increased tree cover, filled and stabilised gullies, incorporated deep-rooted perennial pastures into the grazing regime and reorganised the property from nine square paddocks to 38 irregularly-shaped ones that reflect soil type, topography, aspect and productivity.

The amazing environmental transformation has also been achieved with improved livestock production.

'It's been a long but rewarding journey and still we continue to learn valuable lessons - including the need to constantly read the landscape and appreciate the landscape processes, to keep detailed records so as to chart progress but, above all, the need to be proactive while working in harmony with the environment' John said.

The United Nations Association of Australia awards recognise and acknowledge actions taken at a local level to address global issues. The Ive's are finalists in the CPA Australia Triple Bottom Line Award, along with the Albury-Wodonga Development Corporation and Hydro-Tasmania; and in the Award for Outstanding Service to the Environment.

The Awards will be announced at a presentation dinner at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne on Friday night, the eve of World Environment Day (June 5).

The Ives are becoming familiar with award ceremonies as last year the Ive family also received the NSW Landcare Research Award. They are now in the running for the National Landcare Research Award which will be announced at Parliament House in Canberra on September 1, 2004.

ENDS

For an interview with John Ive or more information about Land & Water Australia's Community Fellowships please contact Media Officer , Land & Water Australia 02 6263 6000

For information about the United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day Awards contact Patricia Collett on 03 9482 3655 or 0418 544315.