Looking back, moving forward - Renaissance at Lyndfield

Citation

Land & Water Australia. 2009. Looking back, moving forward - Renaissance at Lyndfield. [Online] (Updated April 16th, 2009)
Available at: http://lwa.gov.au/node/3205 [Accessed Tuesday 26th of April 2011 12:43:33 AM ].

John has achieved so much in terms of land management, that his farm ‘Lyndfield Park’ was chosen as the site to launch the Australian Conservation Foundation and National Farmers Federation joint natural resource management campaign.

The success didn’t come overnight.

Originally a fine wool merino stud, John started working on ‘Lyndfield Park’ in 1959, clearing trees and improving pastures, but by the early 70’s he noticed some unhealthy changes. Tree dieback, erosion and salinity were emerging; the fertilisers weren’t having the same effect, there was no stock shelter and weeds, pests and diseases were increasing. John was following expert advice and couldn’t work out what was going wrong.

The drought of 82/83 caused a huge re-think at Lyndfield Park. Now there are an extra 70,000 trees, minimum tillage and direct drilling replace intensive cultivation; stocking rates are flexible; erosion is stabilised; perennial pastures replace some annuals and the farm earns more money from natives, than cropping or livestock.

John has now published a small booklet - Lyndfield Park - looking back, moving forward - telling the story of ‘Lyndfield Park’ for other land managers.