South Coast NRM Australian GovernmentDepartment of Agriculture and Food
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News relevant to local government planning and NRM in the region.


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3/12/09 - Better Settlements: Re-imagining our agricultural landscapes - November 2009

A public forum discussing policy for sustaining rural communities and landscapes was hosted by the Australian Sustainable Development Institute at Curtin University on 5th November. The purpose of the forum was to:

  • Outline the role of rural policy in Western Australian landscapes
  • Overview the role of property rights in our current landscape management options
  • Give a voice to communities, innovative property developers, property managers, small landholders and big agriculture
  • Explore a futurist vision to develop our potentials in a best practice scenario of resilient communities, dynamic ecosystems and viable economies.

View the forum program

View the proceedings ( Session 1 and Session 2).

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3/12/09 - Planning support tool wins Planning Award - November 2009

Developers of the South Coast Natural Resource Management (NRM) and Local Government Planning Support Tool won a Special Commendation for development of the Planning Support Tool at the recent Planning Institute of Australia (PIA)(WA branch) awards. Ian Kininmonth of Environmental Knowledge Systems Australia (EKSA) and Dr Julia Fry of the School of Earth and Environment of the University of Western Australia were acknowledged for their work in developing the tool. Special thanks goes to South Coast NRM, the Department of Agriculture and Food and members of GOTAG for funding and supporting the project.


View a copy of the citation. Check out the PIA WA website for other award winners.

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3/12/09 - Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Seminar was held on the 7th October in Mount Barker.

This issue is really starting to heat up. The seminar was designed to provide land managers, local councils, small business operators and residents with the latest information and background on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, which may have a major impact on and opportunities for the local economy in the Great Southern.
The seminar brought together speakers from a broad range of organisations that are climate change-conscious and are already preparing for the "cap and trade" environment.
It provided an opportunity to be more informed about the implications of the scheme and how it may impact on your business. View the seminar proceedings here.

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3/12/09 - South Coast NRM wins award for Restoring Connections project - October 2009

Congratulations to South Coast NRM for winning a Western Australian Landcare award for the project Resorting Connections at the recent State NRM Conference. Restoring Connections is a community driven project working with Noongar communities across the South Coast to identify, protect and restore cultural places at risk of degradation.


View project information

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3/12/09 - State Natural Resource Management (NRM) 'Changing Environments' conference - October 2009

The conference was recently held in Geraldton and hosted by the Northern Agricultural Catchments Council (NACC). Access speaker and poster presentations here.

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3/12/09 - South Coast Government Officers Technical Advisory Group (GOTAG) meeting 27th August 2009

This meeting was held a while ago but the minutes of the meeting have now been posted to the planning tool. A few presentations were made at the meeting and and are accessible from the minutes page. They relate to:

  • Preliminary results from a survey of South Coast small landholders were reported
  • A presentation on Trees, Agriculture and Emissions Trading (and associated proposals by local governments across the region developing policies on tree plantations and agroforestry
  • A revised methodology by the Department of Agriculture and Food for identifying productive agricultural land (PAL)

If you would like to discuss some of the content of the meeting please feel free to do so using the Discuss link in the top right hand of the page. View the Minutes

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3/12/09 - Policy being developed on rural settlements and land use - August 2009

The Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) and Department of Planning are, together with other key stakeholders, currently preparing more detailed policy to guide rural settlement and land use. This may also involve a review of Development Control 3.4 and Statement of Planning Policy 2.5. A draft policy for public consultation is expected to be available by early 2010.


View the media statement

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1/10/09 - Horse management guidelines added


Horse management is a significant issue for many local government authorities. Web-based horse management guidelines have been developed for the Northern Agricultural Catchment Council (NACC) region which provide access to guidelines and locally relevant resources to support better horse management. Much of the information is also relevant to the South Coast region. They were adapted from guidelines being developed nationally by Horses Land & Water.

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1/10/09 - Printable banner added

If you select the printer icon to the right of the page you will notice that this page will be printed with the banner which appears at the top of the page. This gives the site a more professional appearance and also enables each page to be printed as a fact sheet or for handing out to people who you think may value the information.

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9/9/09 - Broken links

There were about 100 broken links (out of 1000 or so in the website altogether) caused by changes to websites, names of Government departments and so forth. These have now (mostly) been restored.

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29/7/09 - Sustainability Guidelines for New Industrial Estates

Perth Region NRM has initiated a project to produce a comprehensive set of guidelines for the planning and development of more sustainable light industrial estates in Western Australia. Through close collaboration with the City of Gosnells and in consultation with Landcorp and the Department of Planning, it is intended that these guidelines will be developed in a context that will compliment existing state planning polices and in a format that will allow for easy incorporation into current Local Government planning frameworks.

Extensive research completed in February 2009 established an outline for the integration of sustainability principles into the design, construction and operational phases of new industrial estates. Key sustainability elements included the existing environment, resource use, pollution management, social aspects and economic viability.

Further development of these guidelines is continuing in consultation with key stakeholders and with a primary focus to enable practical application to the planning process. Their completion is expected later in 2009 with a practical trial, in partnership with the City of Gosnells, targetting proposed industrial developments within the Maddington-Kenwick Strategic Employment Area.

Contact Peter Male, Sustainable Industry Project Officer at Perth Region NRM for more information. Email: Tel: (08) 9374 3303

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8/7/09 - Links to other best management practice (BMP) knowledge bases

A number of other knowledge bases have developed for other regions of Western Australia. These include those as follows:

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9/3/09 - Planning guidelines developed for vineyard development in the South Coast region

Wine grape vineyard development is expected to continue expanding rapidly in the South Coast region of Western Australia bringing both economic and social benefits and potentially some impacts on the environment which will need to be managed. These include impacts on natural resources along with potential conflicts with existing landholders. To avoid and manage some of these impacts, a set of online planning guidelines have been developed for use by local and State government agencies in the region.

The guidelines have been developed by the Government Officers Technical Advisory Group (GOTAG) of South Coast NRM Inc., a regional group coordinating natural resource management across the region. The guidelines concentrate on the siting, design and development of vineyards and can be used by local governments, State government departments and vineyard developers.

The design and content of the guidelines has had regard to the development focused elements of the Freshcare Code of Practice – Environmental which is being used as the framework for the new Australian Wine Environmental Stewardship (AWES) voluntary certification program. The guidelines will help guide the location and development of vineyards across the region while integrating with certification requirements.

The guidelines can be accessed at http://www.eksa.com.au/scnrm-planningtool. For further information about the guidelines contact Tim Overheu at the Department of Agriculture and Food WA (Email: , Tel: 08 98 928 533) or Keith Pekin at the Wine Industry Association of WA (Email: , Mob: 043274-4042).

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5/3/09 - Significant content updates made to the Planning Tool

The content of the Planning Tool has undergone significant changes following comments made by online reviewers. The most significant changes have been as follows:
  • Land and soil schema - separation of best planning practices (BPPs) from detailed guidelines and provision of links from the BPPs to the guidelines.
  • Water - separation of BPPs from guidelines and modification of content.
  • Biodiversity and native vegetation - separation of BPPs and guidelines and addition of further content.

Other significant changes have been made in accordance with the project roadmap.


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28/2/09 - Environmental Management Guidelines for Vineyards under Review

The need for a review of the Environmental Management Guidelines for Vineyards was identified by the Wine Industry Association of WA (WIAWA) and is being coordinated by Winewatch through an NLP funded project. (Winewatch is a partnership between Curtin University, Margaret River Wine Industry Association, Cape to Cape Catchments Group and GeoCatch with the Shires of Busselton and Augusta-Margaret River).

As the guidelines were developed in 2002 a review is needed to update changes in legislation and approvals required, and to include information on new technology and improved management practices. The Departments of Food and Agriculture, Environment and Conservation, and Water, and the WIAWA are constributing to the review which is expected to be completed by July 2009. Contact Genevieve Hanran-Smith, Winewatch Project Officer. Email: or Tel: 97572202.



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