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02 Jun 2008

Long Paddock
Australia's national dictionary, The Macquarie, defines 'Long Paddock' as "a stock route or open road, regarded as a place where people, often too poor to own their own paddocks or pay for agistment, can graze their cattle, sheep horses etc", these stock routes become very important in times when drought returns to the driest inhabited continent. Australian climate is one of extreme variability, our farmers have worked out how to make a living for the benefit of the nation, but there are problems associated with that.... land degradation during droughts... This is perhaps a romantic historical definition.

A major review of the Queensland stock routes has been implemented. This valuable State resource must be managed sustainably and not overgrazed. Indeed, some parts of the stock route are important as refugia for threatened pasture plants and rare native vegetation. The Land Protection (Pest and Stock Route Management) Act 2002 provides for the management of the stock route network in Queensland for the primary purpose of travelling stock, agistment is a secondary use. The stock routes are still very important in times of drought but there is a fee for their use and local governments are required to carry out detailed assessments prior to the issue of permits. The need for improved management in the new act also embodies the aspirations of what Long Paddock hopes to achieve - improved sustainability of the Queensland's grazing resources using seasonal climate forecasts to adjust stocking rates before land degradation from overgrazing occurs.
More information about the stock route network is available on the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Water website.

Since much of the information on this site concerns drought, 'Long Paddock' seemed like an appropriate name for a location on the information highway!
The Long Paddock website contains a large amount of climatological and pastoral information in the form of reports, graphs and maps (over 63,000 as at June 2002) some of which date back to 1890.
Questions or comments may be sent to rouseabout@nrm.qld.gov.au

The site was launched in December 1995 (some archived versions are held at the National Library of Australia Pandora website), in 1996 it won the major prize from the Sydney Royal Easter Show Farm Software Competition, it was also voted the Best Government Site in the 1997 Telstra Internet Awards. The Satellite Fire Monitor part of Long Paddock was recognised at the 2001 Asia Pacific Information Technology and Telecommunications Awards through winning the "Best IT Innovation", Natural Resources and Mines Award.