LANDHOLDERS REVIEW NEW FODDER PERMIT PROCESS

A plain-English guide that helps landholders prepare their fodder harvesting applications is being fine-tuned with the help of a group of landholders.

Natural Resources and Water Minister Craig Wallace said staff from his department recently met with landholders at Charleville to work through the fodder permit application process.

“They tested the system by helping nine landholders to complete their permit applications, using the guide and support of NRW staff,” Mr Wallace said.

Landholders were given the guide, a worksheet, and a toolkit of vegetation, satellite and topographic maps covering their properties.

“By the end of the day, the landholders had been helped through the steps to a complete application, ready for lodging.

“The workshop also helped NRW staff see how effective the guide and process was and how it could be made easier to use.”

Mr Wallace said as a result of the workshop, and another workshop the following day with industry leaders, NRW staff were revising the guide to make it better – and shorter.

“I was also pleased to learn the landholders at Charleville found the application process less difficult than they had feared, once they went through it with the NRW staff.

“Apparently, one participant said the process looked complicated, but ‘worked out easily’,” Mr Wallace said.

By engaging directly with landholders, NRW staff were also able to find out and discuss the landholders’ aspirations for their property, helping to plan their fodder and other vegetation management activities for the future, he said.

Mr Wallace said the revision of the Landholders’ Guide to Fodder Harvesting fulfilled a promise he made when he released it late last year.

“The whole aim is to make it easier for landholders to prepare and lodge their applications and thus make it easier for them to comply with the Vegetation Management Act,” Mr Wallace said.

Media inquiries: Paul Childs, Craig Wallace’s office, on 3896 3689 or 0407 692 654.