The Davison's at Weranga

Craig Davison - Rehydrating Weranga, One Contour at a Time

Our next Natural Sequence Farming Champion story takes us to Weranga, 30km from Tara and 65km from Dalby, where Craig Davison runs a trading and backgrounding operation carrying between 350 and 550 head. It's a story that starts, like so many of these stories do, with three years that broke something open.

Three Dry Years

2017 was dry. 2018 was drier. And 2019 was, for most of the eastern seaboard, largely regarded as the driest year on record.

But for Craig, the severity wasn't only about the lack of rain.

"It probably wouldn't have been quite so bad if there was still some life in the country and some grass," he says.

That observation is what sent him looking for a different way of managing his land, and it's what led him to the Tarwyn Park Training course.

A Third of the Rainfall

Craig remembers Stuart's opening words at the course vividly.

"If all of Australia was rehydrated, you could still farm it on about a third of the rainfall."

It hit home, because it matched exactly what Craig had already worked out for himself, watching three rainfall events pass through country that simply wasn't set up to hold them.

"If it had have been hydrated in the first place and got through in those three rainfall events, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as bad."

5.5 Kilometres of Contours

The work at Weranga is built around contours, around 5.5km of them, starting at the top of the property and stepping down, slowing the water as it moves toward the river.

Leaky weirs have gone in, too. But for Craig, it's the contours doing the heavy lifting.

"It's the contours that rehydrate the country and give the country the opportunity to de-energise the water, and let the plants build up and do what they were doing originally before we came along and bugged it all up."

Twice the Result on Half the Rain

As the landscape starts functioning again, Craig has seen the maths shift in his favour.

"You possibly need half the rainfall to get twice the result," he says. The contours pick water up and put it out across the ridgelines, not just where it happened to fall. "It's where the spillways drop it off. So it's a cost-effective way. You get a big bang for your buck. You can reuse a lot of water."

More Than Just Water

For Craig, Natural Sequence Farming comes back to a simple idea of duty.

"I think we have a duty to leave the land in a better position than when we found it."

And rehydration isn't only about holding onto water. It's about what leaves a farm alongside it.

"Every time water leaves your farm, nutrients and fertility goes with it. So it's not just the water, it's the nutrients."

There's no silver bullet, as Craig puts it. The first step is simply to stop wrecking the land, then work with what's already there.

"You can kind of work with mother nature or against it. And if you work against it, you're only going to be wrong 100% of the time."

👉 Watch Craig and Fiona’s full story here: https://youtu.be/et6af2nIA7M

Peter Andrews OAM spent his life showing people that there's a better way to work with the landscape. This story continues that mission, proof that the work is happening right now on farms right across Australia.

Let's Rehydrate Australia - together.

We'd love to hear your thoughts after you watch Craig and Fiona’s story. Comment below and let us know what resonates with you.

🔗 Subscribe to the channel: https://youtube.com/@tarwynparktraining

🌏 Learn more: https://www.rehydrateaustralia.com

⛰️ Take the next steps to restore your landscape with our on-ground Learn Natural Sequence Farming course, or join our new online course, Learning Landscapes.

This is the eighth story in our Rehydrate Australia series, sharing the journeys of farmers and land managers implementing Natural Sequence Farming across Australia.