When John and Robyn Watson and their sons Andrew and Peter moved to ‘Kilmarnock’, a property on the banks of the Namoi River in 1968, there was little awareness of the destructive impact of allowing cattle free access to waterways. Many of the areas along the riverbank had been subject to continuous grazing for a long time, and were showing the effects. Within a few years of the Watsons taking over the property, a series of floods swept through. The already eroded and damaged river banks were washed away and large river gums fell into the stream.

Robyn set herself the task of solving the problem. She found that the banks opposite large stands of willow trees (‘chokes’) were the worst affected, showing serious erosion. She concluded that willows, along with cattle, were causing some of the problems. At the time there were no Rivercare planners or Landcare coordinators to offer advice, so Robyn used common sense to tackle the issue.

She chose one of the worst areas first, which contained large and old river red gums that were threatening to fall into the stream with the next flood. She fenced out the area to keep stock off the fragile banks and planted 150 trees to complement the natural regeneration of trees, shrubs and grasses.

The next step was tackling the willows. The first chokes were removed completely with the help of an excavator. Later attempts involved leaving the roots in the soil and painting the stumps with herbicide to avoid disturbing the soil. After removing willows, Robyn would monitor each area for suckers and remove them with a bow saw, paintbrush and herbicide. Inspired to keep going, Robyn embarked on a major revegetation program, establishing 8,500 trees on the farm and spending many hours watering and weeding them through years of drought.

Her keen observations of the natural environment had unexpected benefits. Robyn observed that one species of grass in fenced out areas seemed to withstand the constant floods better than any other. It was identified as vetiver grass, a native species once widely distributed across the Namoi Valley. It turned out that this species existed only on ‘Kilmarnock’. Robyn now propagates and distributes vetiver grass to landcare groups all over the catchment, as it is extremely successful in arresting erosion on riverbanks.

Since starting her regeneration program, the riparian areas of the property have been completely transformed. The willow free zone of riverbank stretches for more than 22 km of the Namoi, thanks to efforts by the Boggabri Rivercare/Landcare Group, of which Robyn is the secretary. Groundcover has improved immensely, trees and shrubs are now regenerating naturally, soil erosion has slowed and in some cases halted and flood events no longer devastate the banks. The old river red gums on the very first site to be fenced are still standing today.

‘Robyn has led the charge by Boggabri Landcare Group to rid the waterway of willows, manage stock by fencing the riparian zone and improve groundcover by replanting native trees, shrubs and grasses,’ says Peter Capp, chairperson of the Liverpool Plains Land Management Committee. ‘On other areas of the farm there are numerous tree corridors and a magnificent natural wetland that has a conservation agreement in place to protect it. Other areas are also fenced and managed for conservation.’

Robyn knew that her work had borne fruit recently when she witnessed a massive bird breeding event on the banks of the Namoi. Hundreds of darters and little pied cormorants descended upon ‘Kilmarnock’, nested in the many trees she had planted, and raised their young.