From plantation to novel forest: Jim Osborne tells the story behind the cornerstone of the Yambulla Project –
20 years ago 'Top Yambulla’ represented all that was wrong with my family's property at Nungatta. Neglected, overrun with blackberry and colonising native species (wattle, tea tree, eucalypts) out competing grasslands, it was no longer fit for grazing and given the blackberry issue, leaving it to nature wasn't an option.
This is a challenging position for land managers. You’ve been entrusted to care for a piece of land and you have failed. Phrases like 'loss of pride' were used.
The best solution available to us at the time was leasing the land to a plantation. No capital was required and the lease provided a constant income which we could earmark for conservation work.
Looking back now I realise how little thought went into anything other than the land’s capacity to produce income. There were some who spoke out about threats to endangered animals and vegetation but the general feeling, certainly from the plantation managers (and I tended to tag along) was they were troublemakers - standing in the way of progress. The other options on the table were selling the land or plantation pine trees. Plantation eucalypts seemed the most palatable and even capable of restoring that lost pride.
Over the next 15 years I felt deep frustration at the lack of input I had into how the land was managed. One big fat controller had been supplanted by another — one whose vision only extended to the length of the lease.
It became clear to me that the project was extractive and the tenant resented anything that increased their overheads – wallabies browsing on young trees, the effect of remnant/old growth trees on growth rates of the plantation, wombats, the cost of maintaining firebreaks etc. I suggested I'd give them a rent break if they adopted a more holistic approach and I was looked at as if I was stark raving mad.
Summer 2020 changed everything. The plantation was wracked by the fires leaving 600ha of mostly dead, charred trunks. It was devastating to see and a stark demonstration of the inherent vulnerability of monoculture planting.
One of the short-sighted aspects of the project was that the lease had no clean up provision. This meant I ended up back where we started – with a degraded piece of land and not enough capital to restore it.
The Yambulla Project was born to navigate a path through these types of challenges and present landholders with more options. Options that include ways to bridge the capital gap and invest in long term solutions for productive land management with returns that go beyond the purely financial.
Follow our journey as we create a master plan for transforming this degraded former plantation site into a climate resilient and biodiverse novel forest that provides perpetual habitat, supports native food production and supplies sustainable timber products.
Feel at home in our secluded, architect-designed off-grid guest lodge. Surrounded by nothing but nature as far as the eye can see.
Cool and breezy inthe summer and cosy with wood-fired central heatingin the winter.
We acknowledge the First Nations Peoples as the first inhabitants and traditional custodians of the Yambulla valley and surrounding areas.
We recognise and value their continuing connection to the land and culture.
From plantation to novel forest: Jim Osborne tells the story behind the cornerstone of the Yambulla Project –
20 years ago 'Top Yambulla’ represented all that was wrong with my family's property at Nungatta. Neglected, overrun with blackberry and colonising native species (wattle, tea tree, eucalypts) out competing grasslands, it was no longer fit for grazing and given the blackberry issue, leaving it to nature wasn't an option.
From plantation to novel forest: Jim Osborne tells the story behind the cornerstone of the Yambulla Project –
20 years ago 'Top Yambulla’ represented all that was wrong with my family's property at Nungatta. Neglected, overrun with blackberry and colonising native species (wattle, tea tree, eucalypts) out competing grasslands, it was no longer fit for grazing and given the blackberry issue, leaving it to nature wasn't an option.
This is a challenging position for land managers. You’ve been entrusted to care for a piece of land and you have failed. Phrases like 'loss of pride' were used.
The best solution available to us at the time was leasing the land to a plantation. No capital was required and the lease provided a constant income which we could earmark for conservation work.
Looking back now I realise how little thought went into anything other than the land’s capacity to produce income. There were some who spoke out about threats to endangered animals and vegetation but the general feeling, certainly from the plantation managers (and I tended to tag along) was they were troublemakers - standing in the way of progress. The other options on the table were selling the land or plantation pine trees. Plantation eucalypts seemed the most palatable and even capable of restoring that lost pride.
Over the next 15 years I felt deep frustration at the lack of input I had into how the land was managed. One big fat controller had been supplanted by another — one whose vision only extended to the length of the lease.
It became clear to me that the project was extractive and the tenant resented anything that increased their overheads – wallabies browsing on young trees, the effect of remnant/old growth trees on growth rates of the plantation, wombats, the cost of maintaining firebreaks etc. I suggested I'd give them a rent break if they adopted a more holistic approach and I was looked at as if I was stark raving mad.
Summer 2020 changed everything. The plantation was wracked by the fires leaving 600ha of mostly dead, charred trunks. It was devastating to see and a stark demonstration of the inherent vulnerability of monoculture planting.
One of the short-sighted aspects of the project was that the lease had no clean up provision. This meant I ended up back where we started – with a degraded piece of land and not enough capital to restore it.
The Yambulla Project was born to navigate a path through these types of challenges and present landholders with more options. Options that include ways to bridge the capital gap and invest in long term solutions for productive land management with returns that go beyond the purely financial.
Follow our journey as we create a master plan for transforming this degraded former plantation site into a climate resilient and biodiverse novel forest that provides perpetual habitat, supports native food production and supplies sustainable timber products.