The State Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources has recently completed a three year project, known as Desert Jewels, looking at the management of mound springs and the FOMS has had some involvement. As part of that project, fencing of several springs at Levi was proposed. An initial proposal to fence all of the springs at Levi was not supported by the Arabana Aboriginal Corporation and a revised and reduced fence alignment was marked out on the ground during a visit in 2016 by FOMS and Arabana Elder Uncle Dean Stuart. The Arabana Aboriginal Corporation subsequently endorsed the revised alignment which is shown in red on the image below. The area proposed for fencing is around 10 – 12 ha.

Former lessees S Kidman and Co were fully supportive of the proposal but the on-ground works were not undertaken before the sale of the property to the Williams Cattle Company. In an effort to progress this matter, FOMS members Colin Harris, Bren Lay, Bruce Gotch and Simon Lewis met with Tony and Trevor Williams during the FOMS trip of August 2017.

During this on-site discussion it was clear that the springs were being heavily impacted by cattle. Tony and Trevor agreed that the current situation was in nobody’s best interests. They stressed that any decision about fencing would need to be made by their company and noted that a watering point would still be needed in the vicinity. In this respect, the group inspected the bore nearby, currently used by cattle, but in need of an upgrade. There was also some suggestion that the fencing could be extended to include the main spring in the bottom left of the image below, by following the alignment marked in blue on the image.

The meeting was positive and FOMS is confident of a good outcome. FOMS has sent further information to the Williams Cattle Company and we await their decision.