Regional Coordinator
Nick Christodoulou
PO Box 102
Toowoomba Qld 4350
Phone: (07) 46 881 450
Email: nick.christodoulou@dpi.qld.gov.au
Grain & Graze projects in the Maranoa Balonne
- Matching land use and land capability. View project summary.
Project contact: Stephen Ginns, phone (07) 46208122, email stephen.ginns@dpi.qld.gov.au - Capacity building of the Maranoa-Balonne community. View project summary.
Project contact: Stephen Ginns, phone (07) 46208122, email stephen.ginns@dpi.qld.gov.au - Improved management of the components of mixed farming enterprises. View project summary.
Project contact: Stephen Ginns, phone (07) 46208122, email stephen.ginns@dpi.qld.gov.au - Benchmarking current performance of production systems (monitoring and evaluation). View project summary.
Project contact: Stephen Ginns, phone (07) 46208122, email stephen.ginns@dpi.qld.gov.au
Updates, Fact Sheets and recent media
Grain & Graze in the Maranoa Balonne.pdf (pdf - 66KB)
Region Snapshot
The Maranoa-Balonne region in Southern Queensland stretches from the New South Wales/Queensland border,
north to the Great Dividing Range, covering an area of 110,000 km2. The population is 30,000 and includes the Shires of Booringa, Bungil, Bendemere, Waggamba, Balonne, Warroo and Tara in Queensland. Major centres include Roma, St George, Mitchell, Mungindi, Dirranbandi, Surat, Thallon and Bollon.
This region has one of the most variable climates of any cropping area in Australia, creating a high-risk environment for mixed farmers, who face extremes of heat and cold as well as significant variability in rainfall.
There are 1,552 farms in the region. The main agricultural activities are wheat, sorghum and barley, with chickpea, mung beans and canola also contributing to the cropping mix, while cotton and livestock are also major contributors to the $678m value of agricultural production in the region.
Major natural resource management issues for farmers in the region include soil loss through intense summer rainfall, sloping topography and sodic surface soils, a decline in soil fertility, deep drainage and dryland salinity.