Recent media stories of dry conditions affecting New South Wales and Queensland have shown the depressing conditions that seem to go hand in hand with the regular onset of dry weather in Australia, but this New England grazier and Southern New England Landcare Member, has an alternative approach to drought management...

Gordon Williams ihas lived on 'Eastlake' (1202 ha), between Uralla and Walcha for 47 years.

Previous experiences during drought conditions led Gordon and his father to re-examine the way they were managing, and improve their drought resilience into the future. Gordon has documented the evolution of drought management on 'Eastlake' in his article Drought Management and History on 'Eastlake' (2018) G. Williams.

Today, Gordon and his family have made substantial changes on “Eastlake” including a large and successful, long-term native revegetation program to enhance on-farm biodiversity, in conjunction with robust and resilient livestock grazing practices that are now undertaken by lessees.

Gordon works closely with his grazing lessees to ensure that both native and improved pastures on the farm are managed in a sustainable, profitable and resilient way. Gordon is considered a leader in successful revegetation strategies. Read Gordon's article, first published in The Rangeland Journal in 2017, about cost-effective landscape revegetation.

Recently, Gordon and Wendy Williams hosted a Southern New England Landcare field day for our Trees on Small Farms and Closing the Gap projects.