Due to growing awareness of and interest in K2C, a very short history of how the K2C project evolved will provide useful background and context for its future development.

A little pre-history

The upper Murrumbidgee has long been an area with many active natural resource management organisations. These organisations have long held a “big picture” view of how the upper Murrumbidgee fits in to a bigger picture – it provides much of the water for the very productive areas downstream in the Murrumbidgee catchment. It includes some of the nation’s highest peaks, part of the chain of mountains and hills stretching the length of the eastern seaboard, and it includes the nation’s largest inland city – its national capital – and many of the landholders work there. It includes remnants of natural temperate grassland and grassy box woodland – the remnants of areas that were once highly biodiverse and have since proved highly productive.

Prior to the initial establishment in 2004 of what would later be known as the K2C project, a number of natural resource management agencies and environment groups were undertaking on-ground projects and advocating for improvements in native vegetation condition and sustainable land management within the region. While much of the work was tightly focussed on local issues or had limited geographical extent, more than a few projects took a broader approach, and addressed landscape connectivity. Many ran without collaboration or coordination with the other projects being undertaken by other organisations and without an understanding of how each might fit together in a larger mosaic to form a big picture.

Scope of the K2C project

A gift from the estate of local ecologist, Dr Peter Barrer, was used to initially establish the project and thus extend his critical work beyond his own lifetime. Upon Dr Barrer’s death in 1997, his sisters sought an organization to appropriately invest the funds. This took some time and a number of organisations were approached to use these funds to advance the critical work of Dr Barrer by investing some of the funds in a property purchase in the region. Bush Heritage was selected.

Bush Heritage engaged Natural Capital Pty Ltd to scope the K2C project and bring together NGO’s, government agencies and regional natural resource management groups and authorities with expertise in the area. The aim was to initiate a dialogue on conservation and vegetation restoration and seek a collective commitment to work collaboratively to develop a landscape-scale project.

In 2005, a meeting of 8 organisations formed an alliance to progress conservation connectivity in the region. All groups supported the need for more active engagement with landholders to identify, extend and protect the threatened vegetation types in the area. The partnership concept was an opportunity to work collaboratively to enhance the on-ground initiatives each group was providing to landholders and align efforts.

A proposal was endorsed by the Bush Heritage board to purchase a conservation property and initiate and facilitate the K2C partnership project using funds from the gift from Peter Barrer’s estate.

In March 2006, Bush Heritage established a part-time facilitator position to develop the project further and encourage partners’ active involvement and collaboration. Meetings commenced and an intensive workshop to develop a Conservation Action Plan was run in June 2007 with input from all partners. This document guides the K2C project by establishing objectives and strategic actions.

What is in a name and a boundary line?

During its early development the K2C project underwent a number of name changes, “Dr Peter Barrer Nature Conservation Fund”, “East Murrumbidgee Cooperative Landscapes Project”, Kosci to Coast Conservation Link and finally Kosciuszko to Coast or K2C. In parallel with the name changes, the project area has also expanded.

The project area boundary has received as many changes as the name. Up until recently the project area extended to the east from Namadgi and Kosciuszko NP to the coastal escarpment and between Queanbeyan in the north and Cooma in the south. It covers approximately 12,000 sq. km and some of the steepest gradients in the country capturing many vegetation types. With some new lines being drafted the project boundary has been extended to meet existing catchment boundaries and this map is being revised.

Who was Dr Peter Barrer?

Dr Peter Barrer was a highly regarded and well published ecologist whose work was based on identification and protection of high conservation values native vegetation and connectivity linkages focusing on the area east and south east of Queanbeyan. It was his vision and a subsequent gift from his estate that influenced the initial K2C project scope. Dr Barrer’s work was later recognised as vital in the decision to convert areas he had surveyed from leasehold to conservation reserves under the 2000 Southern NSW Regional Forest Agreement.

Properties purchased

Bush Heritage investigated “Scottsdale” and determined it was a valuable and large linkage property that fulfilled Peter Barrer’s work for strategic conservation connectivity between the protected Namadgi NP and other intact native vegetation in the local landscape. The 1,328 ha property was purchased in late 2006.

The Nature Conservation Trust purchased a property in K2C identified by DECC staff as having an exquisite array of intact native grasses and forbs. This property was subsequently renamed, split into two smaller properties, were each given a perpetual covenant on their titles, a management plan to protect and enhance their values and then put back on the market.

Great Eastern Ranges Initiative

In early 2007, DECC announced the Alps to Atherton initiative to create a 2,600 km conservation connectivity link between the Victorian Alps and Far North Queensland. This initiative was reported nationally with media visiting “Scottsdale”. K2C is recognised as one of the first initiatives to re-connect and re-build resilience in critically fragmented landscape areas. Funding from DECC through its rebadged Great Eastern Ranges Initiative (GER) has supported the K2C project and helped promotion, extension and communications.

In the 2007/08 and 2008/09 financial years Bush Heritage and GER (DECCW) have equally funded the K2C facilitator. Other partners provide in-kind contributions to the project. The partnership grew with the inclusion of Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority and ACT Government.

What do the K2C partners offer to landholders in the K2C project area?

The range of offerings by partners is varied, running from information sheets and booklets, field days and workshops to assist landholders to manage their properties sustainably, through incentive programs to conserve or enhance natural areas, with varying levels of commitment by landholders including Wildlife Refuges, and Property Registration, through to Voluntary Conservation Agreements and property covenants and outright property purchase. Information sheets and the K2C website detail the current offers.

The partners are now working together, with a vision of a resilient connected landscape. Landholders participating in Kosciuszko to Coast are aware that they are part of the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative - a big picture landscape scale conservation connectivity project.

Future of K2C

By the conclusion of 2009 the K2C project had gained substantial recognition in the region and many landholders learn and benefit from the projects’ and K2C partners’ incentives, open days, field days, workshops, landscape trials and information exchanges.

The K2C project will continue to seek funding through government grants and other sources to build on and continue the motivated work of the project and the K2C partners and look at ways to further develop and expand the project itself.