Soils

Soil is wonderful stuff, humbly underfoot, made up of minerals, air, water and microscopic life. When your soils are teeming with life your plants will probably want to live there too.

Australian soils have relatively low concentrations of nutrients, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen. Overusing fertilisers leads to excessive soil nutrient build up that will promote weed growth, reduce the health and growth rate of native plant species, and contribute to the development of blue-green algal blooms in waterways and dams.

Modifying our land

This includes:

Bringing soil and fill onto the property
Cutting, filling, clearing and excavating

Modifications to the land could cause:

Soil erosion and silt in waterways
Nutrient leaching and water pollution
Weed invasion

Legal requirements

Landowners are required to obtain Council development approval for activities which can have a significant effect on the environment and then must provide adequate management of the modifications. This includes importing, exporting or moving fill.

What can we do?

Minimise erosion:

Minimise land clearing
Install silt fencing around disturbed areas
Bring in only clean compatible soils
Remediate disturbed soil with local native vegetation as soon as possible

Build good soils:

Encourage groundcovers	Minimise disturbance of the soil, which causes carbon loss
Build organic matter with mulch or native grasses	Minimise compaction and overgrazing
Reduce use of chemicals	Use organic fertilisers, manure or compost where needed

Further information

NSW Government Primary industry: http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/resources/soils/erosion

Hornsby Shire Council: www.hornsby.nsw.gov.au

Hunter Central Rivers CMA: http://www.ruralresidentialliving.com.au/soil/erosion_salinity.html

Brochure

Download this information as a brochure here and for some soil background see our Know Your Soils article