Kleinfelder were commissioned to conduct rehabilitation monitoring programs to ensure our client’s compliance with the Environmental Authority (EA) and Rehabilitation Management Plan (RMP) so as to understand the site’s progress to final land use and identify any constraints to attaining their rehabilitation objectives.

Understanding the project site

The project site was a large 9,509ha lease site, historically used for cattle grazing and gas extraction for power generation. The site was approximately half cleared and half wooded with remnant vegetation, including endangered regional ecosystems and wetlands providing high ecological value and fauna habitat to the area.

Adhering to the RMP

Kleinfelder’s ecologists were appointed in 2020 to conduct the rehabilitation monitoring program, and set their field methodology to correspond with the the site RMP.

Nine rehabilitation sites were monitored as part of the program and, where possible, the results were compared to previous years’ results to identify trends and anomalies. Overall the ground cover throughout the rehabilitation site was assessed to be at suitable levels and offered the client corrective action recommendations where necessary.

Project Results

Kleinfelder’s ecologists identified key interventions and provided technical analysis and recommendations for improvement, resulting in a decreased timeline to final land-use criteria. Kleinfelder and site staff discussed improvements to the rehabilitation program and identified further reference sites to improve data integrity.

Kleinfelder’s close consultation with the client aided the identification of potential future cost saving opportunities across the site, and resulted in Kleinfelder being appointed to conduct subsequent rehabilitation monitoring at the site.

Project Details

Location:
Bowen Basin, Queensland

Owner:
Anglo America