Dick Condon talks about Oldman Saltbush

Dick Condon is the former Western Lands Commisioner for New South Wales. He has had a lifelong ineterest in improving land management & profitability of rangeland grazing country.

He has been very influential in the the growth of Grazing Management Systems, we regard him as a key mentor, and our Narromine facility is named in his honour.

Dear Visitor,

I am pleased to be part of the Grazing Management Systems team and trust that those making their way to this website will find it a valuable source of information and an inspiration to better ways of making environmentally friendly and more profitable use of our land resource. It is wise to keep in mind that this resource has not been passed down by our predecessors, but lent to us by our children.

It is over 55 years since I first began working with Oldman saltbush. In that time, I have come to marvel at its abilities to survive and thrive in conditions where crops and pastures have failed and, especially, to keep yielding high volumes of protein-rich forage, no matter how severe the conditions, whether too wet or too dry. Plantation Oldman saltbush acts as a catalyst, in conjunction with holistic land management practices, to revive soils degraded by unsuitable grazing and cropping practices.

I continue to be amazed at the uses to which it can be put.

Rural Australia is currently facing great challenges. The drought has shown that the land use practices we have brought from Europe cannot cope. The problems we are now facing with salinity are also largely a result of European land use practices being unsuited to our soils and climate. Global warming may induce climatic changes which will further challenge these practices.

The use of Oldman saltbush, in conjunction with holistic management, will enable landholders to meet these challenges  in the most effective, environmentally friendly and economically sustainable way.

The purpose of this website is to provide information on the ways that Oldman saltbush can be used to meet these challenges.

Kind regards,

Dick Condon, B.Sc.Agr., F.A.I.A.S.T., OAM