Projects
Know Your Southern Soils
About the Project
About The Project
The “Know Your Southern Soils WA” project is a partnership initiative between the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) and South Coast NRM. Through funding by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, this project will contribute to progress on the National Soil Action Plan which aims to improve soil health and long term soil security.
South Coast NRM will be working with ASHEEP & BEEF and North Stirlings Pallinup Natural Resources (NSPNR) to engage with local farmers to help them address key soil constraints in their regions. A combination of demonstration sites and events will run across the length of the project to help increase soils knowledge and drive adoption of improved soils management practices.
Project Details
What the project will do:
• Improve contemporary soil knowledge through increased soil-landscape mapping in Wellstead and Salmon Gums region, through the collection of soil data from 800 new sampling sites.
• Drive the adoption of improved soil management practices, via partnerships with local grower and catchment groups. These groups will create a demonstration site that targets local soil constraints and use management strategies to help remediate the negative effects that it has on soil health. In combination with the demonstration sites, the groups will also be running events to further increase soil knowledge.
• Position soil to be part of a regional natural capital accounts initiative across the South Coast region, and begin to extend what natural capital is and why it should be valued in our agricultural systems.
• Upskill the soil workforce – be that soil scientists, extension staff or land managers – in understanding and managing soil health.
Help us
Get involved with
Citizen Science
Whether you’re a landholder, land manager, or community member, there are plenty of ways to get involved.
If you’re keen to have your property considered for soil sampling as part of our fieldwork, express your interest with DPIRD here: https://www.dpird.wa.gov.au/KYSS
Workshops and other engagement events will kick off in early 2026. Register your interest at ag@southcoastnrm.com.au
Awareness raising
To see how the data collected by DPIRD is being used, visit the NRInfo website which supplies maps and data for soil landscapes across Western Australia:
NRInfo (natural resource information) for Western Australia | Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development.
If you are interested in learning more about Western Australia’s soils in general, then there are some great resources found at Soil Information & Research WA – Soil Quality Knowledge Base.
Contact us
Please contact the Know Your Southern Soils team for more information about the project – ag@southcoastnrm.com.au
Our project partners
• Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development
• North Stirlings Pallinup Natural Resources
• ASHEEP & BEEF
