#025 The New Megafauna
The key to our future prosperity? With Chris Henggeler from Kachana Station
Can the new mega-fauna regenerate land and water systems, take away the need for systematic fire regimes and culling programs, and ultimately be the key to our future prosperity?
Kachana is a remote station in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia, accessible only by plane or foot. Chris Henggeler and his family have run it for over a generation now. From the early days sleeping in the back of a ute, they set about living a vision for a healthy family life on the land, while regenerating the grasses, forests and wetlands that had largely turned to dust.
Chris Henggler speaking with Anthony at Kachana Station. Pic: Olivia Cheng.
“We have a great opportunity to actually pioneer the rebuilding of an economy that’s in line with how nature worked in the first place - that is running with current solar energy. And then exporting that working knowledge to people who no longer feed themselves. ”
A generation later, Chris is a leading figure in the development of holistic grazing in Australia. He runs cattle as ‘gardeners’, as a non-fossil fuel based means of regenerating land. Chris thinks of these animals as the new mega-fauna, the large herbivores we need to restore to the land – along with others too readily designated as ‘pests’ and culled, like the wild donkeys he’s integrated into his management plans.
George Monbiot has contested these methods in a high profile ‘debate’ with Allan Savory. But the successes at Kachana are marked - the creek that runs year-round now provides the homestead with its water, the forest now teems with life, and springs and birdlife are returning to the land.
Join Chris as he takes Anthony for a look around one of the most spectacular places in the world, that could also be one of the most important to our future prospects as a civilisation.
Note: There is the occasional gust of wind in this recording as we walk around the property. We edited out what we could. As for the sounds of family in the background, consistent with the theme of this podcast, they stay.
Get more:
Tune into two special extras to this episode. The first is a conversation with Jacqueline Henggeler on ‘Creating the Kachana Vision’. And the second features more on the fascinating back story of Kachana Station, with Chris.
This is the 3rd and final part of our Kimberley series. Listen to episodes 21 and 22 for the 1st and 2nd instalments.
You can also hear Charles Massy, mentioned in this podcast, in conversation with Anthony in episode 32 An Underground Insurgency.
Music:
43, by Owls of the Swamp.
With the intro tune by Jeremiah Johnson.
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode.