Water damage and the Great Barrier

Sugarcane farmer Vince Papale has built a
 wetland that traps and filters pollution
off his farm in Home Hill, 90 kilometres
south of Townsville.

Vince Papale is an environmentalist, but wouldn't dream of describing himself that way, and the green movement wouldn't recognise him as one of their own.

His family has farmed sugar cane on the table-flat fields of the Burdekin, about an hour south of Townsville, since his great-grandfather emigrated from Sicily almost a century ago.

Nearly a decade ago, Papale and his wife Rita made a decision that dramatically changed how they and their three children ran their Home Hill farm, and how they thought about themselves.

Frustrated to breaking point by poor drainage on their property that constantly flooded the cane fields, they signed on for a $195,000 federal government grant and poured in another $270,000 of their own.

Read Adam Morton’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Water damage and the Great Barrier.”