The Ripple Effect project is a national, grower-led project improving on-farm water security, biodiversity, and climate resilience for Australian farmers, with dams as a central focus.

The project will guide growers towards multifunctional water infrastructure that enhances and provides future biodiversity and carbon market opportunities while improving water security and quality.

Demonstration sites across Australia will support accelerated adoption of best-practice water management, to increase biodiversity and reduce emissions, strengthening farm water security, productivity, and sustainability.

Led by the Grower Group Alliance, the project consortium includes key academic and research institutions across Australia, including; the University of Western Australia, the Australian National University, the University of Adelaide, the University of Southern Queensland, and The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).

All eight national Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs have pledged to support the
project, and will engage with grower group networks representing over 20,000 producers.

Collaboration and extension through all project partners will drive the adoption of innovation in water security and quality, biodiversity and emissions reduction to protect natural resources, improve productivity and profitability, ensuring truly national and enduring impact.

This project is funded by a grant from the Australian Government’s Natural Heritage Trust Climate-Smart Agriculture program.

Project Activities

Overall, the project aims to create a scalable, collaborative approach to sustainable water management that is accessible to farmers and land managers across Australia, enhancing productivity, profitability, and environmental resilience on a national level.

Project Sites

See the Service Delivery Areas (currently approximate delivery areas) for the project in the map below:

National Demonstration Sites

See the National Demonstration Sites for the project in the table below:

Resources

Learn more about the project and demonstration sites across Australia. Watch the full playlist of videos here.

The Ripple Effect Partners Case Study – activities overview 2026

Learn more about each project partner, their activities, how they are measuring success, what they aim to achieve, the benefits, and how to get in contact with each partner.

Click to download a copy of the A4 Project overview. This one pager gives a brief project overview. A valuable resource for events, field days and trade stalls.

Find out more about the project and learn about each key partner and their involvement in this project.

Read mor e

Improving water security for Kangaroo Island farmers

Read the work being undertaken by the SA Drought Hub lead organisation: Agriculture Kangaroo Island, Hub members and partners involved: PIRSA, Kangaroo Island Landscape Board and Node: Struan involved in Ripple Effect looking at demonstration sites for producers to learn about and observe water monitoring systems to reduce water use, maximise water-use efficiency and ensure livestock have access to water.

Read the work being undertaken by the SA Drought Hub, Lead organisation: Barossa Improved Grazing Group and Hub members and partners involved: South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) and Node: Roseworthy involved in The Ripple Effect looking at demonstration sites for producers to learn about and observe water monitoring systems to reduce water use, maximise water-use efficiency and ensure livestock have access to water.

A study aimed to help farmers design smarter incentives that match farmers’ motivations and real-world constraints. Led by Elizabeth Galanis, Deakin University.

Read the Paper here.

The Ripple Effect research farm, Toowoomba, Qld tour 2025

This video shares The Ripple Effect project partner, University of Southern Queensland (USQ) research farm in Toowoomba, in 2025.

Watch here

Preliminary Investigation of Methane Emissions from Farm Dams in Western Australia

This project aims to initiate the pilot work needed to understand how to collect and analyse methane emissions data from Western Australian farm dams.

Get involved

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Project Followers Updates

February 2026 Updat e

The Ripple Effect National Calendar

View the calendar to see the upcoming events happening across Australia. Events include: workshops, training and demonstration site tours and more. Click the event for more information on how to register.