Property Management Planning

NRM South’s Property Management Planning (PMP) Program is a practical, hands-on workshop series designed to help small property owners plan for a sustainable future.

Run annually via a series of Saturday workshops across late summer-autumn, this course is tailored for smallholders looking to get the most out of their land.

Small farms are popular in Tasmania’s south-east region. Property planning is essential step for all new landholders, and for those wishing to change the way they manage their property and better understand how to work with the land, reduce impacts and build a network of meet like-minded people.

Small farms have different needs to larger properties, and this program has been designed specifically for properties up to 100 hectares. The popularity of small farms in southern Tasmania, nestled within a landscape that still retains many areas of native bushland, means that this program is helping to build a network of cooperative land management strategies across broader production landscape.

BUILDING ON OUR PAST SUCCESS

From 2012 to 2018, NRM South ran annual small farm planning workshops in the Huon and Channel regions, in collaboration with the Huon Valley Council. Over the course of the program, we provided advice and training to 137 participants on 82 properties in the Huon and Channel regions, representing productive land management strategies implemented across 1,482 hectares.

A NEW CHAPTER

In autumn 2025, in response to continued demand and through funding from the Australian Government’s Climate Smart Agriculture Program, we relaunched this popular workshop in the Huon Valley, which saw 26 farmers from 15 farms across the Huon, Channel and Coal Valley attending. In 2026, our PMP was extended to smallholders in the Coal Valley for the first time.

PMP is a process for developing and documenting the visions and goals for a property, with a focus on natural resources. NRM South’s PMP workshops are held on weekends at participants’ properties over the course of the summer-autumn period.

The workshops take a practical, hands-on approach to managing small properties, and include presentations on topics including soil health, grazing management, native vegetation, fencing, browsing mammals, weed management. Over the course of the workshops, participants develop a Property Management Plan with support and guidance from the project team.

If you’d like to learn more, you can access our Landholder information resources in our Resource Library.

The PMP process includes:

  1. Identifying a property’s natural assets, capability and management needs
  2. Identifying a vision and goals for the property, taking into account lifestyle, family, environmental and financial aspirations
  3. Assessing resource and management risks
  4. Using maps to plan management options
  5. Preparing an action plan
  6. Implementing the plan

INTERESTED IN FUTURE WORKSHOPS?

Our PMP registrations open in early summer for the following year’s course, but if you’d like to register your interest and stay notified, you can email our Land Program Coordinator for more information.

This video, from our first round of workshops (2012-2018) features a few of the Huon Valley region’s stunning farms employing holistic property management strategies, as well as some great insights from previous participants about how the course helped and shaped property management planning decisions on their farms.

  • Pasture chats

  • Caring for native vegetation

  • Learning about weed management

  • The importance of soils and pasture

  • Soil pH testing

  • Remembering whose boots are whose is the biggest challenge!