Rural landholders have produced an ambitious plan to transform the Majura Valley into a model of agricultural sustainability that will attract tourists from across the country.
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But the report said uncertainty about leases and the adverse impact of the proposed Majura Parkway were hindering their vision for the area.
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Sustainable Farming in the Majura Valley, a report issued by the ACT Rural Landholder's Association in collaboration with Molonglo Catchment Group, urges the ACT Government to consider the future of the valley and consult landholders about the proposed 11.5km of dual carriageway.
It calls on ACT Roads to review the alignment of the $288million project which some landholders fear will exacerbate flooding on their properties.
Report co-author and president of the Majura Valley Landcare Group, Sherry McArdle-English, said many landholders were unable to activate business plans because they were on three-month leases.
''The final planning for the Majura Parkway and the Majura Valley has not yet been decided and until that is decided there is no future for landholders, because they are currently on three-month leases with a withdrawal clause, if the Government wants to take the land back they can give them three months' notice and they have to leave.''
Long-term leases have been discontinued from 2005 to make way for the road.
Ms McArdle-English, who owns a thriving truffle farm in the area, said Majura Valley had the potential to become the ACT's answer to Margaret River or the Hunter and Barossa valleys.
''Visitors driving into the ACT would be driving though a picturesque, rural setting before they get to the Parliamentary Triangle,'' she said.
''The driving force of this report is to protect the valley, to replant the native grasslands and woodlands that were once there and as a flow-on effect it would attract tourists to the valley.''
She said a boutique tourism industry was already developing in the area, with her French Black Truffles farm and Mt Majura Vineyard.
The report is centred on interviews with 12 rural landholders in the area, many of whom wish to develop new boutique tourism ventures. Some of the ideas mooted by different landholders include creating an ecological overnight farm stay, a horse riding trail, bird corridors and olive plantations.
Landholder Shane Keir is on a quarter-by-quarter lease and has been told he would have to vacate his home in 2014 to make way for the parkway, which is expected to divide his property.
He said growing oats and lucerne on his 203ha property was no longer possible.
''It's hard to establish a footprint to continue running the land to normal activity.
''There's an eight-year cropping cycle and I have very expensive costs so there's not much point planting a new crop if I don't know what will happen.''
Mr Keir said the proposed Majura Parkway would bring tourism into the area - but landholders needed more certainty.
He hoped to develop a carriage museum on his property.