Mulligan, DR, Gillespie, MJ, Gravina, AJ & Currey, NA 2006, 'An Assessment of the Direct Revegetation Strategy on the Tailings Storage Facility at Kidston Gold Mine, North Queensland, Australia', in AB Fourie & M Tibbett (eds), Mine Closure 2006: Proceedings of the First International Seminar on Mine Closure, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 371-381, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/605_30
(https://papers.acg.uwa.edu.au/p/605_30_Mulligan/)
Abstract: A closure objective of Kidston Gold Mines Limited was to return a self-sustaining savannah woodland 
vegetation of native trees and introduced and native ground cover species to areas disturbed by its Kidston 
mining operation. One of the major areas of disturbance was the 310 ha tailings storage facility (TSF) into 
which approximately 68 Mt of tailings were deposited between 1985 and 1996. Early revegetation trials 
conducted in the early-mid 1990s demonstrated the capacity of the tailings to support vegetation growth 
without the requirement for a capping layer of soil or other cover material. The tailings storage facility was 
decommissioned at the end of 1997 and as the accessible area on the surface of the facility became 
progressively available (from March 1998 through to December 2001), planting and seeding of over 50 
native tree and shrub species and 8 introduced and native pasture species was undertaken. With the support 
of drip irrigation over the first few months and initial fertilisation, the alkaline tailings have proven to 
successfully support the establishment and growth of a range of native tree and shrub species. Greatest 
success with upper-and mid-storey species has been where competition from introduced grasses has been 
minimised. 
Since 2001, up to four areas of different aged rehabilitation across the surface of the TSF have been 
monitored on an annual or biennial basis by The University of Queensland's Centre for Mined Land 
Rehabilitation (CMLR). The overall aim of the Kidston monitoring program has been to assess the 
progressive development, functioning and composition of the rehabilitation areas prior to relinquishment by 
the company. This paper presents some background on rehabilitation works and research trials undertaken on 
the tailings and reports on the most recent findings from the vegetation monitoring that has been conducted 
on the four TSF sites (TD40, TDNA, TDNB and CTD) in the period 2001 to 2005. The 2005 findings are 
presented in relation to two unmined analogue communities and preliminary rehabilitation targets. 
Monitoring against these interim targets has proven to be a valuable process for tracking the structural and 
functional development of these vegetation communities. In addition, an ongoing assessment of the tailings 
attributes contributes to our understanding of soil development processes and hence the longer–term 
sustainability of the reconstructed ecosystem as the company aims towards lease relinquishment.