Thin edge of the wedge?

I N S I D E � The new uncertainty � Opinions ... got one? � Heads in the cloud � Snap, crackle ... slice � DCG news

... leave our rivers alone

the basinBULLET

F e b r u a r y 2 0 1 3

desertchannelsG R O U P

voice of the desert channels group

Editor

C O N T E N T S E D I T O R I A LA S I S E E I T

For more on the work of the Desert Channels Group, visit www.dcq.org.au, email info@dcq.org.au or call 07 4658 0600.

While it is still early days, it appears the great big bad carbon tax that would grind Australian businesses into the ground is driving something else down instead … carbon dioxide emissions. This decline in carbon dioxide emissions, coupled with the way Australians seem to have come to terms with the tax, and embraced the subsequent compensation, as well as the fact they are thankful something is finally being done on climate change, would indicate that the scrapping of the tax by a future Coalition government, may not be the smartest thing to do.

Unfortunately, governments are not always known for rigorously testing a potential strategy, they rely more on public mood, anecdote and opinion polls and, sometimes, stubborn adherence to doctrine. In the face of a crime wave, the immediate reaction of both politicians and their constituents is to ‘lock em up and throw away the key’, yet one of the most comprehensive studies on the criminal justice system in Australia has shown that harsher punishment doesn’t reduce crime rates … an increased likelihood of being caught and imprisoned does.

We can easily fall into the trap of ‘this is the obvious solution’. Dutch charity, International Christelijk Steneunfonds donated textbooks to Kenyan schools in the hope of improving students’ results. It made no difference, but treating the children for worms did.

As informed citizens, we should demand ‘evidence-based’ policy-making from our politicians - robust research by experts in the field rather than best intent, opinion polls or vested interests. Perhaps, then, we wouldn’t see proposals like the current Queensland Government one to reopen the issue of irrigation on The Cooper.

Do we want to run the risk of uninformed decision-making with one of the world’s last unmodified major desert river systems? Or should we be demanding an evidence-based approach from our leaders?

Uncertain times 3

... a fluid situation?

To infinity 5

… and beyond!

Opinions 7

... when you can’t have them

Hold that thought 8

... cause and effect

Our busy backyard 9

... the games we’re playing

Heads in the clouds 10

... feet on the ground

Invasions 11

... and how we deal with them

The nosebag 12

Snap, crackle ... slice

T H E

The attempt to grow irrigated cotton on the floodplains of Cooper’s Creek, besides galvanising opposition, brought many positive results. The inhabitants of the stations and communities in the catchments learned that they could come together and roar. And people outside the river catchments would take notice.

The Cooper’s Creek Protection Group (CCPG) was formed at that first meeting in the mid-90s. A broader, less radical but more functional group, the Lake Eyre Basin Coordinating Group, followed in the second half of the 90s. This was an innovative, catchment-wide, cross-border community group. The LEBCG took a hard hit early in the new century with the Federal Government’s call for a regionalised approach to funding distribution.

This saw state-based NRM bodies evolve and the cross-border groups disbanded. The state-based regional body taking on the provision of NRM services to the Queensland section of the Lake Eyre Basin was, of course, Desert Channels Queensland.

Over time Queensland introduced unique legislation, the Wild Rivers Act. The unique character of the LEB Rivers requires special management processes, management ably carried out by pastoralists to date. Many see the Wild Rivers Act as formalising the protective custodianship carried out by graziers for the past century.

The legislation, starting as a surprise grab for green votes by Premier Peter Beattie in the 2003 election, was eventually born of robust, and at times abusive, debate. THIS was consultation at work and at times it hurt! Under subsequent Premier, Anna Bligh, the Wild Rivers Declaration for Western Queensland was put into place, and it largely excluded the development of mining and irrigated agriculture in proscribed areas.

For some years there was peace in the Outback under the Wild Rivers legislation. There was a moan of complaint here and there about the Act and its declarations, perhaps an occasional shriek of politically-driven opposition, but good seasons and wonderful flows in the rivers allowed the legislation to settle. The sun came up each morning … life was good.

March 24, 2012 saw change of the state government in Queensland from the long-standing Labor government to the LNP. This immediately raised a question mark on the future of the Wild Rivers Act, as the new government, while in opposition, had made many promises to dump the legislation. The weakness of Wild Rivers always was that it could be chucked into the dustbin by any new government.

Promises by political leaders need to be kept, or at least appear to be kept, and with Wild Rivers it mattered little that the legislation might be the best safety net for the outback region. The new government, as it changed the furniture and wall hangings in George Street, was soon assailed by petitioners whose issue was the Wild Rivers legislation. Anti-Wild Rivers folk demanding that promises be kept; environmental and scientific groups asking for the legislation to be retained. A large body of pastoralists are for Wild Rivers, while bodies like Agforce are not as sure that Wild Rivers is a good thing.

The Government knew it had a hot potato. So what does a government do with a hot potato? ... form a committee or a representative panel and throw them the hot potato. That is exactly what Campbell Newman’s LNP government did.

On November 22, 2012 Andrew Cripps, the new Minister for Natural Resources and Mines travelled into the dusty Outback and announced the formation of the Western Rivers Advisory Panel ... wrapped up the state’s Wild River problems in WRAP.

Cripps was critical of the Wild Rivers legislation, saying it ‘caused considerable angst for people in Western Queensland’ and that he hoped ‘the formation of the WRAP process would restore confidence in Government processes under the LNP’.

The Minister said ‘This process (WRAP) is designed to develop a more practical, less onerous framework that will preserve environmental values and support the agricultural and resource pillars of the economy’.

The Government isolated itself from the problems of Wild Rivers with the ovenproof mitt of the two good women and nine good men of the WRAP.

The fuse to the powder keg was lit when Andrew Cripps was in Longreach launching the WRAP. During questioning by journalists and lobbyists, it became clear that the LNP has an agenda for the future of the Western Rivers:

Uncertainty

The government knew it had a hot potato

NewA gathering of 39 people protesting against the freeing up of irrigation provisions in the Channel Country in a town the size of Windorah equates to a mass rally of tens of thousands in a capital city. Does the Newman LNP government face a major challenge while negotiating the tightrope between pre-election promises and the established Wild Rivers Act? Founding editor of the Bullet, Bruce Honeywill, returns to give us this assessment ...

Appointees to the Western Rivers Advisory Panel are:Gerry Fogarty (Georgina Diamantina Cooper Aboriginal Group)Councillor Bill Bode (North Western local governments)John te Kloot (AgForce Queensland)Rob Jansen (Georgina Diamantina Catchment Committee)Angus Emmott (Cooper Creek Catchment Committee)Professor Richard Kingsford (Lake Eyre Basin Scientific Advisory Panel)Judith Harrison (Lake Eyre Basin Community Advisory Committee)Trevor Whitelaw (Santos Ltd - representing the resources industry)Peter Douglas (Desert Channels Queensland)Councillor Stuart Mackenzie (South Western local governments)Mayor Julie Groves (RAPAD)

In Windorah at the February meeting, Channel Country grazier and chair of the CCPG, Bob Morrish, called the Newman Government’s plans to change river protection provisions ‘a slap in the face to the people of Cooper’s Creek and the Channel Country’. Approaches have been made to shire councils and Government-funded boards like RAPAD to take the message of the people to Government.

A WRAP meeting was scheduled for Longreach on 18th and 19th of February; the 16th and 17th was a weekend to remember. More than 140 mm of rain fell on Longreach, more upstream in the Thomson catchment. Flooded roads meant that Channel Country delegates Peter Douglas and Angus Emmott could not make the WRAP meeting.

Under the red herring of consultation with the WRAP, the Wild Rivers legislation will be shut down by, or before, mid-2014;

The rich floodplains of the Lake Eyre Basin rivers will again be open to proposals for irrigation and other development projects; and

Mining will no longer be excluded from the areas currently sheltered by the Wild Rivers legislation.

The trend was never more evident than exhibited by advertisements run in the Longreach Leader on February 15, by the State Government’s Department of Environment and Heritage, the State body with the charter to protect the environment. The Department is actively prosecuting changes to the declarations of the Wild Rivers Act 2005 to ease mining access and development in the catchments of Cooper’s Creek, and the Georgina and Diamantina rivers.

WRAP members who did attend the Advisory Panel meeting have told the Bullet that few outcomes were achieved over the Monday and Tuesday. The meeting was described as ‘chaotic’ and ‘without direction’.

The meeting was polarised on the topic of ‘small-scale irrigation’; representatives of Agforce and other members spoke in favour of this type of irrigated agriculture. Others were against it.

Uncertainty of its direction seems to be the current theme of the WRAP. The Queensland Government wants the WRAP to complete its review and recommendations by March 2013. From reports of the meeting, it appears consensus from the members of the WRAP seems unlikely in the short time allotted, with attendance of the February meeting flood-affected and only one more scheduled meeting to be held in March, in what seems to be a totally inadequate timeline.

If nothing else the actions of the Newman Government have brought uncertainty to the people of Outback Queensland, with a heightened vulnerability to the spectre of mining and resource extraction within the precious areas of the rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin.

... ‘a slap in the face to the people of Cooper’s Creek and the Channel Country’.

Continued...T H E N E W U N C E R T A I N T Y . . .

. . . and b eyond

From socia l media , grant wr i t ing workshops and f ie ld days to t ree plant ing, f i lm-mak ing and photography, Landcarers in the West are gett ing involved in Landcare ac t iv i t ies. Under the enthusiast ic guidance of Hayley Glover, Deser t Channels Group’s Regional Landcare Faci l i tator, Landcare in the region is enjoying a resurgence.

Just reading about the ac t iv i t y of the last s ix months is a good cardio workout . As par t of Nat ional Schools Tree Day, over 100 budding Junior Landcarers planted trees in school grounds at Boul ia , Winton, I l l f racombe and Muttaburra State Schools, Our Lady ’s Col lege, Longreach K indy, St . Joseph’s S chool and St . Br igid ’s Church.

According to Hayley Glover, the k ids learnt far more impor tant lessons than just how to plant t rees. “ They quick ly grasped how cr i t ica l i t i s for wi ldl i fe to have nat ive vegetat ion corr idors, rather than just i solated c lumps,” she sa id. “And they embraced ways to incorporate susta inabi l i t y into their ever yday l ives ; th ings l ike plant ing nat ive and water wise plants, us ing water wisely around the home, the role of compost ing and how easy they are to get star ted.” Junior Landcare has a lso engaged Longreach Scouts Group, as wel l as the Djarra and Longreach state schools.

Whi le Junior Landcare works hard at being fun and engaging for our nex t generat ion of land managers, i t a lso works hard at establ ishing net works with teachers, and suppor t ing teaching staf f in del iver ing educat ional programs in l ine with the Nat ional Curr iculum. Hayley has been work ing with the Ear thSmar t regional coordinator, ass ist ing schools to complete and submit grant appl icat ions for the development of school vegie gardens. She has a lso establ ished an emai l d istr ibut ion l i s t for new educat ional resources such as Feral Focus and Pest Tales, funding oppor tunit ies l ike Coles and Yates G arden Grants, and school

competit ions such as Junior Landcare’s How Does Your G arden Grow? photo competit ion.

The results of these ef for ts are a l ready showing up with three Longreach School of Distance Ed students becoming f inal ists in Junior Landcarers Going the Distance v ideo competit ion. Congratulat ions to the three f inal ists , I v y Schmidt , Hugh Spack man and Hayley Bowden, who submitted excel lent v ideos on weeds, rabbits and cane toads respec t ively. The work of these budding Spielbergs can be v iewed at w w w.dcq.org.au

Whi le there has been quite a focus on the Junior Landcarers, the oldies haven’t been forgotten. The Regional Landcare Faci l i tator Program, which is funded by the Austra l ian Government, keeps our current land managers up to date on funding oppor tunit ies, NRM and industr y developments, Landcare news f rom the Austra l ian Government, and upcoming workshops and events.

“Shar ing stor ies i s a lso a real ly impor tant aspec t of Landcare,” sa id Hayley Glover, “and not just local ly.

Bellyache bush field day

The Deser t Channels region is the 510,000 square k i lometre Queensland catchments of the Lake Eyre Bas in r ivers, the major source of water to the wor ld ’s 5th largest terminal lake. Nur tur ing Landcare groups and the Landcare ethos over one -third of Queensland is a huge contrac t , even bigger i f you are only one person. But , sometimes, ta lented people can make amazing things happen . . .

To Infinity

Rio Twitchathon Junior Landcare - Ilfracombe St Bridgid’s Church

funded through the Austra l ian Government ’s Car ing for our Countr y in i t iat ive. I nterested communit y members in Longreach wi l l receive a voucher for a nat ive plant to replace a weed removed f rom their garden. This i s a great in i t iat ive to educate the communit y, whi le reducing the threat of garden waste to our environment.

The Upper Thomson Catchment Landcare Group is del iver ing a s igni f icant projec t tack l ing Park insonia , Pr ick ly Acacia and Rubber Vine across several neighbour ing proper t ies in the Muttaburra area . This projec t i s a lso funded through the Austra l ian Government ’s Car ing for our Countr y in i t iat ive and is t remendous suppor t for a ver y hard-work ing group.

“Leigh Deutscher, Deser t Channels Group’s NRM Faci l i tator, presented an update on the Group’s fera l p ig control projec t , Pigs M ight Fly, at the Queensland Landcare Conference in Br isbane, and Ronel l Frazer, the Group’s Tradit ional Ecological K nowledge Recording Projec t O ff icer, presented the projec t database at the Nat ional Landcare Conference in Sydney.”

Hayley a lso shares Landcare stor ies through socia l media , with the Upper Thomson Catchment Landcare Group’s f ie ld day spread over Facebook with l ive updates, commentar y and photos.

I n other Landcare in i t iat ives around the region, Longreach Landcare Group is running a ‘weed for a nat ive’ p lant swapping program

T O I N F I N I T Y . . .

As covered in the December Bul let , the Durham Downs Landcare Group recent ly held a ver y successful Ladies Day workshop which was attended by over 80 women from across centra l Austra l ia . Women were pampered, inspired and informed on beaut y, health and Landcare … what a natural combinat ion.

There has a lso been a Bel lyache Bush Fie ld Day, Upper Thomson Catchment Landcare Group Best Prac t ice Fie ld Day, R io Twitchathon, and Gidgee Control Fie ld Days … whew!

Don’t go to the gym, r ing Hayley G lover on 07 4658 0600 and join your lo c al L andc are group!

Continued...

Secondly, I say something like this: “I’m sure you’ve heard the expression ‘everyone is entitled to their opinion.’ Perhaps you’ve even said it yourself, maybe to head off an argument or bring one to a close. Well, as soon as you walk into this room, it’s no longer true. You are not entitled to your opinion. You are only entitled to what you can argue for.”

A bit harsh? Perhaps, but philosophy teachers owe it to our students to teach them how to construct and defend an argument – and to recognize when a belief has become indefensible.

The problem with “I’m entitled to my opinion” is that, all too often, it’s used to shelter beliefs that should have been abandoned. It becomes shorthand for “I can say or think whatever I like” – and by extension, continuing to argue is somehow disrespectful. And this attitude feeds, I suggest, into the false equivalence between experts and non-experts that is an increasingly pernicious feature of our public discourse.

Firstly, what’s an opinion?Plato distinguished between opinion or common belief (doxa) and certain knowledge, and that’s still a workable distinction today: unlike “1+1=2” or “there are no square circles,” an opinion has a degree of subjectivity and uncertainty to it. But “opinion” ranges from tastes or preferences, through views about questions that concern most people such as prudence or politics, to views grounded in technical expertise, such as legal or scientific opinions.

You can’t really argue about the first kind of opinion. I’d be silly to insist that you’re wrong to think strawberry ice cream is better than chocolate. The problem is that sometimes we implicitly seem to take opinions of the second and even the third sort to be unarguable in the way questions of taste are. Perhaps that’s one reason (no doubt there are others) why enthusiastic amateurs think they’re entitled to disagree with climate scientists and immunologists and have their views “respected.”

No, you’re not entitled to your opinion

Meryl Dorey is the leader of the Australian Vaccination Network, which despite the name is vehemently anti-vaccine. Ms. Dorey has no medical qualifications, but argues that if Bob Brown is allowed to comment on nuclear power despite not being a scientist, she should be allowed to comment on vaccines. But no-one assumes Dr. Brown is an authority on the physics of nuclear fission; his job is to comment on the policy responses to the science, not the science itself.

So what does it mean to be “entitled” to an opinion?If “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion” just means no-one has the right to stop people thinking and saying whatever they want, then the statement is true, but fairly trivial. No one can stop you saying that vaccines cause autism, no matter how many times that claim has been disproven.

But if ‘entitled to an opinion’ means ‘entitled to have your views treated as serious candidates for the truth’ then it’s pretty clearly false. And this too is a distinction that tends to get blurred.

Every year, I try to do at least two things with my students at least once. First, I make a point of addressing them as “philosophers” – a bit cheesy, but hopefully it encourages active learning.

P A T R I C K S T O K E S

Patrick Stokes is a philosopher at Deakin University. His areas of research include personal identity, philosophy of death and remembrance, 19th and 20th century European philosophy, moral psychology and philosophy of religion. This article by Patrick Stokes is reproduced with kind permission from:

...entitled to an opinion

Five feet high and rising… Well, the rails are washed out north of town

CAUSE AND EFFECTHalf of Earth’s land surface has been modified by humans.

Humans and their actions cause the movement of ten times more soil and rock each year than erosion and weathering.

Soil takes so long to form that it is considered a non-renewable resource.

If all dams built since 1930 were drained, the world’s oceans would be about three centimetres higher than today.

Captain James Cook shared the planet with around 700 million other humans; you share it with 7.1 billion of the same species!

There are roughly 1.5 million described species out of an estimated 5 million species (most of them insects) on Earth

While Americans make up less than 5 percent of the world’s population; they account for 26 percent of the world’s energy consumption.

The sun delivers more energy to the Earth’s surface in two hours than all humanity consumes in a year.

All the Earth’s coal, oil, natural gas and mined uranium combined will only release about half of the energy that the planet’s surface receives from the sun each year.

One joule is the energy required to pass an electric current of one ampere through a resistance of one ohm for one second; 10 joules with 18 zeros is an exajoule; the sun delivers 3,850,000 exajoules each year.

Hold that thought!On Monday, the ABC’s Mediawatch program took WIN-TV Wollongong to task for running a story on a measles outbreak which included comment from – you guessed it – Meryl Dorey. In a response to a viewer complaint, WIN said that the story was “accurate, fair and balanced and presented the views of the medical practitioners and of the choice groups.” But this implies an equal right to be heard on a matter in which only one of the two parties has the relevant expertise. Again, if this was about policy responses to science, this would be reasonable. But the so-called “debate” here is about the science itself, and the “choice groups” simply don’t have a claim on air time if that’s where the disagreement is supposed to lie.

Mediawatch host Jonathan Holmes was considerably more blunt: “there’s evidence, and there’s bulldust,” and it’s no part of a reporter’s job to give bulldust equal time with serious expertise.

The response from anti-vaccination voices was predictable. On the Mediawatch site, Ms. Dorey accused the ABC of “openly calling for censorship of a scientific debate.” This response confuses not having your views taken seriously with not being allowed to hold or express those views at all – or to borrow a phrase from Andrew Brown, it “confuses losing an argument with losing the right to argue.” Again, two senses of “entitlement” to an opinion are being conflated here.

So next time you hear someone declare they’re entitled to their opinion, ask them why they think that. Chances are, if nothing else, you’ll end up having a more enjoyable conversation that way.

... Continued...

WETLANDS CASE STUDY

In another initiative true to our precept of using technology to the best advantage, our most recently completed wetland case study is now at the fingertips of 2.4 billion internet users. Having gone to the trouble of collecting and collating all this valuable and interesting information, what better platform than Wikipedia to share it with the world. Wikipedia is the first resort for information for more than a quarter of a billion people per day. A great way to get information to the masses. Have a look for yourself at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Galilee_(Queensland) - another case study is coming soon.

WATER MONITORING

January saw the start of a five month surface water monitoring project funded by the State Government. Our officers are sampling water from 14 sites across the Galilee Basin, four in the Desert Channels region, three on behalf of Southern Gulf, and seven on behalf of North Queensland Dry Tropics. Each site has to be sampled every three weeks, with the test results helping to build a picture of surface water health across an area of high exploration and mining activity.

COMMUNITY LANDCARE GRANTS

These are now open, range from $5,000 to $50,000, and are to help local community-based organisations and groups take on-ground action as well as build their capacity and skills to manage their natural environment and productive lands. These grants are available to increase adoption of sustainable land management practices, reduce the spread of pest species, encourage innovative practices, share knowledge, increase capacity in regional communities, and increase community participation in Landcare. Community Landcare Grants are open to local community-based groups; individuals are not eligible. Applications close 20th March 2013. For further information, contact Hayley Glover, DCG’s Regional Landcare Facilitator, on (07) 4658 0600 or hayley.glover@dcq.org.au.

PIG CONTROL

Our pig control project is still going strong, with the team out early this year, conducting an aerial survey and installing a series of fixed monitoring cameras to ascertain pig numbers in the target area before control measures were started. While this gave us some pretty interesting photos, it also enabled the project team to prioritise control activities to areas of greatest impact, further adding to the efficiency of expenditure.

MISTER TRIAL

The trial plots have been marked and the grid-lines cut for the early March, second round of the airshear (mister) trial - using a tractor-mounted airshear misting unit to apply herbicides to dense infestations of Prickly Acacia. While earlier dry weather had caused two postponements, this week’s soaking late summer rain has caused a flush of new growth that will maximise chemical uptake potential kill rates.

WEED CONTROL

Our joint pest management project with the Remote Area Planning and Development Board has approved 23 control projects, most of which are already underway, but all of which will be finished by the end of May. In separate works, DC Solutions is currently conducting a large survey, coupled with a follow-up control program, as well as a smaller, separate control program.

OTHER STUFF

We have just completed interpretive, historical signage design and production for the Boulia Shire to mark 5 remote gravesites, as well as the path the fateful Burke and Wills expedition took through the Shire. Also hot off the press is the DVD of the Longreach School of Distance Education’s musical, Kids in Space, where we filmed, edited and duplicated the final DVDs. With graphic design we are delivering business cards, promotional flyers and website design and production, as well as posters, booklets and advertisements.

PEOPLE DEMAND GOVT. RETHINK

Conference on Lake Eyre Basin rivers demands Queensland Government abandon plans to revisit irrigation on the Cooper. They called on the Government to ensure the ecological health of the rivers by rejecting activities or projects that have the potential to reduce or interfere with natural flows, and to enshrine permanent protection in legislation. View the news video here, the conference presentations here, and the conference communique here.

Our Busy Backyard

The Christmas New Year period is supposed to be the slow time; even though we put paid to that fallacy many years ago, this immediate past one has been out of the box. On top of all the project work, there have been some momentous changes on the team front.

Emma Egan went on extended leave some time ago, but returned as Emma Elliott. She has been with us from the early days in a variety of roles around administration, contract management and project management. She has strong family connection to the land and landholders; it’s great to have her back in the saddle, so to speak, and that she had the foresight to keep her married initials the same.

Brittany Wakefield spent the Christmas break in Canada and America with longtime boyfriend, Kien, and Santa brought her a huge, beautiful rock that she now proudly wears on the third finger of her left hand. Our congratulations to Britt and Kien.

Congratulations also to Hayley Glover who became engaged to Ben last year … must be something in the water!

Mike Chuk has moved deeper into retirement from DCG by taking up a position with wife, Julia, at Bush Heritage’s Bon Bon Station in South Australia. The wonders of modern technology will allow Mike to continue to do some small jobs for us.

Sue Akers and her husband, David, have also gone to a Bush Heritage reserve, Naree in New South Wales. Sue, also, will continue to do some work for us courtesy of Google Apps and the internet.Christine O’Brien joined us mid last year, courtesy of Campbell Newman, and has been a boon for the commercial arm, especially over the Christmas period when others were on leave. Christine is a highly credentialled project manager with technical expertise in water monitoring and metering and, with DC Solutions running upwards of 70 projects, many of them water related, her skills are well used. While Christine is based in Brisbane, she has regular sojourns at head office in Longreach.

Andrew Burrows is a far more recent newcomer to the team, joining us on a part-time basis from Dunedin in New Zealand. Andrew has a strong background in weed

and feral animal control, vegetation management and related areas of State Government policy. Between studying, hiking and playing the guitar, Andrew has been assisting us in planning, policy and funding applications. We thank Campbell for Andrew as well.

Ronell Frazer leaves us shortly after doing an outstanding job of delivering our Recording Traditional Ecological Knowledge project. Over the 19 month project, Nellie was able to identify knowledge holders, record, edit and produce eight project stories, as well as archiving a wealth of knowledge on the database. She credits this Caring for our Country project with giving her confidence to go out and achieve her goals. Nellie credits the support, guidance and inspiration of Elders as enabling her to grow as a person and want to tread a path for younger generations to follow. With that in mind, she is off to Batchelor Institute at Alice Springs to study Preparation for Tertiary Success to gain entry to University. Nellie says it’s time to do something and show her kids that it can be done. Good luck, Nellie!

C LO U D C R O W D

Mark Kleinschmidt’s experience has shown you can run from DCG but you can’t hide. Mark moved with his family, just before Christmas, to Highfields, north of Toowoomba. He continues in his role as Commercial Services Manager, logging in from his home office and working alongside the DCG team in their virtual office in the Google Apps cloud.

Roelie Hartwig has been with us for about five years, and for the past three, has also been doing some part-time fundraising and conference organising for the Australian and International Montessori Foundation. That role requires two international trips in the first half of the year, but she continues to do DCG work while she is away. Over the next few months she will be logging in from different places around the world.

DCG embraced Google Apps and cloud computing in early 2011, and has since researched, modified and adapted various integrated systems to best fit our NRM requirements while giving us unprecedented flexibility with our workforce, and real-time access to more expertise than a modest budget would have, historically, allowed. Through our commercial arm, DC Solutions, we are now offering support services to other regional bodies, not-for-profits and businesses who are contemplating a transition to the cloud. What seems like a huge leap of faith at the time, quickly becomes a no-brainer in hindsight - seven locations, one team, no server, less than 10% of previous IT costs.

C LO U D C R O W D

The Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre has recently embarked on a further five years of work under the Commonwealth Government’s Cooperative Research Centres program. We are continuing our investigation into new methods of detection and management of the impacts of Australia’s key vertebrate pest species such as rabbits, wild dogs and carp. The IA CRC also has a national NRM facilitation and engagement project that helps deliver this research and knowledge to on ground practitioners and land managers through all the NRM agencies. The NRM facilitation and engagement team can also offer technical advice regarding regional vertebrate pest strategies and facilitate coordinated group management across various land tenure.

In the last few months, some new PestSmart resources have been finalised and are now available on the web at www.feral.org.au/pestsmart. Some examples of the new products include the glovebox guide for managing rabbits, the working plan to manage wild dogs, guidelines for preparing a working plan to manage wild dogs, guidelines for planning carp fishing competitions, and many more.

Invasive Animals CRC

Additionally, the 2012 ‘Feral Photos’ competition was a great success with many entries being received and they can also be viewed online at www.feral.org.au. 2013 calendars featuring images from the 2012 competition have been produced and are available while they last. If you would like a copy, pass on your postal details to jessica.marsh@dpi.nsw.gov.au. There will be another competition run this year so make sure you get out there and take some photos of those feral animals in your area. You can also subscribe to ‘NRM Notes’ by emailing jessica.marsh@dpi.nsw.gov.au and ‘FeralFlyer’ at www.invasiveanimals.com/media-centre/subscribe/

... Continued...

It’s not every day I share a recipe, not even with my family, but I thought I’d make an exception for my first edition of the Bullet.

These cornflake biscuits are not only top shelf they are easy to make and always manage to bring about a

nostalgic moment.

The Nose Bag

D E S I G N A N D L A Y O U T B Y D C S O L U T I O N S

The Desert Channels Group is funded by

R I C E B U B B L E S L I C E

YOU WILL NEED:

125g butter

250g sugar

250g chopped dates

Juice of 2 lemons

3 cups of rice bubbles

100g slivered nuts (optional)

125g coconut

Combine butter, sugar, dates and lemon juice in a pot. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Line a 23cm square tin, or something similar, with baking paper, leaving excess paper to come up two sides of the tin. Cool the date mixture and combine it with the rice bubbles, nuts and coconut. Press it into the tin. Alternatively leave out the coconut and use it to coat the mixture once you have rolled them into small balls. You can ice the slice with chocolate or just leave it plain. Cut up into desired size.

Whip up some quick and healthy(ish) school snacks with this easy treat the children will love. Make them into snack bars or roll them into balls as a treat for any occasion, including school lunches.… x

T R E AT T H E M R I G H T