Desert Knowledge CRC

Higher grazing profits and sustainable pastoral landscapes can go hand-in-hand, according to new research starting in the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).

Rotational grazing systems offer significant scope to cut costs, increase livestock productivity, make better use of country and at the same time achieve better vegetation cover and environmental stewardship.

And it’s all down to natural cattle and sheep behaviour, says Desert Knowledge CRC’s Dr Ben Norton.

“This runs counter to most things science has been saying for the past quarter of a century: that there are no obvious advantages in rotational grazing over set stocking.”

But the evidence of a handful of pastoralists who are turning loss-making operations into highly profitable ones and restoring the condition of degraded country at the same time is hard to ignore, he says.

“It appears to be a question of scale, especially in the pastoral zone, and of animal behaviour. A large mob of animals that is on the move behaves quite differently to a smaller mob that is in one large paddock all the time.

“Sheep and cattle are naturally migratory animals. They move, graze and water in large mobs. Their loyalty is to the herd or flock.

“But when you pen them in a paddock more-or-less permanently they become territorial – loyal to particular locations. This leads to higher grazing pressure in some areas and less effective use of the total grazing resource.”

Dr Norton says that observations on properties in semi-arid Australia – both cattle and sheep – indicate there can be major advantages in moving to a rotational system in a planned fashion.

Animal behaviour and animal distribution occurring in paddocks on a commercial property have been irrelevant in grazing trials on research stations. This Desert Knowledge CRC research will test rotational grazing at a property scale, …

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The partnership between one of Australia’s largest food manufacturers and the country’s leading indigenous food company is set to double the size of the fledgling bush foods industry and create jobs for Aboriginal Australians.

Ward McKenzie, one of Australia’s largest food manufacturers and exporters of herbs and spices, and Robins Foods, makers of Australia’s leading indigenous food range Outback Spi it, have joined forces to market the unique flavours of Australia’s native foods to the world.

The companies predicted the native foods industry, currently worth an estimated $10 million per annum, will double its turnover over the next five years as a direct result of their collaboration.

“We are very excited about bringing Aboriginal foods not just to a wider market at home but to the rest of the world,” said Helen Ward, Joint Managing Director of Ward McKenzie.

“We want to help Robins Foods create sustainable jobs for Aboriginal people through their partner Indigenous Australian Foods (IAF), an indigenous-owned supply chain.”

Ward McKenzie’s investment will strengthen the entire native foods value chain, said Juleigh Robins, Managing Director of Robins Foods.

“We are thrilled to have a company of the caliber of Ward McKenzie help us develop these new and delicious products. The partnership puts our aim of making native foods an everyday part of Australia’s diet within close reach.”

Ms Robins said the support her company has received from the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) has strengthened the bush foods industry and facilitated its growth.

“The Desert Knowledge CRC’s support is critical for improving the efficiencies and capacities of indigenous people who harvest native foods from the desert and for introducing sustainable agricultural systems for these species.”

Dr Craig James, Desert Knowledge CRC Program Manager, expects the partnership to increase the production capacity of desert Australia, home of …

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Desert Knowledge Australia and Desert Knowledge CRC are hosting a world class workshop in Alice Springs (27 July – 29 July) to help industries located in desert Australia identify how they can network together to improve business in the future.

The workshop run by internationally renowned Ifor Ffowcs-Williams and Mike Burke from Cluster Navigators is ground breaking work since this session physically brings 15 facilitators together from across Australia including Broken Hill, Kalgoorlie, Mount Isa, Port Augusta, Coober Pedy and Alice Springs in the first stage of the Desert Knowledge Australia Linked Business Networks Project.

“People will leave this workshop with initial skills development in how to either create local business networks or build on existing networks” explains Mr Ffowcs Williams. “They will then use a range of technologies to link those networks across desert Australia”

“A key element of this project is that regional development and other organisations from across four states and the NT are working closely together under the banner of Desert Knowledge Australia to create networks that will assist businesses identify opportunities and work with each other to mutual benefit.”

The 18 month project at this stage covers industries such as mining services, tourism, housing design, renewable energy services and bush products. Already participants are exploring ways in which particular mining service expertise in one region can help fill a shortfall in another region The conventional bush foods industry could be expanded by such innovative ideas as using festivals like the Alice Springs Wild Foods Festival as a market place for products from across desert Australia.

“A project of this scale would not be possible without the support of Telstra and AusIndustry” states John Baskerville, Chair of Desert Knowledge Australia Interim Board. “We are certainly thankful for their help and it will be exciting to report …

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Australia is in the grip of a ‘dust age’, a five year-long spell in which the winds sweep tens of megatonnes of topsoil from the face of the continent.

“Dust is a measure of the care we are taking of Australia, just as the sediment in a river reveals how you are looking after its catchment,” says Professor Grant McTainsh, who heads the dust research team in the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre.

“Up till 2001, we thought we were getting better at it, based on the previous 40 years’ data. Then a major dust era erupted, from 2002-04, which still persists in NSW and parts of northern SA and western Queensland.”

A single giant dust storm took 4.85 million tonnes of soil, Prof. McTainsh and colleague Dr John Leys, calculated. In the same year 20 other events took over a million tonnes apiece. Accentuating the continent’s violent contrasts they recently observed a huge dust plume rising right alongside a flooding creek.

One of the reasons Prof. McTainsh and his team can be so precise about the scale and origin of dust storms is a newly-formed network of ground observers spread across the continent who supplement the satellite imagery with details of the dust colour (indicating its origin and composition) visibility (indicating volume) and wind direction, things not easy to determine from space.

The Dust Watch network was established in 2002 in NSW by Dr Leys from the NSW Dept of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources and Prof McTainsh from Griffith University. Today it has 200 volunteers – mainly enthusiastic pastoralists – who report in whenever they see a dust storm brewing. Some race it in their utes to assess its speed and use fencelines to calculate visibility.

The network has also given rise to the “dusties”, a new inland …

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At least another generation of desert Aboriginal people is likely to suffer from extreme hardship if the failure of compulsory and post compulsory education services to build their capabilities is not addressed urgently, an international conference will be told.

Metta Young, from the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre, will be presenting her research into education and training pathways for desert Indigenous peoples at tomorrow’s International Geographical Union (IGU) conference in Brisbane.

“Evidence about the interaction between desert Aboriginal people and the vocational education and training (VET) sector gives us fresh insight into the potential impact of new mainstreaming arrangements for Aboriginal people,” she said.

“Already mainstreamed services such as VET have trouble meeting escalating need. Relying solely on mainstream services in education, health and transition to work initiatives may condemn at least another generation of Indigenous people to extreme hardship.”

Alice Springs – based Ms Young, who has worked with Aboriginal peoples across Australia for the past 20 years, says the transition to mainstream jobs, as required by the new CDEP arrangements, without drastically building the educational and social capabilities needed to make that transit is doomed to fail.

Ms Young said her presentation, “Growing the desert: Are we being served?”, analyses VET delivery to desert Aboriginal people and the tension between livelihood activities in remote settlements, such as ‘caring for country’, and the types of vocations considered valid by Australia’s mainstream, industry-driven training system.

“My research has found little will to work with the strengths and assets of Aboriginal people and the value their skills and knowledge have for the nation.”

Her findings show that Aboriginal people in remote settlements study VET courses predominantly for personal and community development reasons and that this participation has had minimal impact on their transition from CDEP to real jobs.

“Most desert Aboriginal …

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Sweeping changes to the way services are delivered to remote Aboriginal settlements and new thinking about wealth creation have been urged by researchers at a national conference in Perth today.

For remote settlements to be sustainable we must find a better way for services providers and consumers to work together, starting with a reduction of the administrative overload, said a key note speaker at the Sustainability of Indigenous Communities conference at Murdoch University.

“People in remote settlements are drowning in growing amounts of paperwork, ironically in order to administer their own self determination. No non-Aboriginal council would put up with this,” said Dr Mark Moran from the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).

“When added together, the number and complexity of reports required by different levels of government is mind-boggling and often beyond the capacity of local communities,” he said.

Dr Moran, the leader of the Desert Knowledge CRC’s new Sustainable Services for Desert Settlements research project, said the service system has to become much simpler and much more responsive to consumers if Aboriginal people are to achieve their aspirations.

He said we must come up with innovative ways for consumers in a restricted budget environment to express their demand, which balance the tradeoffs and the contributions they are prepared to make.

”This is not only about money, but also long term investments in time and effort,” he said. “We must also find ways to involve consumers in decisions about budget and program allocations that are currently made by service providers alone.”

“Changing funding mechanisms and redistributing service functions at different levels of the system are just some of the solutions our research is exploring.”

“It investigates whether some service functions, such as regional road works, should have been made the responsibility of people in remote settlements and, conversely, if …

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Some of the best minds, community entrepreneurs and business brains from the world’s deserts will gather at the Alice Springs Convention Centre from November 1-3 to share success stories, new insights and practical lessons.

The Desert Knowledge Symposium: Global Desert Opportunities is a rare opportunity to sample the expertise and creativity of desert regions, home to one sixth of humanity.

Coming at the end of the International Year of Deserts and Desertification and Australia’s Year of the Outback, the event will explore and showcase enterprises, innovations, business opportunities, science and technology solutions, culture and collective knowledge thriving in the global desert.

Over 60 national and international presenters will discuss new and innovative ways to do business in the desert and to manage and create sustainable livelihoods from natural and cultural desert resources.

Water and energy solutions for desert people, education and the desert knowledge economy, and the future of inland towns are also on the agenda.

Australian businesses will benefit from the event’s expo-style business showcase, providing an opportunity for desert enterprises and those wishing to do business in desert regions to network and promote their services and solutions globally.

Three hundred participants are expected for the two-day symposium which, according to conference organisers, the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) and Desert Knowledge Australia, and will inject an estimated $100,000 into the local economy.

The event marks the half-way point in the seven-year life of the Desert Knowledge CRC, a research network linking Aboriginal and local knowledge with science and research training.

“I am excited about this chance to share our early research results with desert dwellers from around the globe, to learn from them and strengthen our links with the world-wide desert knowledge movement”, said Desert Knowledge CRC Managing Director, Jan Ferguson.

Desert Knowledge Australia builds networks and …

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Two Central Australian Aboriginal organisations have joined with the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre to create new research training, employment and enterprise opportunities for desert people.

They are Tapatjatjaka Community Governance Council, which runs Titjikala community near Alice Springs, and Waltja Tjutangku Palyapayi Aboriginal Association (Waltja), an Aboriginal women’s non-government organisation which supports families and services on remote Central Australian communities.

Jan Ferguson, the Managing Director of the CRC, welcomed Waltja and Titjikala as the newest affiliate partners of the national research network.

“The agreements with both organisations bring us a step closer to our goal of genuine participation of Aboriginal people in research that is useful to them”, she said. Tapatjatjaka Community Governance Council wants to tap into a broader knowledge network to develop their community.

Titjikala elder, Mr Johnny Briscoe, said he hoped the collaboration with the Desert Knowledge CRC would help his community.

“We like to see our projects to combine the best of our knowledge with the best of Western science. We think this is the best way forward”, he said. Titjikala, which already operates a successful cultural tourism business, is exploring the potential of traditional bush foods and medicines for enterprise development in partnership with the Desert Knowledge CRC.

Mr Briscoe became involved with the Desert Knowledge CRC when researchers started to work with his community on the Plants for People project.

The groundbreaking community development project provides research training, documents and protects Aboriginal knowledge about bush medicines and investigates the plants’ medicinal properties and commercial potential.

The Desert Knowledge CRC and its new research partners have agreed on stringent protocols that protect the intellectual property each organisation brings to the collaboration.

They also ensure that the rights to jointly developed intellectual property are shared equally between partners.

Earlier this month, Waltja and the Desert …

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An Aboriginal business leader from Western Australia has been elected as Deputy Chair of the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre Board, the organisation’s Chair, Mr Paul Wand, announced today.

Mr Noel Bridge is a business development consultant with a strong track record of helping Aboriginal enterprises and not-for-profit organisations to succeed.

Mr Bridge has been a director of the Desert Knowledge CRC Board since its inception in 2003.

An inaugural member of the Telstra Country Wide Advisory Board, Mr Bridge continues to represent the interests of the people living and working outside metropolitan centres and to promote the best possible telecommunications solutions for them.

He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and also serves as a member of the Governing Council of Central TAFE in Perth.

“Noel brings more than 15 years’ experience in Aboriginal economic development, business planning and the mining industry to the Desert Knowledge CRC,” said Mr Wand. “He has been a significant contributor to the Board’s work on strategy and serves on the Audit and Risk Management Committee.”

“Coming from a remote inland town, I am always interested in the practical application of research that benefits people and communities throughout desert Australia,” said Mr Bridge.

“We need to encourage creative ideas that further support sustainable livelihoods, service provision and structures that make people want to stay and live in our deserts – this includes research that respects and builds on the knowledge and efforts of those who have come before and that links them to new ways of thinking and the new technologies of the future.”

Mr Wand also welcomed two new directors to the Desert Knowledge CRC Board, Ms Christine Charles and Mr Mark Chmielewski.

Ms Charles is the Regional Director, Environmental and Social Responsibility of the Australia/New Zealand operations of …

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Desert knowledge from around the globe will spark debate and create new business opportunities at the Desert Knowledge Symposium and Business Showcase, which kicks off in Alice Springs tomorrow.

Architects and builders have a chance to find out what the traditional architecture of the Sahara can teach them about sustainable building for desert climates.

Dr Mohammed Sherzad, an architect from Ajman University in the United Arab Emirates, will share his knowledge of adapting buildings and settlement layouts to the beautiful but harsh desert environment.

US architect Gustaaf Brest Van Kempen will talk about building design in Tunisia and Algeria with members of the Desert Knowledge Australia Sustainable Buildings Network.

The symposium will also hear how the joint cross-border business networking pilot project by Desert Knowledge Australia (DKA) and the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) managed to generate millions of dollars of extra income for desert businesses.

International business clustering expert, Ifor Ffowcs-Williams, will talk about the rewards of getting competing businesses to collaborate across state and territory borders.

John Huigen, the CEO of DKA, says desert entrepreneurs from across Australia will share their networking success stories at the Business Showcase.

“Take Joel Butcher from Alliance Engineering in Broken Hill,” he said. ”Thanks to DKA’s Mining Services Network his and four other Broken Hill businesses were able to negotiate a $5 million contract which they could not have won on their own,” said Mr Huigen.

“Business networking helps desert people in industries such as bush foods, sustainable building, mining support services and tourism to network and share ideas even though they live thousands of kilometres apart.”

“We are leading cross-border networking in Australia, and communications technologies such as video conferencing play an important part in this success.”

Virtually linking desert people, wherever they are, is the subject of a symposium …

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