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Contract Research Projects

Uluru Fire

Contract research is research undertaken by DKCRC but financed by outside sources. This research, which generates significant funds to Ninti One and the partners, takes one of three forms: research commissioned by government departments, agencies or industry on a fee-for-service basis; research contracts awarded through a competitive tendering process, usually on a ‘quality of service and value-for-money basis’; and funding for contract research is also actively sought in the form of grants from government departments, agencies, industry and philanthropic organisations.

Contract Research generated $233 949 in actual income to the Desert Knowledge CRC from the $993 795 total worth of new Contract Research projects established during 2007–08.

Contract research highlights

Four of our largest and longest-running Natural Heritage Trust-funded projects were completed or near completion by 30 June 2008: WaterSmart Pastoral Production™; Central Australian Grazing Strategies; Cross-jurisdictional Management of Feral Camels; and People, Communities and Economies of the Lake Eyre Basin. WaterSmart Pastoral Production™ was displayed at a series of field days. The project’s success can be attributed to the work of Project Officer Colleen James, who delivered substantial outcomes in spite of the drought that affected the project’s pasture and livestock-monitoring components. A component of the Cross-jurisdictional Management of Feral Camels project was carried out by the Invasive Animals CRC, with a survey of pastoralists carried out by a division of the Department of Primary Industries and Resources (SA).Other components included geographic information system modelling of camel populations and a report on the impact of feral camels on Aboriginal settlements. People, Communities and Economies of the Lake Eyre Basin presented draft findings to the Lake Eyre Basin Ministerial Forum in March 2008. The response to the project has been very positive.

Other existing contracts

  • National Centre for Vocational Education Research and evaluation report Growing the desert: Educational pathways for remote Indigenous people available on the DKCRC and NCVER websites.
  • Uluru–Kata Tjuta Fire and Vegetation Management Plan: Strategic fire management plan and operational guidelines were delivered.
  • Enabling the Market: Incentives for Biodiversity in the Rangelands: Delivered a report to the Department of Environment & Water Resources outlining how market-based incentives for biodiversity may operate in rangelands.
  • Minerals Council of Australia: Evaluation of Memorandum of Understanding was delivered in December 2007 to the satisfaction of the MCA.
  • Australian Collaborative Rangelands Information System delivered a major report in August 2007. This landmark project involved Queensland, NSW, South Australian, Northern Territory and Western Australian government agencies to produce a national overview of condition and trends in Australia’s rangelands.
  • ‘Cattle and Country’ consists of analyses of how Aboriginal people engage with pastoral industry. The Indigenous Land Corporation, Meat and Livestock Australia and the WA Department of Agriculture and Food fund these reviews.
  • Alice Solar City project: The Hon Peter Garrett, Minister for the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, attended the project launch in March 2008. Our role is that of Knowledge Manager, establishing and running the Sustainable House in Alice Springs. By retrofitting a standard house we will demonstrate ways in which people can live comfortably without excessive energy and water use and with small carbon footprints.
  • Ngurra-kurlu: a way of working with Warlpiri: Report published; however, we are most proud of how we were able to negotiate an arrangement that involved IP from Aboriginal authors.

New contracts won

  • Evaluation of PaL (Parents and Learning): Evaluation of the program and its social benefits, which originated on Napranum community in 1999. Funded and supported by Rio Tinto Ltd and Napranum Preschool PaL Group Ltd.
  • Hands Across the Desert: Facilitation of knowledge transfer between Aboriginal groups and the bush foods industry in desert regions of Australia.

Project details

2007/08 NEW PROJECTS

Project Name: Hands Across the Desert: Linking Desert Aboriginal Australians to the Bush Foods Market

handsacrossthedesertClient Name: DAFF

Outcomes: Facilitation of the transfer of knowledge between Aboriginal groups and the bush foods industry in desert regions of Australia and to connect Aboriginal entrepreneurs with the bush foods markets


Project Name: Information = Power: Walk the value chain

informationpowerClient Name: Natural Resource Management Board (NT) Inc

Outcomes: To build knowledge and capacity of central Australian Aboriginal participants of the bush food industry to enable greater opportunity for the development of successful business enterprises. This project links to ‘Hands Across the Desert’.


Project Name: Stories inLand


Client Name: Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation

Outcomes: Stories inLand is directed at improved economic outcomes for landholders in remote desert Australia and the communities they belong to through involvement in a portfolio of NRM activities. The project will study the development, adoption and impact of a group of four to five Aboriginal communities who create and locally distribute stories of traditional land management using short video and slide/narration media, and learning how this communication among Aboriginal land managers can contribute to improving effectiveness of land management.


Project Name: Evaluation of Parents and Learning (PaL)

Rio TintoClient Name: Rio Tinto Ltd

Outcomes: Evaluation of the PaL program and how it contributes to the development of individuals and the community. In addition it will look at the lessons learned and how they can be used to improve and expand the program.


 2007/08 CONTINUING PROJECTS  

Project Name: Implementing ACRIS

implementingacrisClient Name: DEWHA

Outcomes: The Australian Collaborative Rangeland Information System (ACRIS) reports and interprets change in the rangelands based on national and jurisdictional datasets. ACRIS is a partnership between the Australian Government and State/NT governments with responsibility for rangeland issues. ( Link to report)


Project Name: Review of the Kimberley Indigenous Management Support Services (Cattle and Country Pt 2)

kimssClient Name: WA Department of Agriculture and Food and the Indigenous Land Corporation

Outcomes: A review of the KIMSS program, and development of the annual monitoring and evaluation framework, will help to identify how to get greater engagement of Aboriginal people in the pastoral industry


Project Name: Indigenous Pastoral Employment Review (Cattle and Country Pt 1)

pastoralemploymentClient Name: Indigenous Land Corporation and Meat and Livestock Australia

Outcomes: A review of past and current initiatives, programs and models of Aboriginal involvement in pastoralism across arid Australia will help to identify how to get greater engagement of Aboriginal people in the pastoral industry


Project Name: Indigenous Pastoral Program Review (Cattle and Country Pt 1)

pastoralprogramClient Name: Indigenous Land Corporation

Outcomes: An evaluation of the Indigenous Pastoral Program in the Northern Territory to provide key learning for the future success of this and similar programs


Project Name: WaterSmart Pastoral Production™

water_drop

Client Name: DAFF

Outcomes: This project combined grazing management with water management and monitoring technologies to reduce costs in pastoral enterprises, improve stock management, control total grazing pressure and ultimately enhance the sustainability of enterprises


Project Name: Central Australian Grazing Strategies

centralgrazingClient Name: DAFF

Outcomes: This project sought to demonstrate property-scale trials of rotational grazing and intensification options that will result in improved productivity, environmental health, profitability and, ultimately, sustainability of enterprises. The work is carried out with producers to ensure on-ground relevance and implementation.


Project Name: Enabling the Market: Incentives for Biodiversity in the Rangelands (final report in press)

biodiversityinrangelandsClient Name: DEWHA

Outcomes: The project reviewed existing incentive schemes and opportunities for rangelands, developing a rangeland condition metric, and designing a conceptual market-based scheme for environmental stewardship


Project Name: Cross-jurisdictional Management of Feral Camels to Protect Natural Resource Management and Cultural Values

camelmanagementClient Name: DEWHA

Outcomes: This project is designing effective long-term cross-jurisdictional strategies for feral camel management in arid Australia


Project Name: People, Communities and Economies of Lake Eyre Basin

Lake Eyre BasinClient Name: DEWHA

Outcomes: This project is developing tools to improve sustainable natural resource management at local levels in the multi-jurisdictional system of the Lake Eyre Basin. It will define pathways for building community capacity for sustainable natural resource management.

Project Name: Development of a Fire and Vegetation Management Strategy for Uluru–Kata Tjuta National Park

firemanagementClient Name: Parks Australia North

Outcomes: This project developed a management strategy and operational plan for the management of fire in a highly-visited national park with cross-cultural management objectives


Project Name: Growing the Desert: Effective Educational Pathways for Remote Indigenous Peoples (final report in press)

Shane Kennedy, a Warlpiri Ranger, checking an Elliot trap as part of a biodiversity assessmentClient Name: National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) with additional funding from Australian Flexible Learning Framework

Outcomes: This project investigated education and training pathways and access for Aboriginal people across the desert regions in central Australia, with a view to generating information about successful practices across a range of pathways. This included an analysis of flexible learning and adult and community education, with a focus on accredited vocational education and training.


Project Name: Evaluation of the Minerals Council of Australia and Australian Government Memorandum of Understanding on Indigenous Employment and Enterprise Development

Minerals council of AustraliaClient Name: Minerals Council of Australia

Outcomes: Evaluation and assessment of the robustness and effectiveness of the MoU rollout and the process of engagement between industry, business, government agencies and the Aboriginal communities to achieve the aims of the MoU


Project Name: Alice Springs: Solar City

Solar panels at Ntaria_energy futuresClient Name: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts - Australia's Solar Cities

Outcomes: As part of the consortium that won the Alice Springs Solar Cities bid, DKCRC will undertake two activities:

  • implementation of a retro-fitted sustainable house to illustrate reduced water and energy use, and
  • sustainable arid-zone living in an average suburban house monitoring and evaluation of the Solar Cities initiative.

Contacts

Ms Eleanor Dennis
Stakeholder Manager
Desert Knowledge CRC
Tel: 08 8959 6039

Mobile: 0437 427 015

Alice Springs, NT Australia


Contract Research Reports

DKCRC Report to DAFF_Hands Across the Desert Project.pdf
[pdf 947.5 kb]


DKCRC Report 52: Economics of camel control in the central region of the Northern Territory
[pdf 2.5 Mb]


DKCRC Report 51: A review of chemical, biological and fertility control options for the camel in Australia
[pdf 4.6 Mb]


DKCRC Report 53: A multiple criteria decision support framework for the management of feral camels
[pdf 4.6 Mb]


DKCRC Report 49: Key stakeholder perceptions of feral camels: Aboriginal community survey
[pdf 4.6 Mb]


DKCRC Report 48: Modelling options for management of feral camels in central Australia
[pdf 3.9 Mb]


DKCRC Report 47 Ch07_Edwards, Zeng, and Saalfeld_Evaluation of the impacts of feral camels.pdf
[pdf 1.3 Mb]


DKCRC Report 47 Ch05_Vaarzon-Morel_Key stakeholder perceptions of feral camels_Aboriginal community survey.pdf
[pdf 737.4 kb]


DKCRC Report 47 Ch06_Carey et al_Review of legislation and regulations relating to feral camel management summary.pdf
[pdf 181.2 kb]


DKCRC Report 47 Ch04_Zeng and Edwards_Key stakeholder perceptions of feral camels_conservation manager survey.pdf
[pdf 448.3 kb]


DKCRC Report 47 Ch03_Zeng and Edwards_Key stakeholder perceptions of feral camels_pastoralist survey.pdf
[pdf 502.4 kb]


DKCRC Report 54 Overview of the project Cross jurisdictional management of feral camels to protect NRM and cultural values.pdf
[pdf 2.5 Mb]


DKCRC Report 47 Ch01_Edwards_Background to the project.pdf
[pdf 293.5 kb]


DKCRC Report 47 Ch02_Saalfeld and Edwards_Ecology of feral camels in Australia.pdf
[pdf 1.1 Mb]


DKCRC Report 47 Ch12_Edwards et al_Synthesis and key recommendations.pdf
[pdf 789.9 kb]


DKCRC Report 47 Managing the impacts of feral camels in Australia_A new way of doing business.pdf
[pdf 10.3 Mb]


DKCRC Report 47 Ch11_Saalfeld, Edwards, Zeng, and Lamb_A Multiple Criteria Decision Support Tool for feral camel management.pdf
[pdf 4.2 Mb]


DKCRC Report 47 Ch10_Drucker_Economics of feral camel control in the central region of the Northern Territory summary.pdf
[pdf 144.4 kb]


DKCRC Report 47 Ch09_Zeng and McGregor_Review of commercial options for management of feral camels.pdf
[pdf 1.2 Mb]


DKCRC Report 47 Ch08_Saalfeld and Zeng_Review of non-commercial control methods for feral camels in Australia.pdf
[pdf 508.9 kb]


DKCRC WaterSmart Pastoralism Handbook
[pdf 8.2 Mb]


DKCRC Report 18 Enabling the Market_Incentives for Biodiversity.pdf
[pdf 16.9 Mb]


DKCRC Growing the Desert: Educational pathways for remote Indigenous people
NCVER Publication 1 [pdf 645.7 kb]


DKCRC Regional profiles of the Lake Eyre Basin.pdf
[pdf 33.5 Mb]


DKCRC Report 19: High Conservation Value in the Rangelands
2006
Reproduced here with permission of the Department of Environment and Water Resources. [pdf 643.7 kb]


DKCRC Report 10: Growing the Desert Regional and Educational Profiles of the Australian Desert and its Indigenous Peoples
[pdf 1.8 Mb]


All Content © Desert Knowledge CRC 2009