A group of TNQ Hub sponsored land holders and hub staff attended the biennial Australian Rangeland Society Conference in Broome earlier in September. Director David Phelps’ passion for Mitchell Grass was on full display with his poster presentation on “Mitchell Grass response to moisture stress and defoliation”.

Dr David Gallacher, Knowledge Broker for the Northern Hub presented on the “Managing Rangelands for Drought Resilience” project which is a collaboration between six drought hubs that showcases technologies and techniques that use mapping to improve rangeland management across the breadth of Australia’s rangeland environments.

Complimenting this project, was a presentation by TNQ Drought Hub Scholarship recipient Lucy Gardener who is working alongside several James Cook University researchers and Southern Gulf NRM on the “Rapid Assessment of Mitchell Grass on Southern Gulf Rangelands using Drone Imagery and Machine Learning”, where we are trialing satellite-based technology can be used to predict rangeland ground cover and inform stocking decisions.

A big congratulations to Lucy who also won the Best Early Career Presentation Prize which was sponsored by CSIRO – Publishing, on behalf of The Rangeland Journal. It was a well deserved win for an outstanding and engaging presentation.