Impact

• 

  The long-term impact of research investment

  At least 29 scientific papers arising from research conducted under the Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub during the first phase of NESP have been published since that hub finished at the end of 2021.

• 

  Innovative, accessible science communication

  The Resilient Landscapes Hub is dedicated to finding innovative and effective ways to communicate its research findings and ensure they are publicly available for posterity.

• 

  Mapping, monitoring and safeguarding Kimberley bilbies (video)

  The southern Fitzroy River catchment in WA's Kimberley region is a bilby stronghold. This hub project increased knowledge of the occupancy, abundance and distribution of bilbies, and identified on-ground actions to alleviate threats.

• 

  Supporting Indigenous natural resource management and alternative economies

  The Hub is supporting Indigenous natural resource management and the development of sustainable business opportunities that benefit Indigenous people and are economically profitable.

• 

  The importance of northern Australian rivers and flows

  The Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub has demonstrated the immense economic, social and cultural values and significance of Australia’s tropical rivers, helping to fully inform water management decisions.

• 

  Managing threatened species and threatening processes

  The sheer vastness of northern Australia makes it challenging to understand, quantify and manage threatened species and threatening processes, and hub research has directly addressed these challenges.

• 

  New approaches for monitoring and communicating about environmental resources

  The challenges of northern Australia mean that new monitoring approaches were necessary to know where in these vast landscapes to safely and efficiently focus monitoring and management efforts.

• 

  NESP Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub wrap-up video

  The Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub addressed key research questions to come up with practical, on-ground solutions to some of the north’s most complex environmental challenges through a transdisciplinary research approach.

• 

  Gulf rivers and fisheries links (video)

  River flows in the Gulf of Carpentaria are an essential part of the lifecycle of numerous important fishery species in the Gulf. Hub research has built on long-term fisheries partnerships to improve understanding of possible Gulf rivers water extraction impacts on these fisheries.

• 

  Fish movement and sensitivity to contaminated mine water (video)

  How do you restore the site condition of a former uranium mine so it can be included in a national park? NESP researchers are tackling this restoration challenge at the Ranger uranium mine.

• 

  Using artificial intelligence to protect baby turtles from feral pigs

  A partnership between CSIRO, Aak Puul Ngantam Cape York and Microsoft has given Indigenous rangers a helping hand in analysing tens of thousands of images of Cape York coastline. This work combines Indigenous knowledge and artificial intelligence to protect baby sea turtles.

• 

  Strengthening and sharing knowledge for land and sea management

  More than 100 Indigenous contributors have created Australia’s first guidelines on how to best strengthen & share Indigenous knowledge in land and sea management. The Our Knowledge Our Way in caring for Country Best Practice Guidelines highlight 23 positive case studies.

• 

  What a catch! Understanding links between Gulf river flows and fisheries

  Hub research has built on long-term partnerships with fisheries and used a combination of on-water sampling, data analysis and satellite imagery to improve understanding of the possible impacts of water extraction from Gulf rivers on fisheries.

• 

  Shoring up food supplies for migratory birds

  Collaborative research between Griffith University, the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation and the Queensland Wader Study Group has revealed how important mudflats and sandflats are for shorebirds in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

• 

  Engagement is a two-way street: Creating symbols for science communication

  A free collection of more than 100 graphical symbols have been developed to better represent northern Australia in science communication products and are effectively delivering research messages to key partners & end-users.

• 

  A giant leap forward in detecting unwanted visitors

  How do you manage an invasive species that can spread across the landscape from waterhole to waterhole? The first step is knowing where they are and that's where Hub research on environmental DNA (eDNA) comes in.

• 

  Links between Gulf rivers and food for migratory shorebirds (video)

  Collaborative research between Griffith University, the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation and the Queensland Wader Study Group has found river flows are essential in guaranteeing food for migratory shorebirds.

• 

  Teaming up for turtles (video)

  Collaborative research between CSIRO, Microsoft and Aak Puul Ngantam (APN) Cape York is working with an AI-infused cloud-based system that can quickly analyse 1000s of aerial photographs to give rangers the information needed to protect turtle nests from feral predators.

• 

  A.I. Technology boosting fledgling turtle survival on Cape York (video)

  Collaborative research between CSIRO, Microsoft and Aak Puul Ngantam (APN) Cape York to give rangers the information needed to protect turtle nests from feral predators.

• 

  A transdisciplinary approach to WA’s Fitzroy River water planning

  With increasing interest in irrigated agriculture in the region, Hub research, in partnership with Fitzroy River Traditional Owners, is increasing knowledge of the river's important environmental & cultural water requirements.

• 

  Rehabilitated mine sites and Top End animals (video)

  How do you restore the site condition of a former uranium mine so it can be included in a national park? NESP researchers are tackling this restoration challenge at the Ranger uranium mine.

• 

  Keeping Country Healthy in Kakadu National Park (video)

  NESP researchers built on long-term collaborations with Bininj/Mungguy Traditional Owners to develop & apply indicators of cultural-ecosystem health for floodplains under threat from invasive para grass (Urochola mutica).

• 

  Finding finches – using eDNA to track endangered birds (video)

  Gouldian finches are difficult to find using standard field survey methods. NESP researchers have developed an eDNA test for the Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae); the first for an endangered bird species.

• 

  Filling knowledge gaps for the rehabilitation of Ranger uranium mine

  How do you restore the site condition of a former uranium mine so it can be included in a national park? NESP researchers are tackling this restoration challenge at the Ranger uranium mine.

• 

  Keeping Country healthy in Kakadu National Park

  NESP researchers built on long-term collaborations with Bininj/Mungguy Traditional Owners to develop and apply Bininj indicators of cultural-ecosystem health for floodplains under threat from invasive para grass (Urochloa mutica).

• 

  Finding finches – using eDNA to track endangered birds

  Gouldian finches are difficult to find using standard field survey methods. NESP researchers have developed an eDNA test for the Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae); the first for an endangered bird species.

• 

  New ways to manage gamba grass & fire in Mary River National Park (NT) (video)

  NESP research is helping the rangers at Mary River National Park (NT) turn invasive weeds around, by guiding and providing evidence of the effectiveness of changes in their management activities.

• 

  Kakadu and artificial intelligence (Healthy Country Indicators) (video)

  NESP researchers have built on long-term collaborations with Bininj/Mungguy Traditional Owners to develop and apply Bininj indicators of cultural-ecosystem health for the floodplains.

• 

  Creating the Our Knowledge, Our Way Guidelines (video)

  The Our Knowledge, Our Way guidelines support a step-change in learning, by both Indigenous peoples and their partners, about best practice ways of working with Indigenous knowledge to look after land and sea Country.

• 

  New ways to manage gamba grass & fire in Mary River National Park (NT)

  NESP research is helping the rangers at Mary River National Park (NT) turn invasive weeds around, by guiding and providing evidence of the effectiveness of changes in their management activities.

• 

  Assessing mangrove dieback in the Gulf of Carpentaria (Science Week 2020)

  During the summer of 2015-6, one of the worst mangrove dieback events ever recorded devastated around 7400 hectares of mangroves along more than 1000 km of Gulf coastline.

• 

  Links between Gulf rivers and food for migratory shorebirds (Science Week 2020)

  Did you know Gulf of Carpentaria coasts are critically important habitat for migratory shorebirds? These birds rely on the worms, crabs, clams and other food of the Gulf mudflats and sandflats to fatten up for their journey.

• 

  Managing marine debris & waste in remote Cape York communities (Science Week 2020)

  Remote communities on Cape York Peninsula face heavy loads of marine debris. The remoteness of Cape York communities makes it a challenge to deal with their coastal waste and debris which mostly comes from other places.

• 

  Protecting marine turtles from feral pigs on Cape York (Science Week 2020)

  Feral pigs on Gulf beaches were predating on the eggs in 100% of marine turtle nests. Hub research is developing technologies to link monitoring with adaptive management responses to protect turtles.

• 

  Links between Gulf rivers and fisheries (Science Week 2020)

  Flows from rivers into the Gulf of Carpentaria contain nutrients that support the growth and reproduction of important fisheries species like banana prawns and barramundi.

• 

  Remote recycling & marine debris management needs strong helping hands

  Remote communities on Cape York Peninsula face heavy loads of marine debris. The remoteness of Cape York communities makes it a challenge to deal with their coastal waste and debris which mostly comes from other places.

• 

  Managing feral pigs on Cape York

  Collaborative research between the Cape York Indigenous organisation Aak Puul Ngantam (APN) and the CSIRO is enabling Traditional Owners to more effectively manage feral pigs on their homelands and protect marine turtles that the pigs predate on.

• 

  Modelling and mapping for conservation outcomes across the north

  This successful collaboration between researchers and government has produced over 1500 maps of threatening processes, species’ distribution and species vulnerability to extinction.

• 

  Showing and sharing knowledge through a hands-on map

  A huge 3D map of the Kimberley’s Fitzroy River catchment has facilitated knowledge sharing to inform decisionmaking around caring for Country and development planning.

• 

  Communicating an Indigenous understanding of WA’s Fitzroy River through art and film

  A new short film featuring Gooniyandi artist and Traditional Owner Mervyn Street is focusing attention on the Kimberley’s Fitzroy River, explaining the role of the river in sustaining the health of the surrounding Country

• 

  Supporting savanna fire management through carbon farming

  This project has improved methods used to calculate carbon credits for savanna burning projects, leading to reduced greenhouse gas emissions and increased carbon storage.

• 

  Bringing northern Australia environmental science to Canberra

  5200 kilometres is a long way to travel to share Northern Hub research, but it’s worth the distance to bring projects to life for key research users at government departments in Canberra.

• 

  Reconnecting with Country through collaborative research

  Collaboration between Aak Puul Ngantam and our project 'Defining metrics of success for feral animal management in northern Australia' has provided an opportunity for cultural reconnection to remote homelands.

• 

  Caring for Country and improving Indigenous lives

  This research has demonstrated that Indigenous land and sea management programs (ILSMPs) deliver socioeconomic and wellbeing outcomes in addition to their extensive environmental outcomes and positive impacts for land management.

• 

  Valuing Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) and other complex social and environmental goods and services

  This research has increased our understanding of current methods of valuing the environmental and social benefits of investments in land management.

• 

  Science and community collaboration achieving results in feral animal management

  This project has supported Cape York Peninsula Indigenous communities to understand the impact of their feral animal management actions through locally relevant metrics outlining management decision implications.

• 

  Remote environmental monitoring in northern Australia

  Accurate, cost-effective and well-designed environmental monitoring is critical to support development in northern Australia but is challenged by severe resource and logistical constraints.

• 

  Managing North Queensland’s endangered tropical littoral rainforest

  This project produced fine-scale maps of the current extent and distribution of critically endangered littoral rainforest in Queensland’s Wet Tropics, and a mapping method.

• 

  Working with government staff to help maximise research impact

  Hub researchers and research users from the Queensland Departments of Natural Resources, Mines & Energy and Environment & Science co-designed workshops resulting in productive information exchanges.

• 

  Wiltma Nargun Lahan: Walking on Wagiman Land

  The Daly River ‘Fish and Flows’ partnership between Wagiman Traditional Owners and researchers from several universities and the NT Government has been running for 13 years. It has also increased the capacity of researchers to work with Indigenous organisations.