Workshops map out special skills, tools to keep graziers informed

More than 40 graziers have taken part in workshops held across the Burdekin region to learn how to use Queensland Globe and Avenza Maps mobile app to assist with property management and planning.

NQ Dry Tropics’ Grazing Team Leader Josh Nicholls

The Maps and Apps workshops provided graziers with the knowledge, skills and tools to produce customised maps of their property to help them plan and analyse their property infrastructure and land resources. 

Workshops organiser NQ Dry Tropics Grazing Team Leader Josh Nicholls said Queensland Globe was a free, mobile-friendly tool which allowed graziers to zoom in to their property and overlay that image with property-specific information such as land types, soil types and terrain.

“Its real power is the ability to easily overlay your property with data layers – ranging from  historical imagery to vegetation management mapping,” Mr Nicholls said.

“Property boundaries, soil types, proximity to local roads, rail lines, water catchments are all available on the Queensland Globe, together with detailed location-specific grazing land management, topography, and hundreds of other datasets.

“Graziers are able to draw fence lines and water points, measure paddock sizes, calculate elevations, view historical satellite imagery and access vegetation management layers.

“This provides graziers with the potential to make informed decisions to improve grazing practices with reliable, up to date information in the one place”.

Grazier Tracey Rollinson, of Inkerman Station,  in the East Burdekin, attended the Ravenswood workshop and said being provided with practical, easy to use mapping tools would enable better planning of pasture to maximise water use efficiency and adjustment of stocking rates to minimise under and oversupply of pasture throughout normal seasonal variations. 

“Avenza is a wonderful tool to use everyday out in the paddock to record what’s happening around the property and for infrastructure planning,” she said.

Workshop participants learned how touse Avena Maps to download maps for offline use on smartphones or tablets. Users can plot and record information about locations, import and export place marks, measure distance and area, and plot photos.

The three workshops, held at Collinsville, Ravenswood and Greenvale, were hosted by the NQ Dry Tropics Herding Change Through Grassroots Recovery project which is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.