Billabong boy – Arron Wood’s Story

At eight years old, Arron Wood jumped into the billabong near his Mildura home and emerged covered in a toxic, blue-green algae that seared his eyes and left a rash all over his body. It was a pivotal moment for Arron, the beginning of a life committed to preserving the environment that he now shares in his new autobiography, Billabong Boy.

We are interested in Arron’s story as he has won many environmental awards and in 2000, founded Firestarter, a Victorian-based environmental education organisation that uses an innovative ‘kids teaching kids‘ approach to developing young leaders.  Arron also facilitates relationships between environmental industries and businesses, governments and the general public.  Read more about Arron’s story here, or to order the book go to the New Holland website.  In July I am off to see Arron to talk about ways the ARRC and Firestarter can work together.  Siwan

Synthesising science

One of the most frequent complaints people working in natural resources management make, is that they are bombarded with too much information.  At the ARRC, we believe there is no such thing as too much information, rather, it is the way that information is organised and presented to people that is the key to making it understood and useful.  Nerida and I are about to start some work with the National Water Commission on synthesising research findings into products that make it easy to access and meaningful to people.  How will we do this?  We will firstly focus on what story is being told through the research and then link to the supporting evidence and information that underpins it.  If you want to find out more about synthesising science we run training and seminars on this topic, as well as recommending the Information and Knowledge Resource Kit that is packed full of advice and tools you can use in your communication activities.

Siwan

The National Plan for Environmental Information

On 11 May 2010 the Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts announced a new initiative to address the environmental information needs of the nation. The National Plan for Environmental Information is the first step toward a long-term commitment to reform Australia’s environmental information base and build this critical infrastructure for the future.

The plan will coordinate and prioritise the way the Australian Government collects, manages and uses environmental information. It represents a long-term approach to building and improving our environmental information base. In the first four years, the initiative will:

• establish the Bureau of Meteorology as the Australian Government authority for environmental information
• formalise arrangements to coordinate priorities and activities across government
• review existing information resources, and environmental information activity
• begin building priority national environmental datasets and the infrastructure to deliver them.

To find out more click here.

Last days to register for Knowledge for managing Australian landscapes conference

Hurry, hurry, hurry…….you have three days left to register for the Knowledge for Managing Australian Landscapes: the legacy of Land & Water Australia Conference.  This event will be held on the 18 and 19 of May (yes, next week!), and it promises to be a wonderful occasion. To offer even further incentive, Andrew Campbell is  giving a bottle of wine to every fifth person to register from Wednesday to Friday this week. For more information click here.

Information and Knowledge Strategy learning opportunity

How often have you been studiously working away and thought “I know I have the information for that problem” but when you go looking for it you cannot find it? You would be surprised at how many people and organisations have exactly that problem. They know they have the information somewhere and someone remembers it but it is not to be found.

Come along to our experiential learning session on how to develop an information and knowledge strategy. We can take you through the real life problems of an organisation and how you might go about solving some of these problems. You also get to meet others with similar interests and will have the opportunity to learn from each other.

You’ll need to hurry though – the training is being held next week  – full details of this two-day event and how to register can be found here.

This is a real value for money event where all accommodation, meals and training are included in the price. This makes it easy for your manager to agree with this all inclusive event. If you are interstate the only additional costs will be travel.  This is an excellent end-of-financial-year opportunity.