Observing Environmental Change in Australia: Conversations for Sustainability

Conversations for sustainability
inaustralia
OBSERVING
ENVIRONMENTAL
CHANGE
By Paul Holper & Simon Torok

We could not have embarked on this book without the vision, guidance and assistance from
Beryl Morris, TERN’s Director, and we could not have completed it without the contributions
and unfailing, enthusiastic support from Mark Grant, TERN’s Science Communication and
Engagement Manager.
It has been a pleasure to have interviewed many of the leading and most influential ecologists in
Australia to hear how TERN and other NCRIS infrastructure have supported successful science
for the past decade. Without exception, they were unfailing in their preparedness to help us.
Thank you to the following researchers:
Alan Andersen
Lee Belbin
Emma Burns
Clint Chapman
James Cleverly
Anne Cust
Serryn Eagleson
Emilie Ens
Martin Forsius
Peter Grace
Aaron Greenville
Greg Guerin
Vanessa Haverd
Alex Held
Nina Hinko-Najera
Alfredo Huete
Lindsay Hutley
Mirko Karan
Jesse King
John Le Marshall
Adam Lewis
Mike Liddell
Hank Loescher
Arko Lucieer
Stefan Maier
Michael Mirtl
Caitlin Moore
Glenn Newnham
Stuart Phinn
Andries Potgieter
Suzanne Prober
Luigi Renzullo
Sarah Richmond
Jeremy Russell-Smith
David Schimel
Bob Scholes
Rowena Smith
Ben Sparrow
Sarah Taylor
Jim Thompson
Albert van Dijk
Stephen van Leeuwen
David Watson
Mark Westoby
Ross Wilkinson
Dick Williams
Will Woodgate
Marta Yebra
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CONTENTS
Introduction 05
1 Tracking environmental changes 09
2 Urbanisation 21
3 Indigenous knowledge 31
4 Extreme events 45
5 Land and terrain 55
6 Biodiversity 69
7 Climate, carbon and water 79
8 Satellite remote sensing 93
9 Big data 103
10 Visualising environmental data 113
11 Engaging the community 119
12 Emerging technologies 127
Index 139
- Paul Holper and Simon Torok
© TERN Australia at The University of Queensland 2019
All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent
amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, duplicating or otherwise, without the
prior permission of the copyright owner. Contact tern@uq.edu.au for all permission requests.
ISBN 798-1-74272-230-6 (paperback) ISBN 798-1-74272-231-3 (epub)
Observing Environmental Change in Australia: Conversations for sustainability
Holper, Paul, author
Torok, Simon, author
Available from TERN, The University of Queensland 4072, Australia
www.tern.org.au
Cover and layout design by The Piccolo Design Co.
Index by Master Indexing

2 Introduction 3Introduction
I am delighted to commend this wonderful and
important book to you. It is a rich collection of
conversations with people who are passionate
about the natural environment and its integration
with the social, economic, cultural, political, and
health aspects of sustainability.
The chapters capture the voice of Australian and
international researchers sharing how they measure
changes in Australia’s environment over time and
space, the equipment they use and the data they
gather, share and interpret. The book delivers a
collection of stories that are engaging, thought
provoking and as colourful and diverse as our
environment.
Many of the individuals who share their stories here
are linked in some way to projects funded by the
Australian Government. Some of their funding is via
the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure
Strategy (NCRIS), a program designed to allow
strategic investment in research infrastructure in a
coordinated way across the nation.
Through NCRIS, the Australian government provides
AU$150 million each year to fund more than twenty
research projects that span the country. Whereas
much of the government research funding supports
important individual projects, NCRIS funds are
different in that they provide services (referred to
as research infrastructure in this book) in a more
integrated way.
During the tenth anniversary year of NCRIS support,
the funded projects jointly organised a symposium
held in Canberra in May 2017 and entitled Greater
FOREWORD
By Lyn Beazley AO FTSE, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) Advisory Board Chair
Impact through Environmental Infrastructure.
It celebrated the collaborations and impact
of 10 years of investment into environmental
infrastructure. Pleasingly, following the symposium,
even more collaborations are underway, many of
which are shaping the future through innovations
that in turn, enable further impact.
The symposium also marked the origins of this book
when TERN invited science writers Paul Holper and
Simon Torok to attend. We are delighted that they
were interested in converting some of the talks into
stories about what researchers are achieving now
using the data, equipment and expertise that NCRIS
funding has made possible.
Paul and Simon have considerable science
writing experience, having worked with the
Commonwealth Science and Industry Research
Organisation (CSIRO) as communicators. In
addition, they have helped produce secondary
school science textbooks and information
resources on topics including climate change
as well as editing science magazines for young
people. Here they have thoroughly embraced their
brief to make environmental research infrastructure
relevant and interesting to the public and especially
to upper secondary and early tertiary level students.
Writing for these audiences is important. At present,
there is little information available to the aspiring
ecologists, environmental scientists and eco-
informaticists of tomorrow about what their future
workplace might look like or what sort of people
their colleagues might be. The book is designed to
fill the gap between technical textbooks requiring
prerequisite knowledge and TV environmental
documentaries that tend to concentrate on the most
dramatic landscapes and/or charismatic presenters.
The invitation to write this book came from
TERN, so understandably a great deal of the
book’s focus is on TERN’s activities and successes
since inception. Indeed, publication of the book
forms the start of TERN’s own 10th anniversary
celebrations. However, mirroring the increasing
levels of integration and collaboration between
NCRIS projects, TERN’s research infrastructure and
data are rightfully only part of this book and hence
you will find chapters and beautiful photos covering
aspects of Australian ecosystem science applicable
to those beyond TERN.
Given the complexity of environmental challenges
studied by researchers, achieving results requires
numerous national and international partnerships,
collaborations, and networks. As an NCRIS project,
TERN collaborates with Australian and international
universities, industry groups, research organisations,
government agencies, and governments at every
level to facilitate excellent research and find and
implement practical, scientifically-based solutions
to support the research. As your national terrestrial
ecosystem research infrastructure, TERN will
continue to provide evidence-based data and
data services to the community, industry, and
government on understanding environmental
change. I hope you enjoy this book and that it wins
your support for the importance of systematically
collected long-term quality data streams for
environmental research and management in a
rapidly changing world.
Credit: Suzanne Long

The Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
(TERN) is Australia’s national instrument for
measuring and observing changes in the country’s
land-based ecosystems over time, providing a
wealth of data to enable environmental research
and management. TERN examines Australian
ecosystems and ecosystem processes at different
scales in space and time, producing measurements
ranging from microns to whole of continent and
from seconds to centuries.
TERN provides open access to Australia’s land-
based ecosystem monitoring infrastructure,
data and research tools to assist scientists in
understanding the environment and in determining
what is necessary for long-term sustainable
management of Australia’s ecosystems. TERN
uses consistent and standard ecosystem measures
to observe and monitor changes in ecosystem
biodiversity across the continent.
The concept of ecosystems is at the heart of
international agreements, Australian legislation,
and modern policy and planning principles that aim
to sustainably manage natural resources. TERN’s
observations and measurements record processes
such as disturbance cycles, and flows of energy,
nutrients and non-living materials, all of which
contribute to assessments of ecosystem health.
The Australian Government established TERN
in 2009 with $20 million from the National
Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy
(NCRIS) and $4.1 million from the Queensland State
Government. Over the years, TERN has received
further NCRIS funding along with cash and in-kind
support from dozens of Australian universities, state
and federal agencies, other Australian organisations
and international groups.
INTRODUCTION
‘The exciting science we hear about in 30 years
will be the product of the research infrastructures
we are constructing now.’
International Conference on Research Infrastructures ‘Visions of the Future’,
Vienna, 14 September 2018
Credit: Yincai Zhou

NATIONAL DATA COLLECTION: FIELD, AIRBORNE, AND SATELLITE
DATA INTEGRATION, ANALYSIS, AND DELIVERY
land
cover
biodiversity
carbon &
water
From close up to the view
from space
TERN comprises a terrestrial ecosystem field
observatory supported by data services and
analytical capabilities. There are three scales of
observation.
Ecosystem processes monitoring collects extensive
data at a small number of ‘SuperSites’. These sites
combine instrumented or sensor measurements,
usually from high flux towers, with field
measurement of biophysical and ecological variables.
Ecosystem surveillance monitoring enables
monitoring and detection of biodiversity change
across vast areas. TERN has a network of hundreds
of monitoring plots located in representative
locations, environments and biomes.
Landscape monitoring is performed mostly with
remote sensing techniques based on satellite data,
with increasing use of airborne data from drones.
TERN also undertakes modelling and synthesis
activities to extend and supplement observational
data to produce a range of data products. These
products include nation-wide assessments of
vegetation and soil, and extensive weather data.
By combining these measurements, performed
at various scales, TERN efficiently provides
researchers – and others – with extensive
information about the workings of our ecosystems
and the way in which human pressures and
environmental changes are affecting them.
In essence, TERN provides tools for collecting
ecosystem data, primarily relating to carbon and
water, biodiversity and land and terrain. It produces
the data, and delivers infrastructure that lets
people access and use that data. It offers nationally
consistent monitoring methods, data collection
and publishing tools. TERN makes the information
and knowledge that it collects, along with data
collected by others, readily available to researchers
and others across Australia and around the world.
The TERN motto is to help ‘anyone anywhere’
take advantage of its data and of its suite of
infrastructure for ecosystem monitoring.
Responding to the challenge
processes. … the usefulness of environmental and
related data will be magnified if it can be effectively
transformed into information products that are
meaningful to a broad audience and relevant to the
issues of today and tomorrow.’
The report noted that ‘better information,
combined with evidence-based decision-making,
will support better management’.
TERN has made a significant contribution to
delivering the sorts of systems envisaged in the
TERN collects and makes available data from across the Australian landscape, helping to
build a picture of the state of our environment and the changes that it is experiencing.
The infrastructure that TERN is delivering is the most important change in
science in this country in over a century. For the first time in our history,
environmental research has been provided with a system that truly enhances the
capacity of a researcher to find resources they need and facilitate a collaborative
environment …TERN represents a major breakthrough in how we do our science.
Professor Kris French, President (2014), Ecological Society of Australia
The 2011 Australian State of the Environment
report concluded by highlighting the importance
of collecting, communicating and applying
environmental data. The report acknowledged that
‘… collecting information is not enough. Creating
and using systems that allow efficient access to
environmental information are great national-scale
challenges. Such systems would allow scientists
and managers to analyse and make connections
in the data, so that they can begin to understand
the links among various aspects of ecological
more than
more than
more than
more than
peer-reviewed papers using TERN dataopen datasets
ecosystem
observing sites
national &
international
partners
year continuity
for datasets
more than

State of the Environment report and provides
information to answer some of Australia’s most
pressing environmental questions, including:
• How are our ecosystems responding to
environmental pressures, and how might
positive trends be enhanced and harm
decreased?
• How is our environment likely to alter in the
future, for example in response to a changing
climate?
Chapter1
Nationally and Globally
TRACKING
ENVIRONMENTAL
CHANGES
• How are significant environmental assets –
soils, carbon stocks, water, vegetation and
biodiversity – responding to such changes and
to their management?
• How resilient are the ecosystem services on
which our society and many of our industries
depend, such as soil health, nutrient cycling,
fire mitigation, provision of clean water, crop
pollination and carbon sequestration?
This book describes some of the exciting tools and
applications that TERN, other NCRIS facilities, and
their collaborators have created and fostered over
the past decade.
Credit: Mark Grant

The Australian landscape has
changed significantly over the
past 200 years; especially since
the mid-1900s. Soon after
the first permanent European
settlement was established in
Sydney Cove in 1788, people
began clearing vegetation so
they could plant crops and raise
animals.
By the 1980s, 38 per cent of
Australia’s forests had been severely
modified by clearing, with eucalypt
forests being the most affected.
Much of the remaining native
vegetation is highly fragmented.
Today, agricultural businesses
operate across a little over half of
Australia’s total land area.
There has been a significant
reduction in the abundance of large
trees across a range of ecosystems.
Large living and dead trees with
hollows provide important nesting
places for more than 40 species
of native animals, such as the
endangered Leadbeater’s Possum in
mountain ash forests.
Australia’s population has more
than doubled in the past 50 years,
reaching 25 million in 2018.
Population is projected to hit 40
million by 2055. Population growth
in Australia and overseas increases
the demand for food, so native
vegetation is steadily giving way to
agriculture. We have lost vast tracts
of rainforests, coastal wetlands,
temperate woodlands and mallee,
and almost all of south eastern
Australia’s temperate lowland
grasslands.
To quote the maxim, ‘you can’t
manage what you can’t measure’,
if we are serious about protecting
existing forests, regenerating
degraded forests and preserving
precious ecosystems and our
native biodiversity, the approaches
must be based on evidence. TERN
infrastructure is doing just this:
measuring, monitoring and enabling
better understanding of the changes.
Globally, the benefits from
ecosystem services represent
over $125 trillion per year, well
in excess of the global gross
domestic product, which measures
the market value of all goods and
services produced. Ecosystem
services are arguably the most
valuable component of the
Australian economy, contributing
at least as much and possibly
more than manufacturing and
service industries. However,
we are experiencing a time of
unprecedented rate of change
and challenges for Australia’s
diverse terrestrial ecosystems and
the services they provide to our
industries and communities.
Many of the impacts on Australia’s
environment know no borders.
Climate change and invasion by
exotic plants and animals are
just two examples of external
environmental pressures. Effective
responses to these pressures include
incorporating the latest international
findings and experiences.
Scientific research has never
progressed in isolation. Researchers
travel and collaborate internationally
to seek and apply new and
innovative ideas, findings and
techniques. A major report released
in 2014 by Australia’s former Chief
Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb,
stated, ‘Among the benefits of
international collaboration in
research are expanding researchers’
capacity to respond to complex
problems by drawing on diverse
skills and perspectives, reducing
unnecessary duplication of research
effort, and broadening the scale and
scope of research teams.’
International research collaboration
ranges from individual scientists
working together, to joint research
programs involving numerous
researchers from many nations. It
can entail sharing physical research
infrastructure, online networks and
research data and formally linking
research centres. The rate of the
internationalisation of science has
accelerated in recent decades.
Importantly, many of the most
pressing environmental challenges
will require global concerted action
and research infrastructures can
provide a means to bundle limited
resources for a greater impact.
Creating a record for
the future
‘Our main objective should be to
leave a useful record for people
70 to 100 years from now. Our
descendants will regard us as having
failed if we don’t leave some sort of
sensible record. They will forgive us
for not measuring everything that
they would like to have, but they
won’t forgive us for not trying.’
This is the view of Professor Mark
Westoby, one of Australia’s most
eminent ecologists.
‘Sadly, there is no group to lobby on
behalf of our descendants a hundred
years from now,’ Mark says.
Mark is a former TERN Advisory
Board member. His research in
the field of evolutionary ecology
has helped us understand how
ecosystems are influenced by the
life histories, appearance, vertical
structure, growth and tissue traits of
plants. ‘Ecology seemed interestingly
complicated,’ Mark says. ‘My father
worked as a development economist
for the Food and Agriculture
Organisation of the United Nations in
Rome. I saw potential in science that
related to better land use.’
A summer expedition to northern
Kenya sparked Mark’s interest in
deserts, especially interactions
between plants and herbivores.
After completing a science degree
at the University of Edinburgh, he
travelled to Utah to undertake a PhD,
and then continued heading west
to Macquarie University in Sydney,
where he has worked for more than
40 years.
‘I have been thinking about the
shape of ecological knowledge in
Australia since the 1970s. A priority
for research programs both here and
internationally is monitoring for the
long term – decades and centuries. I
seek a coherent record of ecological
change for people 100 years from
now,’ Mark says.
‘In Australia, state land management
agencies have tried to do this, but
it hasn’t lasted, it’s inconsistent and
doesn’t provide coverage nationally.
We need to keep measuring. Too
often plots are established and
funded for 10-15 years and then
shut down. All we can do is try to
make sensible guesses about the
data that are needed and then do the
best we can with the limited money
available.’
Mark regards ecological monitoring
as ‘important morally’ and something
that just won’t happen without a
proper national program. ‘My top
priority for monitoring would be to
track the movement of perennial
plant species across the landscape at
continental scale. TERN has begun to
do this. TERN’s plot-based plant and
soil surveillance monitoring program
is undertaking baseline assessments
of ecosystems across the country.
TRACKING
ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES
NATIONALLY AND GLOBALLY
Credit: Korean Long-term Ecological Research Network
‘A priority for research programs both
here and internationally is monitoring
for the long term – decades and
centuries. I seek a coherent record
of ecological change for people 100
years from now.’
10 Chapter 1 Tracking Environmental Changes 11Chapter 1 Tracking Environmental Changes

There are more than 600 sites
now, with botanical composition
measured at each location. The plots
are mainly in rangeland ecosystems
but plots are being added in forests
and managed lands.’
‘600 sites sound like a lot, but they
are a long way apart. We need more
locations and better integration with
remote sensing, which continues
to get better. It can give us ground
resolution of five centimetres at
less than ten dollars per square
kilometre per year. There is lots of
potential for using new generation
remote sensing in conjunction with
site visits. High-resolution aircraft
photography lets us track individual
woody plants once their identity has
been established by a ground visit.’
Climate change is affecting
Australian flora and fauna, so
monitoring its impacts and the
effects of human disturbances more
generally will be important.
‘We could lose maybe half of the
endemic species with the climate
change that seems likely over the
next century,’ Mark says.
We need reliable information in
order to adapt to the changes
and to try to reduce their impacts
on important ecosystems and
ecosystem services. Mark likens
monitoring our ecology to teaching
Australian history in schools. ‘We
are creating a record for the future;
it’s important for nationhood. We
owe it to our descendants to build
a record of what’s happened across
the landscape. It is part of what
citizenship and loving your country
means. It’s a conservative idea in
the political sense. It’s similar to the
reason we teach history and fund a
national museum or war memorial
– in order to feel they belong on a
continent, people need a common
understanding of how it has come to
be the way they see it.’
Ecological research at
the global scale
We are all highly dependent on
the world’s natural resources.
Ecosystems are complex structures
that interact in many ways, few
of which are fully understood.
Ecosystem and biodiversity
researchers strive to comprehend
and disentangle the fundamental
governing processes and the way in
which they behave.
There are a number of ‘grand
questions’ that researchers such as
Dr Michael Mirtl, the Chairman of the
International Long Term Ecological
Research Network (ILTER) and LTER-
Europe, and his colleagues ask:
• How are ecosystems/biodiversity
changing or adapting to global
change?
• What are determinants of
ecosystem resilience?
• What are the critical
combinations and extent of
drivers that will manifest as
tipping points beyond which
ecosystems may be altered
irreversibly?
• How can societies respond
locally, nationally and at
international levels to sustain
resilient ecosystems, their
services and biodiversity?
The amount of data that is needed
to track and help respond to
environmental change is way
beyond the capacity of individual
researchers or research agencies.
It is only via collective effort from
the research community, the
users of environmental data and
government that we have been able
to create the environmental research
infrastructure for answering the
questions above and trying to deal
with the practical problems of living
in a world of rapid social, economic
and environmental change.
The networks are founded on four
concepts:
• Long-term: dedicated to the
provisioning, documenting,
continuous collection and use of
long-term data on ecosystems
over decades to centuries.
• Site-based: data generation
over different spatial scales,
environmental zones and
ecological regions.
• Process orientation: identifying,
quantifying and studying the
interactions of ecosystem
processes affected by internal
and external forces.
• Systems approach: enabling
the long-term investigation
of ecosystems, Earth systems,
environmental systems, socio-
ecological and other systems in
the long-term.
According to the review by Mirtl
and colleagues, ‘TERN has been an
exemplary model of an integrated
ecosystem observatory network,
as promoted by ILTER. TERN was
established in 2009 by joining
the forces of several ecosystem
research communities in Australia,
building upon existing capabilities
in remote sensing, flux, and plot-
based monitoring, as well as
creating new capabilities to fill
gaps notably in data integration
and delivery, plot-based ecological
surveillance monitoring, synthesis,
and modelling. By building upon
and integrating existing capabilities,
TERN was able to rapidly deliver
a national research infrastructure
for ecosystem monitoring on
the Australian continent, which
ILTER member networks and year of accession to ILTER, showing founding members (dark magenta) and highly dynamic regions
such as Europe. Credit: ILTER
Credit: Mark Grant
13Chapter 1 Tracking Environmental Changes12 Chapter 1 Tracking Environmental Changes

took a comprehensive approach
operating at multiple temporal and
spatial scales. The TERN research
infrastructure covers different
ecological compartments (soil, water,
biodiversity, atmosphere). So, similar to
the situation in Europe, the Australian
terrestrial ecosystem research
infrastructure built on past and current
data collection activities across
all levels of government, research
organizations, universities, private
companies and non-government
organizations, and is supported by all
levels of government.’
Fostering international
collaboration
TERN has well established
international partnerships that
facilitate joint research, shared
infrastructure and access to data.
Researchers collaborate extensively
with international partners in
northern America and Europe,
and with their counterparts in
countries including New Zealand,
Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and
China. Australia gains much from
the contributions made by TERN’s
international networks; in turn, the
worldwide community gains the
many advances made by TERN
research in Australia.
The United States’ National
Ecological Observatory Network
(NEON) and TERN have a
memorandum that formalises joint
activities including measurement
programs and sampling protocols,
data products and education.
The Chinese Ecosystem Research
Network (CERN) is also a long-
standing partner of TERN.
Researchers using TERN data
regularly present papers at overseas
conferences and host international
colleagues at conferences,
workshops and meetings in Australia.
There are numerous examples of
TERN-based field experiments that
have gained from participation by
researchers from other countries.
Experience from TERN is that
partnerships should be founded on
a mutual willingness to share data,
codes, products and information.
‘The TERN concept is the future
for ecosystem science. That is
how we should study problems on
relative scales from local to global.
TERN and similar projects such as
China’s CERN, are good models
for the European Union and we
should move in that direction.’
This endorsement came from
Professor Martin Forsius of the
Finnish Environment Institute at an
international ecological research
meeting in Chile in 2014.
Australian researchers routinely
use international infrastructure,
datasets and analyses to help solve
Australian problems and advance
our science. We gain considerably
from international connections. For
example, Australia has agreements
with international space agencies
that allow our researchers to access
international satellite infrastructure
worth billions of dollars.
TERN cost-effectively provides
the infrastructure for Australian
researchers to contribute to the
calibration and validation of satellite
products and to help develop
a better understanding of our
ecosystems and their contributions
for the benefit of the nation.
Reciprocity is vital if these
arrangements are to continue,
which means Australia must
continue to develop and maintain
appropriate research infrastructure,
people and networks to honour
international commitments. Thanks
to previous NCRIS investment,
TERN is considered ‘a world-leading
example of building collaborative
research infrastructure’ and as
a result, Australia is regarded
as a global leader in terrestrial
ecosystem observation. We will
need to continue our coordinated
international participation if we are
to maintain this lead and continue to
contribute to, and take advantage of,
global scientific advances.
In the words of Dr David Schimel, a
senior research scientist at the NASA
Jet Propulsion Lab, ‘TERN is helping
to bring about a paradigm shift in
the way ecosystem science and
management is done in Australia.
The rest of the world is watching and
hoping to learn’.
Australia can be proud of the
innumerable contributions that our
scientists have made to advancing
ecological knowledge for the benefit
of ourselves and the world.
• US National Ecological
Observatory Network
(NEON) — a continental-scale
ecological observation facility,
sponsored by the National
Science Foundation. NEON
collects and provides open
data that characterise and
quantify complex, rapidly
changing ecological processes
across the United States.
• The European Long-term
Ecosystem Research (LTER)
Network. — formal national
networks and regional groups,
including the 25-member
LTER-Europe.
• Chinese Ecosystem Research
Network (CERN) — an
ecosystem research network
with field stations throughout
China covering the fields of
agriculture, forest, grassland,
lake and marine ecosystems.
TERN has a memorandum of
understanding with CERN.
• South African Ecosystem
Observing Network (SAEON)
— established to deliver long-
term reliable data for scientific
research and to inform
decision making.
• US Long-Term Ecological
Research (US LTER) —
research programs at 28
United States sites support
ecological discovery on the
influence of long-term and
large-scale phenomenon,
with over 2000 researchers
applying long-term
observation, experiments,
and modelling to understand
how ecological systems
function over decades.
• International Long Term
Ecological Research Network
(ILTER) — a ‘network of
networks’, encompassing
hundreds of research sites
located in a wide array of
ecosystems that can help
understand environmental
change across the globe.
The focus is on long-term,
site-based research and
monitoring.
• Analysis and Experimentation
on Ecosystems (AnaEE) — a
Europe-wide program that
offers access to experimental
platforms on terrestrial and
aquatic ecosystems.
• Group on Earth Observations
Biodiversity Observation
Network (GEO BON) — a
multinational initiative aimed
at improving the availability
of biodiversity change data to
decision makers and scientists
in support of policy.
• International Union for
Conservation of Nature
(IUCN) — the global authority
on the status of the natural
world and the measures
needed to safeguard it.
• Cooperation of Research
Infrastructures (COOP+) —
a European Union Horizon
2020 project to address
global environmental
challenges.
• Critical Zone Observatories
(CZO) — a United States
interdisciplinary collaborative
research project designed
to understand the chemical,
physical, geological, and
biological processes that both
shape the surface of Earth and
support terrestrial life.
• Data Observation Network
for Earth (DataONE) — a
United States community
driven collaborative program
providing access to Earth and
environmental data.
• Global Earth Observation
System of Systems (GEOSS)
— a set of coordinated,
international Earth
observation, information
and processing systems that
interact and provide access
to diverse information for a
range of users.
• Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United
Nations
• European Space Agency
• Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency
• National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA)
— United States agency
responsible for the civilian
space program, as well as
aeronautics and aerospace
research.
TERN has helped Australia contribute to many international
research infrastructure programs, including the following:
Internationalresearchinfrastructureprograms
Credit: Mark Grant

• More than 100 international
scientific projects (during just
a six-month period surveyed)
associated with FLUXNET,
an international network of
regional greenhouse gas flux
monitoring networks.
• Australian input into a
growing number of outputs
and outcomes from
NASA missions including
ECOSTRESS which links
terrestrial observations with
International Space Station
measurements to better
understand future food
production and ecosystem
stability in Australia and
globally.
• Better insight into predicting
vegetation growth (including
of crops), flood dynamics and
regional weather forecasting
for Australia through TERN’s
contributions to NASA’s SMAP
mission (global soil moisture
forecasting)
• Calibration, validation
and collaboration on
observations to support the
next generation of ecosystem
models associated with
the NASA Orbiting Carbon
Observatory. This will be
NASA’s first dedicated Earth
remote sensing satellite to
study atmospheric carbon
dioxide from space.
• Australian leadership and
influence in the development
of the IUCN Red List of
Ecosystems, the international
system for evidence-based
scientific assessments of the
risk of ecosystem collapse.
• Australian contributions to
the United Nations System
of Environmental Economic
Accounting and the UN
Sustainable Development
Goals.
TERN science and data have been used in many
international research projects, including the
following:
TERNcontributionstointernationalprojects
‘You have a really strong base,
wonderful capabilities and
amazing potential – you need
to seize the day and have faith
in yourself. One of the key parts
of that is to bring on board
early-career scientists. I have
always been blown away when
opportunities are opened up
to young scientists by giving
them responsibilities that are
apparently far above their pay
grade. They are very engaged
by the idea of grappling with
global problems – getting
beyond the local and solving
the big challenges of the world.
Especially for countries like
Australia and South Africa –
towards the edge of the global
community – this exposure to
playing in the major leagues is a
phenomenally important part to
building the confidence to know
that you are as good as anyone
and better than most.” Professor
Bob Scholes, Wits University,
South Africa.
‘Australia has been in the long-
term ecological research field
from the beginning and has
been a role model for many
countries that have seen how
you are developing. Situations
change between countries
and each one will have to find
its own approach based on its
particular environmental and
economic conditions. The nice
thing about long-term research
is that there are about 40
different ways to jump into the
scene. TERN has been a very
good player.” Dr Manuel Mass,
National Autonomous University
of Mexico and former Chair of
the International Long-Term
Ecological Research Network
(ILTER).
‘TERN is a vital part of the
growing international ecosystem
observatory community. The
program helps provide essential
services to the international
community and represents
a world-leading example of
building collaborative research
infrastructure.’ Dr Michael Mirtl,
Chair of ILTER.
Globalperspectives
onlong-termecosystemresearch
The United States
experience
Dr Hank Loescher is Director of
Strategic Development at the
National Ecological Observatory
Network (NEON), the continental-
scale ecological observation facility
that is the United States equivalent
of TERN, albeit at a larger scale of
budget and scope.
‘The big driving force for TERN and
NEON is trying to understand how
ecological systems work. There are
societal and economic imperatives
that science is being asked to
address. But we still really don’t
know how these systems function,’
Hank says.
‘For example, we know the
basic processes of ecosystem
productivity, the nutrient cycles
and gas exchange, but we do not
know the range and magnitude of
these processes for the extent of
ecosystems worldwide. We don’t
know the interplay between soil
processes and climate. We don’t
know how specific processes,
such as ecosystem respiration,
within an ecosystem interplay and
are controlled by the other biotic
ecosystem processes themselves.’
‘We must know more about these
processes to understand the impacts
of climate change and global
environmental changes and to be
able to plan, manage and adapt to
these changes.’
‘Here is an example. You and I as
organisms hunker down for the
winter and put on a little weight, and
in the summer we become more
physically active and get thinner.
We respond to our environment.
Ecosystems also have flexible
responses. But there are limits to this
flexibility. If it is getting warmer and
you are a tree accustomed to colder
climate, over long, evolutionary
time scales you can move to more
favourable locations. But plants
simply can’t move as quickly as
climate change is occurring.’
Hank makes a distinction between
ecosystem observatories and long-
term networks. ‘Environmental
observatories enable the
research; they gather large-scale
environmental data in a consistent,
17Chapter 1 Tracking Environmental Changes16 Chapter 1 Tracking Environmental Changes

quality-controlled manner. The long-
term networks are run by scientists
conducting discovery-based science
who collect the information to test
their hypotheses.’
‘Coordinated large-scale
experiments are also important
because for us to advance our
understanding of ecology and
address society problems, we must
understand how to predict what
will occur. We do this with robust
theories tested and challenged
with observations and models. But
we need to elucidate non-linear
behaviour of ecosystem processes
with experiments. Challenging
scientific theories with experiments
and measurements ultimately helps
our predictive powers.’
‘Many ecological processes are
non-linear. That is, there may be
tipping points or sudden changes.
So, we need experiments and
process studies to reveal these
processes and responses. Combining
theory, observations, models and
experiments is not a static process;
quite the contrary, to enhance our
predictive ability we need to do this
dynamically and iteratively over time.’
‘All these approaches, observatories,
networks and large experiments have
strengths and weaknesses. We need
different types of data that cover
time, space and scientific depth in
ways that help us understand a world
we don’t yet fully comprehend.’
Hank expands on this point in the
preface to Terrestrial Ecosystem
Research Infrastructures: Challenges
and Opportunities:
‘The future of our planet faces
rapid increases in population and,
along with it, changes in global
consumption patterns and the
increased burden on our natural
resources and the ecosystem
services that they provide. Yet,
we do not know the effects of
these chronic, long-term drivers
on how ecosystems function and
their respective feedbacks to our
consumptive demands—and perhaps
more importantly, on the ecosystems
that provide our food, habitats,
fresh water, natural resources,
conservation areas, and quality of
life. Hence, there is an increased
need for environmental scientists
to work with other stakeholders
to advance our ecological
understanding and to provide
informed decision making tools in
light of this changing world.
To understand how anthropogenic
change affects ecosystems and their
economies and the services they
provide is a societal and scientific
imperative.‘
There is a saying that the more you
learn the more you realise you don’t
know. This saying is particularly
relevant to scientific understanding
of our natural environment.
‘One of the big unknowns is
microbes,’ says Hank. ‘They are
all around us, all the time. We are
learning more and more about
the microbial community and the
processes they control. There is an
unbelievable amount of microbial
diversity and we know very little
about how microbes function. There
are so many microbes on the outside
of a tree that you could remove the
tree and still see its shape!’
While TERN and NEON are similar
programs with comparable
objectives, their genesis was different.
In 2001, the United States National
Academy of Science set out the
challenges that face society and
science in addressing the changing
environment. Ecological researchers
and others identified ‘grand
challenge’ areas of research driven
by climate change, land-use change,
and invasive species. NEON was
specifically designed to address these
challenges at the continental scale.
‘NEON is an entirely new entity.
We took the grand challenges and
built the program from the bottom
up. Conversely, TERN integrated
several existing programs. In many
ways our development paths
were diametrically opposite,’ Hank
says. ‘We have worked together
to consider each other’s lessons
learned. TERN has had to think a
great deal about data, data products,
metadata; so has NEON and we have
learned from the TERN approach.’
Metadata is a term meaning ‘data
about data’ and includes the quality,
format, location and contact
information associated with a
data collection to make it more
scientifically useful and reproducible.
‘Thanks to national programs like
NEON and TERN, we can now ask
and tackle questions that span whole
continents. For example, the genesis
and propagation of drought across
the United States are very different
from that in Australia. The feedback
mechanisms between drought and
plants have implications for society.
For the first time we can make
global comparisons. This helps us
understand how in future whole
ecosystems are going to behave and
use water, with huge implications
for ecosystem and crop productivity.
There is great economic relevance
to these questions, with profound
impacts on global markets.’
Looking to the future, Hank sees
the strong need to demonstrate
economic relevance and application
of ecological monitoring and
observation programs. One way
of doing this is via joint public and
private enterprises.
‘The potential of the investment by
government is still being realised.
We face shrinking budgets and the
reluctance by some to acknowledge
climate change.’
‘We are looking at downstream
innovation including value-added
products. We are incorporating
different revenue streams into our
approach, leading to creating jobs
and economies in new ways.’
Hank and his colleagues see exciting
joint venture opportunities in
areas including insurance and risk
management, agronomic futures,
water resource management,
extreme climate, greenhouse gas
mitigation, and the carbon economy.
TERN is a key player in an
international effort to create
a global network that would
observe and assess the state
of ecosystems worldwide. The
proposed global ecosystem
observatory would provide
sound, science-based guidance
to policy makers and planners
responsible for managing and
protecting our ecosystems.
In 2016, TERN hosted a
meeting in Brisbane that
brought together leaders of
sister ecosystem observing
networks from around the
world. Representatives from
seven national observing
networks joined European
and international program
delegates to discuss ways of
building on existing linkages and
fostering global collaboration to
create a worldwide ecosystem
observatory.
In 2017, TERN representatives
followed up the meeting with
further GEO and ILTER-led
discussions in China, Vietnam
and France with leaders of
ecosystem observing networks
from around the world.
Seekingaglobalecosystemobservatory

21Chapter 2 Urbanisation
Chapter2
URBANISATION
Shutting the city gates on pests and diseases
‘When moving to a more urbanised environment that’s
more intensive in terms of human interaction, you need to
know those ecosystems are still providing the service of
clean air and water. For example, soil filters the water that
ends up in the water supply. We’re providing information
that shows the impact on the air, water and soil in these
semi-rural areas that are highly productive. They produce
pasture and provide other human services.’
Prof. Peter Grace
Queensland University of Technology

22 Chapter 2 Urbanisation 23Chapter 2 Urbanisation
the past 20 to 30 years, with global
trade of goods and people travelling
around the world hugely increasing
the biosecurity risks we face.’
The main biosecurity threats aren’t
always obvious. ‘Many people have
a view that biosecurity risk is higher
in farming areas in the country, but
almost every case of foot and mouth
disease from around the world has
come from pigs in urban areas,’ Jim
says. And while Hendra in horses or
foot and mouth disease in livestock
are well known, the most prevalent
pests and diseases are ones that affect
plants. ‘Most invasives are plant pests,’
Jim says. ‘For example, in Queensland
there are 40 or so new pests and
diseases identified each year, up to 35
of which are plant-related.’
Governments around Australia
handle many dozens of pest and
disease notifications a year. There
were more than 120 biosecurity
risks in 2016 alone, including red
imported fire ants at Brisbane
airport, white spot disease of prawns
in southeast Queensland, and
Khapra beetle in South Australia.
Investment in infrastructure is
important for monitoring biosecurity.
‘You need systems that are used
in “peace time” and “war time”,’
Jim says. ‘In peace time, a lot of
data are collected through routine
surveillance programs. You need
these to be available at all times.
Then you also need these systems in
war time – when there is a disease or
pest incursion, you need a response
with heightened surveillance, more
monitoring, more recording of data,
lab testing and a range of other
activities.’
He says long records of past pest
and disease data are also important
so that scientists can develop
forecasts of when pests and diseases
are likely to occur, and understand
the likely pests and diseases that
may come to Australia in future.
Consistency across organisations
is also important, with biosecurity
a shared responsibility between
governments, industry and the
community. ‘You need to address
biosecurity at a national scale, and
for this you need consistency in
programs across Australia, in labs,
in the field, and in day-to-day
operations rather than each state
doing its own thing.’
He explains that the Commonwealth
government polices the border,
with the states policing pests and
diseases when they cross borders.
‘For nationally significant pests, if
a state can keep it internal, that’s
a great saving for all states. So,
costs are shared. If one state has a
problem, then all states will help pay
for eradication.’
There has been a national effort
to get systems and processes
consistently built and maintained,
with the Australian Biosecurity
Intelligence Network funded
by the Australian Government’s
National Collaborative Research
Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS)
allowing organisations to
interconnect. ‘We’ve also made
leaps and bounds on a national
system for testing in laboratories for
new pests and diseases,’ Jim says.
Most of Australia’s population
growth is happening in our
capital cities, particularly in
outer suburbs and inner cities,
and along the coast. The
concentration of Australia’s
urban population near the coast
creates substantial pressure
on coastal ecosystems and
environments in the east,
southeast and southwest
of the country. As our cities
expand, housing, roads and
other infrastructure replace
natural habitats, biodiversity
is threatened, and there is an
increased risk of pests and
diseases being introduced.
Increased coastal development
amplifies existing environmental
pressures, such as biodiversity loss
and climate change. For example,
local increases to temperature,
known as the urban heat island
effect, occur due to changes in
the land surface, including denser
materials and darker surfaces that
absorb more heat than natural
landscapes. This can result in cities
being several degrees warmer than
surrounding non-urban areas.
Cities contain substantially more
threatened species per unit
area than non-urban areas. In
Melbourne, for example, half of
the approximately 40,000 new
dwellings built each year are in
new greenfield sites. Melbourne’s
outskirts encroach to the west on
the threatened Grassy Eucalypt
Woodland of the Victorian Volcanic
Plain, with clearing of woodland
remnants to make way for urban
development. In many other cities,
urbanisation has occurred in areas
that once had high biodiversity,
destroying or threatening the
viability of many species.
On the other hand, cities can provide
an attractive habitat for plants and
animals because of abundant food
and shelter. Some locations, such as
railway lines, abandoned industrial
sites and urban wetlands, can be rich
in native species.
However, urbanisation does
represent a range of threats
– and some opportunities –
for biodiversity. Human settlements
are often the entry point for
introduced species, such as non-
native invasive garden plants, which
comprise an estimated 72 per cent
of environmental weeds that
affect biodiversity. Notorious animal
invaders include cane toads (Rhinella
marina), European red foxes (Vulpes
vulpes), black rats (Rattus rattus),
European rabbits (Oryctolagus
cuniculus) and feral cats (Felis catus).
Shutting the city gates
on pests and diseases
Urbanisation and changes to the
environment around cities lead to
huge risks in biosecurity through
the introduction of invasive pests
and diseases. As places become
more urban, the biosecurity risk to
Australia rises.
‘Urbanisation and biosecurity
go hand in glove,’ says Dr Jim
Thompson, Chief Biosecurity Officer
for Queensland and Acting CEO at
the Queensland Museum Network.
‘That is where the greatest risks of
pests and diseases are emerging.
This includes marine pests
introduced around ports, with the
unloading of containers being a
city-based activity.’
Jim says the occurrence of new
pests and diseases is increasing
rapidly. ‘The world has changed in
URBANISATION
Brownmarmoratedstinkbug
Scientific name Halyomorpha halys
Origin East Asia
Pathways Hitchhiker on imported goods
At Risk 300 agricultural plants
SHUTTING THE CITY GATES ON PESTS AND DISEASES

models to simulate what’s happening
in the environment now, so it can
then be run forwards or backwards to
see what’s happened in the past and
what is going to happen in the future.
We’re doing ongoing monitoring,
looking at trends, and predicting what
will happen in future, so we can see
how we can intervene.’
One of the reasons for looking at the
peri-urban, semi-rural environment
is to ensure the developing
ecosystem is still providing us
with quality air and quality water.
‘When moving to a more urbanised
environment that’s more intensive
in terms of human interaction, you
need to know those ecosystems are
still providing the service of clean air
and water. For example, soil filters
the water that ends up in the water
supply. We’re providing information
that shows the impact on the air,
water and soil in these semi-rural
areas that are a highly productive.
They produce pasture and provide
other human services.’
The SuperSite hosted an experiment
to compare greenhouse gas
emissions over a natural woodland,
agricultural pasture, and a
developed, urban golf course. ‘We
measured methane and nitrous
oxide for a year at all three of them.
The results told a clear story that
you see much more greenhouse
gas emissions from urban lawns
compared to native woodland, due
to management activities such as
applying fertiliser. Turf grass is the
main peri-urban land cover, so in
terms of contribution to global
warming you need to understand the
impact of conversion from rural to
semi-rural environments, and how
natural sites will change or adapt in
terms of climate change.’
Peter says that recording
soundscapes is another example
of how the SuperSite monitors the
changing environment. Sounds can
include large amounts of information
that can be stored and later analysed
to identify the range and number
of species, study individual species’
behaviour, or identify changes in
the environment over long periods
(see Chapter 12, The symphony of
nature). ‘Instead of counting birds, or
identifying when a particular bird is
present, or tracking birds’ migration
patterns, you can use sound to do
automatic identification and look
at ecosystem health,’ he says. ‘You
can listen to the sounds and, over
time, put it all together, do analytics,
and show the evolving health of
the ecosystem. What started as
collaboration with Michigan State
University in the USA to roll out
acoustic monitoring sensors on the
SuperSite to study ecosystem health
has now expanded to a national
network, led by Professor Paul Roe.’
Peter says data and results from the
SuperSite are shared with the TERN
community to make the research
more cost effective, rather than
reinventing the wheel. ‘We’ve learned
a lot from other people. TERN is
not just used by ecologists, it is
also used by agricultural scientists,
soil scientists, plant physiologists,
ecosystems scientists and others, so
we’re looking at the whole system
and not just isolated parts of it.’
The Queensland University of
Technology (QUT) has also assisted
in the development of a TERN
ecosystem processes monitoring
SuperSite on the Mitchell Grasslands
near Longreach, to see the impact
of livestock production on aspects
of the environment such as soil
health, greenhouse gas emissions,
and water use. ‘We wanted to put a
SuperSite in an agricultural landscape
so we could get a better idea about
how to sustain our resources for
food production in the long-term, in
response to climate change. We’re
trying to think ahead.’
Securing Australia
Australia rates highly when it comes
to preventing invasive pests and
disease. ‘Australia is one of the
leading countries in the world for
biosecurity practices. Our record
would be the envy of many other
countries. A huge success in the past
was the eradication of brucellosis
and tuberculosis across Northern
Australia. It took 27 years from 1970,
cost almost a billion dollars at the
time, but the long-term savings
make this worth it.’
Jim says the eradication of equine
(horse) influenza in Queensland and
NSW in 2008 is another success
story, as is Queensland’s eradication
of citrus canker. There are many
examples of containment of pests
and diseases around the country.
‘Our record is pretty good.’
Successful eradication programs in
the past give Jim and colleagues a
belief in the national system, and that
we can move quickly to deal with any
introduced biosecurity threats. But
the greatest challenge in biosecurity
is where to spend the money.
‘We could spend all our money, and
more, just dealing with pests and
diseases that are established, such
as cane toads, rabbits, foxes, and the
more than 3000 species of weeds that
have been brought into the country.
But that wouldn’t be effective. The
best way to spend biosecurity money
is to be vigilant in monitoring new
pests and diseases, and to stop them
from coming into Australia in the first
place.’ In other words, prevention is
better than the cure.
Jim says there is an ongoing need
for monitoring and research to
understand the priority pests and
diseases in our region, and ensure
work is done on how to deal
with them.
‘It will get harder and harder to
develop new information systems
to store the data, and develop new
ways to forecast where pests and
diseases will come in. This is a
never-ending battle.’
Monitoring rapid
growth
Population growth and the
expansion of urban areas are leading
to rapid changes in how land and
resources are being used, especially
along urbanised coasts. This has
especially been the case in southeast
Queensland, where Brisbane has
the most extensive urban sprawl of
all Australian cities. It’s important
to keep track of how these changes
affect the environment.
Professor Peter Grace, Professor of
Global Change at the Queensland
University of Technology’s Science
and Engineering Faculty, is manager
of TERN’s southeast Queensland
SuperSite in the Samford Valley, just
outside Brisbane. This semi-rural
valley has striking landscapes, natural
resources including native animals
and plants, and supports urban,
agricultural and recreational activities.
‘The area has seen a migration of
people from farming into housing
developments,’ says Peter. ‘The last
expanse of original vegetation is
on the site, and farming still exists
here, but there are developments
down the road. So unlike TERN’s
other SuperSites, which mostly have
a pristine expanse of hundreds of
thousands of hectares, we have a
site that looks at the impact people
have had on natural ecosystems and
ecological processes over time.’
Peter and colleagues have collected
almost a decade of information from
the SuperSite, augmented with the
university’s monitoring of greenhouse
gases in the air and sampling of water
in a small creek running through the
site. ‘The data are used in computer
‘It will get harder and
harder to develop new
information systems
to store the data, and
develop new ways to
forecast where pests and
diseases will come in. This
is a never-ending battle.’

NCRIS and associated programs
established AURIN in June 2010.
It is a collaborative network of
researchers and data providers
across academia, government, and
private sectors.
‘Although we provide data, the
research is done elsewhere,’ says
Serryn. ‘We need researchers to
turn information into knowledge
and wisdom. Hence, we work with
partners such as the University of NSW,
the RMIT Centre for Urban Research,
and many others to combine data
with research and analytics to provide
evidence for decisions.’
For example, researchers from RMIT
University and the University of
Melbourne used the AURIN portal
to examine the characteristics
of pedestrian-vehicle crashes in
Melbourne. There are over 1000
pedestrian-vehicle crashes every
year in Melbourne alone, with
pedestrians four times more likely to
be injured in a traffic accident than
other road users, and 23 times more
likely to be killed.
AURIN provided information from
PMSA Australia about the location
of health services, education
Knowing the
neighbourhood
We’re in an era where research
data are expected to be available
to everyone. The Australian Urban
Research Infrastructure Network
(AURIN) is doing that job by collating
and integrating a range of urban
research data.
‘AURIN collects, harmonises and
makes freely available data about
every city in Australia,’ says Dr Serryn
Eagleson, former Deputy Director
of AURIN. ‘Researchers, decision-
makers and people making daily
decisions about their lives have ready
access to extensive information.’
The urban data come from a range
of different partners and data
providers, including the Australian
Bureau of Statistics, Australian
Property Monitor, and the Public
Sector Mapping Agency. Once
the data are uploaded, AURIN
structures it in a way people can
readily use it – by quality-controlling
and standardising the data, and
making access easy for people with
appropriate permission.
Serryn says that researchers used to
have to search each city for data that
probably weren’t comparable due
to format differences. ‘Now, in one
or two clicks you can gain access
to data that used to take months to
find. We’re like plumbing pipes –
doing the delivery work you don’t
really see.’
Delving into data
AURIN has more than 3,500 multi-
disciplinary datasets from more
than 90 different data sources,
along with tools such as spatial and
statistical modelling, planning and
visualisation. People can interact
with the data through a user-
friendly website that allows you to
compare harmonised information
about every city in Australia.
‘For example, you can select a
measurement – anything from the
number of smokers to housing
rental affordability – and compare
regions around Australia,’ says
Serryn. ‘You can pull down data
on food availability, mapping
fast food outlets and fresh food
access in your neighbourhood to
identify local food environments.
Comparing these data with types
of people who live within walking
distance provides an opportunity
to identify who has – or more
importantly, hasn’t – got access to
healthy food suppliers and other
services.’
Such richness of data and ease of
use enable the telling of powerful
stories and provides information for
decision-making by government
and industry. Using good quality,
rich data and models in decision-
making is a convincing approach
for reducing potential tensions in
our communities, as could be the
case when property developers
and conservationists clash over
the need to provide land for urban
development while also seeking to
protect sensitive ecosystems on the
urban fringe.
Rich data can also uncover all
sorts of interesting and odd facts –
such as that more people fall from
ladders in Bendigo than anywhere
else in Australia.
providers, playgrounds,
accommodation
and other potential
attractors of pedestrian
activity (PMSA Australia
is an organisation
that provides access
to national data,
supporting a growing
range of consumer
applications, and business
and government services).
The researchers found
information such as the time of
a crash was the most important
factor determining the severity of
pedestrian crashes in Melbourne,
probably due to increased speeds:
25 per cent of crashes occurred
between 7 pm and 6 am, but 60
per cent of these crashes involved
fatalities or serious injury. For day-
time crashes, pedestrian age was
the most important feature, with
increased severity of injuries for
over-65s.
These findings could influence
road safety strategies, with speed
reductions in places with lots of
pedestrians potentially decreasing the
severity of pedestrian-vehicle crashes.
Another project examined live music
in Sydney and Melbourne between
the early 1980s and mid 2000s. Dr
Sarah Taylor from RMIT University
looked at historical maps and
statistics, combined with interviews
with musicians and others to
understand patterns of change with
live music in Australian cities.
The AURIN Victorian Liquor Licensing
data helped Sarah geocode music
venues, and pokies data helped
produce compelling maps. Her results
showed that pokies have dispersed
across Melbourne, but live music
venues have got closer together.
The research also highlighted
the accessibility, reliability and
trustworthiness of AURIN’s datasets.
As Sarah explains, ‘The best part
about AURIN was knowing that
trustworthy official data was readily
accessible, with no tiring and
off-putting email trails required. It
switched the focus to getting on
with research, rather than second-
guessing the available data or my
ability to obtain it.’
BlackSWANS Swan River, Perth
Traffic data visualised: spatial and temporal distribution
of pedestrian crashes in Melbourne.

There are lots of global surveys ranking
cities around the world for quality of
living – for example, Melbourne was
rated the world’s most liveable city for
seven years running by the Economist’s
Global Liveability Ranking in 2017. What
information makes up these indices,
which in one number claim to capture
the concepts of liveability, quality of life,
sustainability and environmental quality?
The answer is: it depends, says Serryn.
‘They hinge on what you measure, and
how you aggregate it. The indices vary
almost as much as the cities they try
to encapsulate, and their estimation
depends on many factors, including data
availability, the degree of subjectivity, and
the index’s purpose – horses for courses.’
Liveability indices include factors
such as political stability, crime, the
economic environment, limitations on
personal freedom, medical and health
considerations, waste disposal, air
pollution, natural disasters, standard of
education, electricity and water services,
public transport, traffic congestion,
recreation, food availability, and housing.
However, research shows that the
relationship between the ranking of
liveability and the actual satisfaction
of the cities’ inhabitants can be weak.
‘High scores on all these services don’t
necessarily make people satisfied with
their lives,’ says Serryn. ‘This is especially
the case for residents on the urban
fringe, who tend to be further from many
urban services. Cities can have a good
overall rating but high levels of inequality.
There are different patterns of liveability
within and across cities, so aggregating
to an entire metropolitan area can be
misleading.’
If city comparison studies are to be used
for more than simply bragging rights,
more detailed information needs to be
collected, curated, and analysed. Serryn
says that measuring individual suburbs’
health, education, services and housing
is important. ‘This level of detail allows
urban planners to see where to invest
to improve city performance. What gets
measured gets done.’
Access to useable urban data is
particularly important in light of the
United Nations’ Sustainable Development
Goal to ‘make cities inclusive, safe,
resilient and sustainable’. An aim in
building resilient communities is to ‘leave
no one behind as we progress’, so spatial
information can show decision-makers
where to target funds, which vulnerable
people need help, and who may be left
behind as we progress, to match the
resources to the need. ‘Through AURIN,
Australia has a world advantage in this
unique capability of urban data access.’
Liveabilityindicesain’tliveabilityindices
‘Cities are where the greatest risks of
pests and diseases are emerging.
This includes marine pests introduced
around ports, with the unloading of
containers being a city-based activity.’
Dr Jim Thompson
Chief Biosecurity Officer for Queensland

chapter3
INDIGENOUS
KNOWLEDGECultural collaborations compare traditional and contemporary information
‘We’ve still got Yapa law and culture,’ explains
one traditional owner. ‘This law comes from
land and is about looking after land; we want
to keep this strong and learn new ways to look
after country. Our IPA is a really big area of
land and we want to work together with other
people, partners, to look after it.’
Central Land Council
Credit: Gillian Towler
30 Chapter 1 Tracking Environmental Changes

Collaborations involving
traditional knowledge and
contemporary science
provide opportunities to share
information, compare ways
to monitor and manage the
land, and enable knowledge
exchange. Indigenous lands
contain significant levels of
biodiversity, and traditional
practices of managing Australia’s
environment are supporting
collaborative environmental and
resource management.
The rapid expansion of Indigenous
ranger programs provides
new opportunities for better
understanding and management
of biodiversity. For example, the
Birriliburu Indigenous Protected
Area in central Western Australia
hosts diverse, nationally important
ecosystems. Indigenous rangers
work to control feral animals
and weeds and apply traditional
fire management techniques to
protect biodiversity and threatened
species. TERN and partners support
the rangers through knowledge
exchange and skills training (see this
Chapter: Traditional knowledge and
contemporary science collaboration
in the western woodlands). TERN’s
Ecosystem Surveillance platform
and its partners are working with the
traditional owners and rangers to
share information on monitoring and
managing local ecosystems.
To market, to market:
with carbon
Traditional burning practices have
improved fire management in the
Australian Top End, and can help earn
money by reducing greenhouse gases.
However, Professor Jeremy Russell-
Smith, from the Darwin Centre for
Bushfire Research at Charles Darwin
University, says more needs to be
done for Kakadu, Litchfield and
Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge National
Parks to catch up with the positive
results achieved in neighbouring
Western Arnhem Land.
His team’s research shows that
managing low intensity fires earlier
in the dry season is far better for the
environment than uncontrolled, late
season severe fires.
‘All the data and evidence show
the need for fine scale burning, at
scales from less than a hectare up
to a square kilometre, rather than
huge fires that burn thousands of
kilometres – as was applied in the
three parks and much of northern
Australia,’ says Professor Russell-
Smith, who helped run TERN’s Three
Parks Savanna Fire-Effects Plot
Network in the Northern Territory for
two decades.
Big fires lead to
environmental collapse
He says observations from the
network have delivered the bad news
that large, severe fires in the three
parks have contributed to the loss of
small mammals and major impacts
on vulnerable plant communities in
the area.
‘When you do a monitoring program,
it may not turn out the way you
might have expected,’ he says.
‘Over much of the 20 years of the
program, fire was poorly managed in
the Kakadu World Heritage area. Very
large, uncontrolled fires later in the
year, whether lit by managers or not,
have probably contributed to the
collapse of small mammal fauna and
certainly affected vulnerable plant
communities.’
Jeremy says that the required
small, patchy burns are labour
and resource-intensive – these
need funding that wasn’t available
in the 1990s and 2000s. ‘Budget
constraints have meant that
insufficient attention was paid to
management of fire in this large fire-
prone landscape, so big fires ran riot.’
He says the recent history of
poor fire management in Kakadu,
Litchfield and Nitmiluk is in stark
contrast to how land is managed
by Traditional Owners in nearby
Western Arnhem Land. ‘In recent
times, since the mid-2000s, fire
management of the savanna has
been part of commercial greenhouse
gas reduction programs, so there has
been enhanced funding available to
do fine scale burning. The obvious
solution for the national parks
involved is to get involved in carbon
markets to help pay for people to do
fine scale burning.’
Jeremy says the establishment
of 220 savanna plots across the
three parks led to the important
understanding of how it had been
the big fires that decimated plants
and animals. Using observations from
the plots and associated fires, and
detailed LANDSAT imagery, scientists
have been able to get a better
understanding of the relationship
between fire and fauna collapse. ‘The
major collapse of small mammal
fauna in Kakadu isn’t simply due to
too much burning – more important
has been the high frequency of
large fires. These findings took our
understanding of fire regime impacts
up to another level. It was a major
product of the investment in TERN.’
Training the managers
While the research findings were
important, Jeremy says a greater
benefit of the network has been
to train park managers in how to
interpret and use data. ‘It has been
an ongoing monitoring program,
but fundamentally it was about
training managers, and there was
the bonus of getting lots of research
issues dealt with along the way,’ he
says. ‘The greatest value was in the
training, with research being one of
lots of other spin offs.’
In establishing the network in 1994,
Jeremy and colleagues engaged
with the Traditional Owners and park
managers, asking what information
they needed. ‘They came up with a
design that suited their requirements,
with the 220 plots over the three
parks focussing on change and the
broad gamut of how fire-prone
vegetation responded to their
management actions.’
A basic component of the program
has been to take a photo record of
the plots every year both to monitor
changes as well as the fire history.
More than 20 years of photos for
every plot builds up a pictorial history
of what’s going on to help inform
management. Detailed on-ground
assessments have been conducted
every five years in respective parks
involving park managers and others,
including Indigenous ranger groups
from other locations.
The good news is that recent
changes in management practices
are having an impact. ‘A lot of
assembled data, including from the
three parks program, have fed into
the development of savanna burning
methodologies. New methods
are about reducing emissions of
greenhouse gases thanks to better
management of intense late dry
season bushfires, so rangers do
prescribed burning, break up the
country and work to prevent big
fire impacts.’
INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE Credit: Suzanne Prober
CULTURAL COLLABORATIONS COMPARE TRADITIONAL
AND MODERN CONTEMPORARY INFORMATION
32 Chapter 3 Indigenous knowledge 33Chapter 3 Indigenous knowledge

He says western science is only now
catching up with what Indigenous
Australians already knew. ‘Aboriginal
people now feel their knowledge
systems are beginning to be valued,
with the western science view
coming around to seeing that what
they’ve been doing – managing
small fires from early in the year
– has merit. Now people are
recognising the value of traditional
processes.’
Putting Indigenous
biocultural knowledge
on the map
Respectful collection and sharing of
traditional knowledge can improve
our understanding and conservation
of the environment – just as much
as scientific measurements of the
environment.
‘Physical infrastructure is necessary,
but more important to our work is
the social infrastructure – the people
and the networks,’ says Dr Emilie
Ens, from Macquarie University’s
Department of Environmental
Sciences.
She says that TERN’s Australian
Centre for Ecological Analysis and
Synthesis (ACEAS) brought people
from around Australia to document
Indigenous biocultural knowledge.
‘This working group reviewed what
biocultural knowledge had been
documented over the past 200 years.
So, we have drawn on the social and
intellectual infrastructure more than
big, physical infrastructure.’
Formerly a facility of TERN,
ACEAS has created a website to
showcase documented Indigenous
biocultural knowledge. It has
literally put traditional knowledge
on the map, with the site including
a map of project locations and
examples of leading practice and
case studies. The case studies
include fire management planning,
monitoring feral animals, traditional
plant use, and development of a
climate change adaptation tool
based on traditional ecological
knowledge of weather and observed
environmental change.
Emilie says that bringing the
information together was tricky, and
working with Indigenous knowledge
is a sensitive topic. ‘We needed
the right people with the right
knowledge, and we needed to be
respectful of traditional knowledge,
and not take this knowledge
and do something with it that is
disrespectful,’ she says.
‘The working group discussed if
it is even ethical to re-document
knowledge that was unethically
documented in the first place over
the past two centuries. For example,
non-Aboriginal people have written
books about bush tucker without
acknowledging the traditional
knowledge holders as authors.
Respect and acknowledgement are
still ongoing issues; we’re trying to
combine traditional and western
knowledge respectfully so Aboriginal
people are empowered rather than
left behind.’
Saving species through
language
In work for the Atlas of Living
Australia, Emilie has combined
western and traditional methods
of observation to identify species
through cross-cultural biodiversity
research. ‘We use western science
observations from camera traps,
cages, pitfall traps and funnel
traps. We combine this with
Indigenous scientific methods that
involved searching for animals in
the landscape, following tracks,
referencing stories, using cultural
knowledge, and looking at dreaming
sites and places named after animals
and plants, all of which indicate a
known location of species encoded
in language and song in southeast
Arnhem Land,’ she explains.
This has led to the identification
of new populations of threatened
species, and Emilie‘s team is in the
process of documenting two new
species. ‘The flora and fauna of
southeast Arnhem Land has been
poorly known to western science.
For example, there are no emus
scientifically recorded in the area,
but we know they are there so this
project has been about filling gaps.’
The work also led to the first ever
inclusion of Indigenous knowledge
in the Atlas of Living Australia (see
Chapter 10: Visualising Australian
life in an atlas). ‘The Atlas of Living
Australia’s database has been
instrumental to our recording of
species sightings,’ says Emilie. ‘We
now have a collection of species
profiles in 10 different languages
– including eight Indigenous
languages, common English, and
scientific names.’
She says that the cultural element
is equally as important as the
science. ‘Despite Arnhem Land being
declared an Aboriginal Reserve in
1931, in some places there has been
just as much cultural knowledge
and language lost here as in
southern Australia – the impacts
of colonialism have reached every
corner of the country. So, the work
has been about using biodiversity
conservation as a vehicle to maintain
the transmission of traditional
knowledge to young people. We’ve
been building understanding of
animals that used to be common
and culturally important such as big
goannas that haven’t been seen for
at least the past 20 years – animals
that are people’s totems and an
important part of their relationship
with the land. The work is also
improving local understanding
of how weeds, feral animals, fire,
and climate change are damaging
Australian biodiversity.’
She says that the resulting social
empowerment is also very important.
‘By elevating Indigenous knowledge
to be alongside western science in
conservation and land management,
Aboriginal people, especially
young people, are regaining pride
in their language and old people’s
knowledge.’
Long-term investment in building
relationships is important, she
explains. ‘We need long-term
funding for this sort of work, because
we’re dealing with big problems in
remote parts of Australia.’
‘White fellas have been here for 200
years, whereas Aboriginal people
have been here for more than
60,000 years, so we need to work
with Aboriginal people to understand
how the environment has changed
over a very long time.’
‘It takes a long time to bring all this
information together and build long-
term relationships and commitment.
This is going to be a lifetime of work
for many people, as we’re only just
scratching the surface so far. But if we
can establish respectful relationships,
and can share knowledge, we
can hopefully save some of the
endangered animals and languages.’
Credit: Central Land Council
Credit: Emilie Ens
‘Physical infrastructure
is necessary, but more
important to our work is
the social infrastructure
– the people and the
networks.’

Traditional knowledge
and contemporary
science collaboration
in the western
woodlands
Collaboration involving traditional
knowledge and contemporary
science has identified many new
species, documented culturally
important plants, and will contribute
to managing internationally significant
woodlands in Western Australia.
Dr Stephen van Leeuwen,
Assistant Director of Science at the
Western Australian Department
of Biodiversity, Conservation
and Attractions, has spent time
training rangers from the Birriliburu
Indigenous Protected Area on how
to set up monitoring plots, sample
soils, and collect genomic samples.
‘We did biological survey work in the
Little Sandy desert, working with the
Birriliburu men’s and women’s ranger
teams,’ says Stephen.
‘We conducted surveys of plants
in the area, and saw that as an
opportunity to provide training to
young rangers on how to set up
plots and monitoring sites to national
standards,’ says Stephen. ‘It was the
first time some of the young rangers
got to set up a plot and practise
collection techniques, so this was a
new experience for them.’
The Birriliburu Indigenous Protected
Area is 6.6 million hectares – almost
as big as Tasmania. It covers the
Little Sandy Desert, Gibson Desert
and the Gascoyne, and houses many
nationally important ecosystems and
threatened species.
The region’s Traditional Owners, the
Martu people, continue their 30,000-
year connection with country with
Indigenous rangers managing the
natural assets. Management activities
include controlling feral animals
and weeds, and using traditional fire
management techniques to protect
biodiversity and reduce pressure on
threatened species.
Stephen says the opportunity to
share knowledge and compare ways
to monitor and manage the land has
been extremely rewarding, and he
and colleagues learned a lot about
the local culture and knowledge of
country. ‘Setting up the plot was
a man’s job in Indigenous culture,
while sampling plants was women’s
business,’ he says. ‘As people
collected samples, elders would
identify what the species were,
which they knew from the look of
the trees and what they had been
taught by their elders. One example
of their extensive knowledge was
when a women’s ranger team
member told us how many varieties
of mulga would be present at a
monitoring site, even before we’d
started sampling. We counted, and it
turns out she was spot on.’
‘The local community saw things
that botanists saw from a different
perspective. The two methods worked
together to confirm the taxonomy of
plants, and that information was then
captured for science. For example,
the women’s ranger team, with the
help of ecologists from Bush Heritage
Australia, recorded Aboriginal names
of the plants, and their ethno-botanic
use, which is building up a dataset of
bush tucker and medicine plants for
the elders to pass on to the younger
generation. That was a good additional
thing to get out of the activity.’
Stephen says there was a real
knowledge exchange.
Credit: Emilie Ens
37Chapter 3 Indigenous knowledge36 Chapter 3 Indigenous knowledge

‘The local community would identify
what was a medicine plant, a cultural
plant, bush tucker, how it was
used for this or that. It was two-
way learning, although I think the
scientists learned more from
the local community than they did
from us.’
Monitoring the largest
woodland in the world
Sampling also took place at TERN’s
Great Western Woodlands SuperSite,
managed by Suzanne Prober from
CSIRO. Opened in 2013, the
SuperSite is at Credo Station,
a former pastoral property in
Western Australia’s Goldfields
region, near Kalgoorlie. The site
is in the internationally significant
Great Western Woodlands
region, which covers 16 million
hectares in southwest Western
Australia. It is the largest intact
temperate (or ‘Mediterranean’)
woodland in the world.
‘The SuperSite is along TERN’s South
West Australian Transitional Transect,
or SWATT, which extends more than
1,200 kilometres from Walpole on
the south coast of Western Australia,
through to the SuperSite at Credo,
and out to Matuwa in the Little
Sandy Desert,’ says Stephen. ‘It was
set up to look at continental scale
landscape gradients, such as how
changes in rainfall and temperature,
in soils, and land management
practices affect the distribution and
patterning of biodiversity.’
The transect crosses eight bioregions
and various land uses, from tall
eucalypt forests on the south
coast, through agricultural land
with fragmented headlands and
woodlands, and across rangelands
used for pastoralism and mining.
‘The transect crosses many different
gradients and ecological boundaries
that influence species distributions.
Little is known about much of the
species-rich country in the middle
of the SWATT, in particular the
sandplain heaths,’ says Stephen.
Thousands of plant samples along
the SWATT have been collected,
sorted and identified. Researchers
have identified a total of 784
plant species, 24 of which have
conservation significance. ‘We also
found some taxa that are new to
science. We collected lots of species
that are rare or poorly known, which
has now resulted in changes to their
conservation status,’ says Stephen.
All the data are openly accessible via
the TERN Data Discovery Portal.
Researchers used biodiversity data
collected from 160 ecosystem-
monitoring plots along the SWATT
to reveal that the vegetation of
southern Western Australia’s
sandplains is not only very diverse
but also highly variable between
locations. Species change so
quickly between locations along
the transect that sites less than
10 kilometres apart have almost
completely different plant
communities. Variations in soil
and climate only partly explain
the remarkably diverse sandplain
ecosystems.
‘We found that each sandplain
has its own distinct character, and
within each sandplain plant species
overturn quickly,’ says Stephen. ‘For
management purposes, we wanted
to understand if one plot represents
others, or if each is unique, or if there
are aspects within each plot that
are different from other parts of the
same plot.’
Stephen says TERN’s observations
help monitor how different land-
management practices may affect
the Great Western Woodlands. Of
particular importance are findings
relating to fire management of
the area’s sandplain heathlands,
which support high levels of
species richness and contain many
significant plants. ‘To protect
the woodlands, in the past the
management response was to burn
the sandplains – people see value
in trees but not in the shrubs. But
data collected by our study have
indicated that these sandplains are
of similar biological significance to
the woodlands and consequently fire
management response now takes
this finding into consideration.’
‘I hope in future to sample
other plant communities along
the transect, or sample other
elements of the sandplains such
as invertebrates, reptiles or small
mammals to see if they change
as much as the plants, and if such
rapid changes are driven by climatic
considerations or other influences.’
He says TERN provides the research
infrastructure and data at the scales
required to understand and manage
the vast, fragile and highly variable
sandplain ecosystems. ‘The transect
wouldn’t have happened without
TERN support, and the Indigenous
engagement wouldn’t have been
as successful,’ he says. ‘People
would have gone out separately,
with the TERN scientists doing their
thing, the Birriliburu Indigenous
community going out at a different
time, and the Department going out
at a completely different time. But
by having a national program with
standard protocols, and methods in
place for capturing data and getting
it into the public domain, everything
came together.’
Members of the Birriliburu Women’s Ranger Team record the traditional names of plants during vegetation
sampling at Katjarra. (Photo courtesy of Emma Drake, Central Desert Native Title Services)
A map of the Three Parks region.
Credit: Suzanne Prober

Firing up the
next generation
of Indigenous
researchers
Learning about science through the
example of Indigenous ecological
knowledge can lead to a more diverse
workforce, with students enjoying
science and gaining an appreciation
of Indigenous Australian history.
‘Our program uses non-secret,
non-sacred, and openly publishable
knowledge,’ says Jesse King, Senior
Coordinator of CSIRO Education
and Outreach’s Indigenous STEM
Education Project. ‘We use examples
of traditional knowledge to talk to
students from K to 12 about how the
scientific inquiry process is a part of
human nature and problem solving.’
‘For example, all Indigenous groups
around Australia have knowledge
of fire starting,’ he says. ‘This was
developed many thousands of
years ago, with people making
use of the best available materials.
Communities in different areas have
a fire-starting method that depends
on plant availability, because you
need a particular combination
of plants to efficiently start a fire.
In Australia there are more than
18,000 different plant species. The
choice of materials isn’t just pot
luck. Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Island peoples have knowledge
about the entire ecosystem. They
solve problems using thousands and
thousands of years of observations,
reflections on data, and planning
and predicting methodologies.
They then refine the knowledge,
and communicate it through story,
songlines and cultural activities.’
He says the program, run in over
70 schools throughout four states,
helps both Indigenous and non-
Indigenous students understand the
connection between knowledge
held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Island peoples and a range of
sciences. ‘It’s just as important for
non-Indigenous students to see how
traditional knowledge connects with
science, as it is part of Australia’s
history. Up until now students have
learned about science, and about
science history, with examples of
Eurocentric scientists such as Galileo
and Magellan – but we highlight
science as a human construct, not
just a western construct.’
Jesse is a Waanyi descendant
with ties to the Mt Isa and Central
Queensland regions, although he
explains that his perspective is as an
Indigenous educator, with a passion
for education and the opportunities
it provides for everyone involved,
and that he is not representing
all Indigenous people or the full
diversity of Aboriginal Australia.
The program is run by CSIRO with
$28 million over five years from
the BHP Billiton Foundation. ‘These
projects aren’t cheap, so if we want
to see more Indigenous people
with a research capacity, we need
to invest wisely in our education
programs and teacher training, and
take a whole, systemic approach to
incorporate Indigenous knowledge
across all levels, to effect change.
Without a concerted effort with
proven track records, change will be
too slow, and we can’t afford to be
slow as we move to a technology-
based economy. If people are being
excluded from science, technology,
education and maths, they’ll become
more marginalised.’
Credit: Emilie Ens
‘It’s just as important for non-Indigenous students to see how traditional
knowledge connects with science, as it is part of Australia’s history. Up until
now students have learned about science, and about science history, with
examples of Eurocentric scientists such as Galileo and Magellan.’

Combing traditional
knowledge with western
science
The integration of Indigenous
knowledge with western science has
been happening since Europeans
arrived, says Jesse. ‘There were
observations in Joseph Banks’ diary
of the Guugu Yimithirr people near
Cooktown, processing cycad nuts
to detoxify them. If you eat the nuts
without this process, it’s a poison.
Banks noted that it killed pigs on
the Endeavour and made men
sick. But this was viewed through a
colonial lens, and these European
observations of traditional practices
were not connected with scientific
knowledge.’
Jesse gives another example of the
antiseptic properties of tea tree. ‘Tea
tree oil is 10 times stronger than
antiseptics being used by Europeans
and colonists in the 18th century.
Comments were recorded at the
time that Aboriginal people were
surviving wounds that would kill
European people who didn’t have
that understanding and were using a
less effective antiseptic.’
He says if we now look back at these
historical interactions but through
a modern lens and our current
understanding of science, we can
see that Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples have had scientific
knowledge in Australia for many
thousands of years. ‘It’s been only
relatively recently that people have
understood bacteria, enzymes,
germ theory and so on. But you can
explore this on a longer time scale to
see how it is understood by Aboriginal
people. You can look at the complex
nature of detoxification of food
groups that contain toxins, and use
this understanding to help primary
students right through to tertiary level
explore detoxification processes.’
Jesse says the program is not just
about the science understanding;
it has links across the science
curriculum. ‘We can ask questions
about the ethics of using Indigenous
knowledge, about bio-piracy and the
intellectual property of Aboriginal
peoples. It was the Bundjalung
people in northern NSW who first
used the oil from Melaleuca or tea
tree medicinally, but there’s never
been recognition of the Bundjalung
people’s cultural or intellectual
property, even though they’ve used
it for thousands of years. Students
need to ask these questions and
learn about this, otherwise modern
germ theory silences our first
Australians’ knowledge.’
Jesse can give many other examples
of science explained through
traditional knowledge, from
medicines to the ecosystem, to the
chemistry of how the compounds
in poisons or medicines react
with the human body. ‘Indigenous
people know certain plants are
medicinal, for example helping if
you had a stomach ache. But now
you can break down this knowledge
using our current understanding
of science, and inspire the next
generation to make new discoveries.
We are constantly describing new
plants all over the world, so there’s
a lot of opportunity still out there to
discover.’
Jesse explains the University of
Queensland’s recent work on the
nanotechnology of spinifex resin
is a case in point. ‘The resin from
spinifex can be used as a renewable
and biodegradable replacement for
latex and Kevlar,’ he says. ‘If this takes
off, imagine the impact on remote
communities who manage a sea
of spinifex. We can use examples
like this to say to kids, “If you’re
interested in this technology, it can
take you to a career in chemistry”.
We can take their interest in
Indigenous culture and knowledge,
link it to the school curriculum,
demonstrate links to the economy,
and build capacity to do science and
enjoy it.’
He says as a result of the Indigenous
education program, teachers have
noted that Indigenous and non-
Indigenous students are thinking
more creatively, engaging with
science and inquiring more.
‘By bringing the traditional lens and
the western lens together, hand in
hand, we can go further, not just
have one or the other. And it gives
Indigenous students a sense of
pride to see how much traditional
knowledge is still used today.’
He says the ultimate objective is to
have a more diverse workforce, with
more Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Island people in careers in science
and other STEM areas. ‘We want to
get more Indigenous people into
researching at a PhD level and on to
a research career, so we need more
Indigenous people doing science
at school. We’re setting up students
to be able to make links between
Indigenous knowledge and science,
which they’ll carry with them when
they’re doing research and using
science infrastructure as scientists.’
Credit: Allan Burbidge Credit: Central Land Council
‘By bringing the traditional lens and the western
lens together, hand in hand, we can go further, not
just have one or the other. And it gives Indigenous
students a sense of pride to see how much traditional
knowledge is still used today.’

44 45
chapter4
EXTREME
EVENTS
‘Bushfires have been part of the
Australian landscape for a long time,
but with climate change they are
getting more severe and frequent.’
Dr Marta Yebra
Australian National University
Water and Landscape Group
A warming world is causing more extreme weather events
Credit: Eva Van Gorsel Credit: Suzanne Long

Observing Environmental Change in Australia: Conversations for Sustainability

Observing Environmental Change in Australia: Conversations for Sustainability

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