Farmers in South East Queensland are set to benefit from a brand new Drought Node. The new node is based in Kilcoy and will support producers and their communities across SEQ in growing resilience to manage climate variability through innovation, collaboration, and building capacity and capability.

The node is part of the broader Southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales (SQNNSW) Drought Hub and will support producers and their communities in growing resilience to manage climate variability through innovation, collaboration, and building capacity and capability.

Its aim is to offer support that ranges from the extension and adoption of agtech to soils knowledge with information to help manage and adapt to a highly variable and changing climate and respond to ever-increasing environmental, biosecurity, financial, and market challenges.

This University of Southern Queensland-led SQNNSW Hub is one of eight national Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs, a flagship of the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund. With headquarters at UniSQ in Toowoomba, the SQNNSW Innovation Hub covers the region from Longreach in Queensland to Dubbo in New South Wales, and from the coast to the Southern Australian & Northern Territory borders in the west.

The South East Queensland Node will be managed by peak environment group for the region, Healthy Land & Water.

With Australian farmers experiencing the reality of a changing climate with sometimes devastating impacts on production, profits, and our natural assets and people, this initiative is set to help them to continually adapt and thrive into the future.

The aim is to empower stakeholders to co-design drought preparedness activities for the region. Hub members will apply proven drought-resilience research on the ground to improve innovation and adoption across agriculture, industry, and the community.

The project is making much-needed information, tools, and support available to land managers and landowners, especially in consideration of the current poor seasonal conditions and the outlook (CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology) associated with an active El Niño pattern.

Innovation is the key

The idea behind this project is to think forward and share solutions for the future. How will the landholders, agricultural industries, supply chains, and communities of South East Queensland need to manage, and adapt to a highly variable and changing climate and respond to ever-increasing environmental, biosecurity, financial, and market challenges?

Innovation is the answer to the question and is key to achieving a more resilient, sustainable, and profitable future. Innovation can come as a new widget or a new machine, a new or adapted on-ground practice, a change in organisational direction, a collaborative plan, or learning and applying new skills and knowledge, to name some examples.

Building future drought resilience in the community

Healthy Land & Water, with its extensive landholder network and long-lasting relationships with the community in SEQ, will be the point of engagement and will work with node partners to organise and facilitate activities for farmers, agribusiness, and local communities to access innovative technologies and practices to build drought resilience in the region.

Collaboration and ongoing discussion with landholders, industry groups, regional communities, and researchers will contribute to the implementation of adaptive and innovative plans and practices, and the testing of the latest techniques identified by the local farming and regional communities.

Local landowners and land managers will be able to receive advice in relation to Future Drought Fund opportunities, learn about existing drought management and decision support tools, receive climate outlook information targeted to the location, and access training opportunities and extension services in various topics related to drought resilience, and sustainable agricultural production.

Collaborative delivery

Healthy Land & Water is excited to be managing this new Southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales (SQNNSW) Hub as part of the larger initiative from the University of Southern Queensland, funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

Landholders interested in being involved in the project are encouraged to contact Healthy Land & Water – Bruce Lord 0427 013 284 or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Acknowledgments
The SQNNSW Innovation Hub project is supported by Healthy Land & Water and the University of Southern Queensland, through received funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.