Education & training

Landholders in Myrtle Creek, Busby’s Flat, Upper Cherry Tree, Mongogarie, Pikapene and surrounding areas are invited to Fire and Flood Restoration Workshops at the Rappville Pub this month. All Richmond Valley landholders can join in the workshops which will focus on building community capacity and resilience to extreme events.

Twenty Sunshine Coast teams have battled it out at the RoboRAVE Australia annual robotics competition at the University of the Sunshine Coast, with ten of those teams from seven local schools winning across 15 divisions ... The energy was electric as students, aged eight to 20 representing 363 teams from across Queensland, ... raced to design, build and program fully autonomous robots to compete in the challenges for each division.  

Forestry Australia is delighted to announce the appointment of two new co-chairs to lead its Future Foresters Initiative (FFI) Committee. Alannah Rowe and David Faluyi will head up the committee made up of young forestry professionals and forest science students which aims to support career growth and foster the next generation of forestry leaders.

Serena Kirby. Denmark Senior High School students are making progress with the restoration of one of Denmark’s iconic wooden boats, Tiki. The restoration began last year after now-retired teacher, Pete Logan, suggested it as a project for the school’s recreational pursuits course.

Part 2 of a three part series of reports from the conference by Philip Hopkins ... “It’s time for the fire management sector to band together and argue the case for a massive increase in the budget across fire research. Up to 97 per cent of spending is on response and rebuilding during and after events, and only three per cent on preparation and mitigation. That mismatch needs to be turned around but not at the expense of insufficient current operational budgets”: Climate Councillor, Greg Mullins.

The first training program has commenced at the new Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) Biosecurity Training Centre (BTC), with 21 new students starting on 4 July. Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Australia’s Director of Biosecurity, Mr Andrew Metcalfe AO, said the new training program, delivered by Charles Sturt University (CSU), will strengthen Australia’s biosecurity capability.

NSW Farmers President James Jackson says Australians looking for work should consider a career in agriculture. There were almost half a million job vacancies across the country, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which Mr Jackson said was holding back productivity.

A new study led by the University of South Australia indicates tens of thousands of wind turbine blades will end up in landfill by the end of the decade unless end-of-life programs are established soon. The study, led by  Professor Peter Majewski, highlights the challenges of recycling wind turbine blades, which are made of either carbon fibre or glass fibre composite material, both of which are expensive to break down, with the recovered materials having minimal market value.

The NSW country town of Leeton is about as far removed as possible from Afghanistan – geographically, culturally, politically and religiously – but it has set the gold standard for how Australia can successfully integrate refugees into local communities.

The first of a three part series by Philip Hopkins. Sharing information globally about the causes and impacts of destructive bushfires in an era threatened by global warming drew about 360 people to an international conference in Melbourne in June. Fire & Climate 2022, presented by the International Association of Wildland Fire in partnership with Natural Hazards Research Australia, concentrated on the most significant forces shaping wildland fire today.

Lee Mead. A group of 15 tertiary students from Monash University came to the Tarrangower Cactus Control Group field day yesterday, to help us in the war on Wheel Cactus. The event was held in the Maldon Historic Reserve, at the back of the Mount, where they thoroughly enjoyed the natural landscapes and local views.

The Denmark Men’s Shed will hold an information evening on Thursday, July 7 to gauge the interest in setting up and supporting a women’s group or hub at the shed ... The meeting will be aimed at women who may be interested in doing or learning how to do some woodwork and how to use common, or less common, tools and machines.

Clarence Valley Anglican School Year 11 student Caleb Harrison won’t regret penning a 1000 word history essay after his work won him an 11 day, NSW Government organised and ClubsNSW funded tour of historic World War II sites in the United States and Japan. After meeting Caleb and his proud mum, Jackie in Grafton on Monday and reading his essay, Clarence Nationals MP Chris Gulaptis said it was easy to see why he was just one of six students across NSW to win a place on the ClubsNSW Premier’s WWII Memorial Tour.

Member for Cook Cynthia Lui says she is thrilled that Cape York received its fair share in the 2022-23 state budget ... “In this year’s budget we are making record investments in health, education, jobs, renewables, and community services like police, fire and emergency services,” Ms Lui said.

Our end–to–end carbon farming project management software is growing in capabilities and global reach! View the webinar recording.

As a part of the Humanities curriculum, Middle Year students were given the task of coming up with ideas for creating a micro business and then making it happen. On Wednesday morning the results of all their hard work was on display as they held Markets at the High School.

Citizen science has made an important contribution to an FRDC-funded project to predict the impact of climate change on three fish species of increasing recreational and commercial importance in Tasmania ... Data from the project was gathered from several sources, including fish frames (skeletons) donated by recreational fishers at 16 drop off points around Tasmania, which yielded 801 frames in the 24 months to July 2021. Frames were also donated by commercial fishers and fish processors.

Pam Dillon. A chilly windy day did not deter the students at Canteen Creek on the field events day at the annual athletics carnival. Family as First Teachers (FaFT) to Year 6 students competed in shot put, javelin, discus, long jump and high jump.

Join us to learn  how to design and deliver carbon projects with Carbon Count and produce  verifiable, high–quality carbon credits!

An invited presentation by Associate Professor Matthew Harrison from the University of Tasmania presents a summary of recent research in climate change adaptation and greenhouse gas emissions mitigation for the agriculture sector. Questions are welcome.

The Northern Rivers Conservatorium Executive Director Anita Bellman is thrilled to announce that there will be free tickets for all flood-affected members of our community to attend the Northern Rivers Conservatorium (NRC) 2022 Visiting Artist program, made possible with the support of its friends at Musica Viva and Southern Cross University.