News from the Pastoral Node of the SA Drought Hub

Across the state a total of 16 Hub projects will commence, involving 28 demonstration sites and 59 learning events. The projects align with regional priorities for increased drought resilience, identified through last year's regional consultation workshops and follow-up discussions with stakeholders. For the Pastoral Node servicing the SA Arid Lands region this included sessions in Port Augusta and Coober Pedy.

For the Pastoral Node, these projects are:

• Supporting the SA Arid Lands Landscape Board’s successful Building Pastoral Sustainability Program through a third round of property management planning with six pastoral properties. This covers goal setting, property mapping using Ecologically Sustainable Rangelands Management (ESRM), financial planning and developing an action plan.
• Supporting the Marree-Innamincka Landscape Group’s Boot camp with a focus on remote water management in the arid lands. Resources will also be created on on remote water management as well as other remote monitoring technologies.
• Undertaking work to understand the improvements in ground cover and benefits to stock from rotational grazing and sharing this information, including as case studies.

, The SA Hub and its partners are also involved in three Future Drought Fund cross-hub projects, including ‘Managing Rangelands for drought resilience’ which will be undertaken in partnership with Hubs across the country and with partners including the SA Arid Lands Landscape Board.

The projects will have input from the Node Stakeholder Advisory Groups, with Expressions of Interest recently closing for positions on the group, including from SA Drought Hub partners. The Stakeholder Advisory Groups will inform and assist in monitoring changing regional needs for the SA Drought Hub and advise the Node Coordinators of the following:

• Drought resilience needs and priorities in their Node
• Opportunities to collaborate with others in the delivery of Hub activities within their Node
• Progress of Drought Hub activities in the Node (monitor and provide feedback)
• Variations needed to the delivery of Drought Hub activities where they are not meeting community and regional needs or expectations, or are not contributing to an increase in drought resilience capabilities of partners and their members
• The best location(s) for delivery of Hub activities within their Node
• Emerging issues and future potential projects for development in Node(s).

Membership of the Stakeholder Advisory Group for the Pastoral Node will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Hub thanks everyone involved in the design and implementation of the first suite of projects and those who expressed interest in being part of the Stakeholder Advisory Groups. The Hub is keen to see the understandings, resources and outputs that will be generated out of these initiatives and applying these for greater drought preparedness and resilience on-farm and within our communities in the future.

If you would like to know more about the projects, contact Melissa Horgan, SA Drought Hub Pastoral Node Coordinator, melissa.horgan2@sa.gov.au or 0447 046 786. For information on other projects occurring across the State, including cross-hub projects, contact Tony Randall, SA Drought Hub Knowledge Broker, on 0402 245 747 or tony@agex.org.au.