A weekly round-up of all the geospatial news that didn’t make it into our normal daily coverage.

If you have a Spatial Snippet to share with our readers, please send us an email.

We’ll start off this week with the news that applications for the Western Australian Institution of Surveyors’ Surveying Bursary at Curtin University are now open. The bursary aims to assist 3rd- or 4th-year students enrolled in a surveying degree at Curtin University and who have an interest in cadastral surveying. The application deadline is 5 August.

If you don’t know about DataShare, it is Victoria’s “search and discovery tool that enables the assessment of spatial data resources owned and managed by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) and other Victorian Government Departments”. And the news is that enhancements to the service will soon be forthcoming following the upcoming release of DataShare 2.1. Those enhancements include:

• The ability to order datasets on a biannual frequency;
• The ability to order large datasets in MapInfo formats;
• Market Segment Information will be mandatory if an order contains a Vicmap dataset to improve Vicmap’s stakeholder engagement;
• Styling changes to the My Orders and View Details pages to improve management of orders, particularly recurring orders;
• Order Matching functionality to improve order delivery times for non-recurring orders; and
• An updated user manual.

AURIN has released its 2025 Annual Report, which outlines many of the year’s key milestones, partnerships and research successes. AURIN supports Australia’s urban research community by providing access to hard-to-get data. You can read part 1 and part 2 of our interview with AURIN’s Director, Pascal Perez, to find out more about the organisation, the work it does and its future initiatives.

A few weeks ago we brought you news of the upcoming FunGIS North Queensland conference. This week we can report that nominations are now open for the 2026 FunGIS Geospatial Awards in five categories:

• Radical Researcher – Geospatial Game Changer Award
• Grass Roots and Green – Award for Environmental Impact
• Far North and Far More Awesome! – Award for Geospatial Innovation in the Tropics
• Next Gen Navigators – Award for Emerging Geospatial Talent
• Mapped by the Masses! – People’s Choice Award

Nominations close at 5:00pm on Friday, 24 July 2026. The recipients will be announced at the conference dinner on 13 August 2026.

The QGIS project has submitted its Call for evidence for the impact of Open Source to the European Open Digital Ecosystems initiative, Towards European Open Digital Ecosystems. This is said to be a great resource if you are looking at procurement of open source and need to evaluate the advantages and risks. The submission says that “Drawing on more than two decades of real-world use across administrations, SMEs, and critical sectors, we highlight that… digital sovereignty depends not only on adopting open source, but on sustainably maintaining and governing it. The submission provides concrete, experience-based recommendations on procurement, funding, cybersecurity, and ecosystem support to ensure that open source remains a secure, resilient, and competitive foundation…”

Consulting Surveyors Victoria will run a four-part Business Webinar Series during August. The one-hour webinars will be thus.

• 11 August: Six key principles for operating a surveying firm
• 13 August: Navigating and understanding commercial contracts
• 18 August: Effective negotiation for better business outcomes
• 20 August: Culture, leadership and retention of staff

Participation will garner 4 CPD points (Business Management, Ethics & Professionalism)

This week’s geospatial job vacancies

Here are some geospatial jobs that we’ve spotted on our journeys around the internet.

Starting off in Queensland, the Department of Transport and Main Roads is looking for a surveyor based in Mackay to undertake projects to ensure services meet all objectives through each phase of planning, designing, constructing and managing the road network. Applications close on 20 July.

Also in Queensland, the Department of Primary Industries is seeking a Project Officer (Spatial) to join the Biosecurity Queensland team in Cairns. Applications close on 14 July.

In New South Wales, Transport for NSW has three openings. The first is for a Senior Manager Enterprise Geospatial to join the new Chief Data Office team and lead a team of geospatial specialists and developers responsible for delivering and maintaining enterprise-wide geospatial platforms and solutions. Applications close on 2 July.

The second opening is for a Geospatial Platform Specialist who can contribute to the design, deployment, monitoring and business-as-usual operations of various spatial platforms. Applications close on 8 July.

And the third opening is for a Geospatial Specialist to build bespoke geospatial applications to support network operations, road safety and project prioritisation, as part of the Enterprise Geospatial development team. Applications close on 6 July.

Also in NSW, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has a vacancy for a Senior Regional Conservation Officer in the Biodiversity Conservation Trust. Experience working with GIS and undertaking basic GIS processing is a requirement. Applications close on 7 July.

Moving on to Victoria, and there are quite a few jobs up for grabs. The first is a vacancy for a Program Officer – Strategic Planning Analysis with the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA). The role involves leading and supporting analysis that underpins statewide strategic planning, with a key focus on delivering GIS and spatial modelling to support the road network strategic planning process, and providing analytical input into broader statewide forest and fire management planning projects. Applications close on 6 July.

The same department has an opening for a Project Officer – Spatial Data, who will play a key role in improving how biodiversity data is managed, analysed and used to support decision-making across government. Applications close on 8 July.

There are two more vacancies within DEECA. One is for a Manager Health Forest Pilots, Stone Country Pilot, which is suited to someone who has experience in working with natural resource and land management planning for public land, and who has knowledge and experience in working with Traditional Owners. Applications close on 9 July. The other is for a Senior Program Officer – Statewide Strategic Planning, who will lead development of the statewide road network strategic plan, and manage and guide an analyst delivering GIS and spatial inputs. Applications close on 6 July.

Still in Victoria, and the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority (VIDA) is seeking a Digital Engineering, Projects Lead to lead the implementation of a digital way of working across VIDA Rail projects. Strong knowledge of digital engineering tools and applications such as BIM, GIS and related data management, analysis or visualisation systems is expected. Applications close on 5 July.

The Victorian Department of Transport and Planning is looking for a Senior Data Scientist to apply data science and machine learning techniques to analyse complex data, develop models and deliver insights that support decision-making. Mandatory is a demonstrated experience working with large and complex datasets and data products, with strong technical capability in programming languages and analytical tools such as SQL, Python, R and GIS. Applications close on 5 July.

In rural Victoria, the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority is seeking a Fire Recovery Coordinator – River Health, to play a critical part in supporting ecological, cultural and community recovery following the January 2026 Longwood Fires. Among a long list of requirements or desirables is experience in GIS or spatial analysis.

And finally, in South Australia, the Department for Environment and Water needs a Senior Climate Data Analyst, Coastal Hazards to use advanced analytics, coding and GIS tools to transform complex climate, spatial and hazard datasets into actionable insights that support resilient communities, sustainable infrastructure and informed policy. Applications close on 9 July.

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