Mike Digby, regional mapping services co-ordinator with the Northern Gulf Resource Management Group in Queensland.

Satellite mapping services may be made available to graziers Australia-wide by the end of the year. Currently, the Queensland Government is funding this service to graziers in North Queensland.

Uses include carbon accounting, crop and soil monitoring, and infrastructure – such as such as roads, fences, water points, yards and powerlines – monitoring.

Mike Digby is the regional mapping services co-ordinator with the Northern Gulf Resource Management Group in Queensland. He was recently in South Australia spruiking this technology to pastoralists around Hawker.

He says they’ve mapped 200,000 square kilometres within the northern gulf of Queensland. It all sounds expensive, but all that’s needed is the pastoralist’s time and the use of their vehicles. In return, maps are published for the grazier.

Through the Rangelands Alliance, Mr Digby is working on a program called a NRM Spatial Hub, which will hopefully lead to this service being rolled out across the rangelands nationally towards the end of the year.

This will not only benefit the grazing industry, but also Indigenous communities and conservation groups.

Talks have begun with the Federal Government and some state governments, which have welcomed this national initiative.