Northern Australian Climate Program

Save the Date! When and Where?

Barkly Homestead

Tuesday 17 September

Venue: TBA

Tennant Creek

Wednesday 18 September

Venue: DPIR Office, Barkly House

Bringing BOM to the Bush - What is it?

A FREE half day workshop, including lunch, featuring:

• The Bureau of Meteorology
• University of Southern Queensland
• Local Climate Mate
• Learn about the latest developments in seasonal climate forecasting and how they apply to our region.
• Learn about the key climate drivers for northern Australia
• Learn how to find, use and assess relevant climate tools such as seasonal forecasts
• Recommended by NT pastoralists

Why come along?

RSVP

Alison Kain, Climate Mate
Phone: 0409 281 649Email: alison.kain@usq.edu.au

The Northern Australia Climate Program – gaining a better understanding of our climate

The Northern Australia Climate Program (NACP) is a new program designed to bring together the best climate scientists, advisors and regional producers to promote and develop the most useful climate forecasting tools possible for the northern beef industry.

NACP is being delivered by the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), in conjunction with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) along with regional partners, the NT Department of Primary Industry and Resources.  The program is funded by Meat and Livestock Australia, the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (QDAF) and USQ.

What is this program about?

Helping producers find, understand and use climate forecasting information.

Climate Mates

Eight ‘Climate Mates’ have been appointed across northern Australia, to liaise with pastoralists. My name is Alison Kain and I’m the ‘Climate Mate’ for the Barkly Tableland however because I’m based in Alice Springs, I am in a position to offer some information to central Australian pastoralists as well. Understanding the main climate drivers that affect northern Australia can help you make a bit more of an informed assessment of climate forecasts.

NEW Climate Forecast Products

Prototype forecasting tools from the scientists are also available now for your comment. Get in touch with me as soon as possible for the web address and password.

The website is pretty comprehensive with forecasts on temperature humidity index and heat wave maps, which could be very useful when you are expecting calves to hit the ground.  Rainfall is an obvious one and Figure 1 shows the rainfall forecast as of the 15 August 2019 for a few different time periods. Lots of people want to know “Am I going to get three consecutive days of rain and how much will I get?”  Well, get in touch and I will show you how to find that too!

Climate Workshops

In April this year, the NACP climate scientists, BOM scientists and Anne Marie Huey (Climate Mate for the East Kimberley and VRD) held climate workshops in Kununurra and Katherine.  Participants also provided practical advice to the BOM scientists which resulted in changes to the website within two months! Here is some of the feedback from pastoralists who attended:

“It improved my knowledge of interpreting data on the BoM website.”

“It helps me a lot to make climate related decisions at the field level.”

“More positive outlook on understanding tools that can be used with assistance to understand climate risk.”

“Highly recommend to other pastoralists.”

These climate workshops will be held on the Barkly and in Alice Springs in September this year.  RSVPs are essential (see the advertisement in this issue), if we don’t get participants, we can’t justify flying people here – we all know how expensive that is!

Alison Kain, Climate Mate for the Barkly Tableland

See our Facebook page!

Phone: 0409 281 649

Email: alison.kain@usq.edu.au

Please note, the Climate Mate for East Kimberley and Victoria River District is Anne Marie Huey, who can be reached via email annemarie.huey@usq.edu.au or by telephone on 08 9191 7069.