Correspondence Agenda - Ordinary Council Meeting - 9 July 2013

2013 Queensland State Landcare Conference | Healthy Habitats … Profitable Production
Mr Shayne Joyce – 2012 Winner National Carbon Cocky of the Year
Shane is a 3 rd generation beef cattle producer from Theodore. Shane & his wife Shan have been managing their
property Dukes Plain for the past 30 years. This year Shane & Shan won both, Innovative Carbon Cocky &
Carbon Cocky of the Year Awards, at Carbon Farmers of Australia Dubbo Carbon Farming Week. Shane & Shan
have both, an Organic Certified beef cattle breeding & fattening, & a non certified beef cattle trading & fattening
enterprises.
Dukes Plain is a very diverse landscape with sandstone escarpment, eucalypt forest, brigalow, & semi evergreen
vine thicket land types. Shane & Shan have managed their landscape (among other things) for timber retention,
diversity of pastures, soil health, diversity of wildlife (above & below ground), & effective use of rainfall, to deliver robust production outcomes. In
2012 Dukes Plain was included in Soils for Life Australia wide case studies “Innovations for Regenerative Landscape Management”.
Dr. Nancy A Schellhorn – Principal Research Scientist
Dr. Schellhorn is the Team Leader of Spatial Ecology with the CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences Department. She is
currently researching ecosystem services through the study of beneficial and pest invertebrates within native
habitats and managed environments.
Dr. Schellhorn shall talk about her work that focuses on meeting the challenge of maintaining / growing
agricultural productivity while minimizing our impact on natural resources. To meet this challenge she and her
team have developed and advanced the concept Pest Suppressive Landscapes (PSL), which provides a way of
measuring, designing and managing agricultural landscape mosaics for productivity and biodiversity.
Dr. Schellhorn shall show examples from projects conducted on the Darling Downs, QLD and southern NSW.
Mrs Georgie Somerset – A rural leader with experience in agribusiness, rural tourism and regional development.
Georgie Somerset is a beef farmer and rural leader with experience in agribusiness, rural tourism and regional
development. Her work involves identifying opportunities, resolving issues and creating linkages and networks
across rural sectors.
Actively involved in the family owned beef property in Queensland’s South Burnett and mother of three children,
Georgie is president of the Queensland Rural, Regional and Remote Women’s Network, is on the board of QRAA
and involved with various industry and community groups.
Georgie’s life combines cattle yards and board rooms, boarding school parenting and committee chairing and long drives for short meetings.
Georgie believes in lifelong learning and education. She knows that accessing information and influencing decision makers is still possible in a
remote location if you stay connected.
She is also a great believer in the 3 Cs - good coffee, chocolate and conversation.
Mr Terry McCosker - Director of Carbon Link Limited and Resource Consulting Services (RCS)
Terry is an internationally acclaimed teacher and has worked in research, extension and property management in both
government and private sectors for 45 years. Terry has published over 40 papers and made several world first
discoveries in the 1980’s in the fields of bull fertility, ruminant nutrition and pasture ecology. Terry co-founded RCS
over 25 years ago which has set the benchmark for capacity building in rural and regional Australia. He is responsible
for the introduction of the GrazingforProfit School into Australia which now has over 5,000 graduates and has
changed grazing, livestock and business management nationally. Terry is a Churchill Fellow, a Fellow of the Tropical
Grasslands Society, has chaired the Australian Beef Expo, has sat on numerous advisory committees and has been
nominated for many awards.
Terry is also a pioneer in the field of soil carbon and carbon farming, having been committed to research and
commercial activity in this area for over six years. In this Capacity he is Chairman of Carbon Link Limited, and has led
the first, large scale commercial, accurate soil baselining project in the world.
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