The proven success of cluster fencing in western Queensland, magnified by an innovative online tool recently released, could ironically see the region lose out in the latest race for government funds to expand the initiative.
That’s the opinion of Morgan Gronold, the senior regional development manager with the Remote Area Planning and Development Board, who has been celebrating the launch of the responsive notjustafence website that converts dry figures into animated graphs to show how enclosing land in clusters is impacting on people’s lives in meaningful ways.
The interactive site has been described as an industry first and Mr Gronold said it wouldn’t surprise him if the quality of RAPAD’s data sets meant that other regions used them to extrapolate results to argue for a better outcome if funding were directed their way.
“We have been showing the way for the whole state but I think this will be the most competitive round of funding yet,” he said, speaking of the $5m announced by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at Blackall last October.
“I’m not saying RAPAD deserves all the money but governance does come into it.
“It does need putting the shoulder to the wheel to ensure there are good processes.”
The notjustafence tool cuts through the usual 70-page style of reporting to succinctly show how valuable cluster fencing has been to producers in the central west, in a way that’s easily understood in an era where people are less inclined to read.
“The biggest problem has been trying to get people to understand what it’s all about,” Mr Gronold said.
“The biggest stretch we have is getting people to join the dots between this big fencing project and having more teachers at their schools.
“This makes clear the impact of wild dogs and therefore the impact on communities.”
The results of round two of the Queensland Feral Pest Initiative in the central west were collated and fed into live graphs and graphics, which Mr Gronold said would give out real time information once round three projects were underway.
That means that whenever someone logs on, they are getting the most up to date information on the project.
“It’s so people can see progress,” he said. “It’s such a big project – how do you celebrate what’s being done otherwise.”
RAPAD expects more organisations that are required to report project outcomes or provide monitoring and evaluation will follow its lead in this innovative technique.
To develop the tool, RAPAD partnered with economist Andrew Perkins from Hall Chadwick and online specialist Tim Smith of Evidently So.