Queensland's Citizen Science Hub

Member Groups

This category showcases the groups who have formally joined the Queensland Science Network. Each of the titles below links to an “index page” that provides a brief introduction to the group and a link to their home website. Please visit their home websites for access to the full range of their knowledge materials.

The Council of The Royal Society of Queensland in April 2024 endorsed the inclusion of the Mary River catchment community via the MRCCA in the QSN network on the basis that the assembly and dissemination of knowledge about the natural resources of their area is a prime activity. Support from the other member groups was unanimous. More details on their landing page.

The Mary River emanates from the Conondale Ranges in the south, flowing to the Great Sandy Strait and Hervey Bay at River Heads in the north. The Mary has been identified as the southern-most catchment that impacts on the Great Barrier Reef. The Mary catchment encompasses an area of approximately 10,000 km2 and over 3000 km of waterways including the major tributaries of Obi Obi, Yabba, Six Mile, Wide Bay, Munna and Tinana Creeks. 

The Mary River Catchment Coordination Association is a very active, not for profit integrated catchment management organisation overseen by the Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee (MRCCC). The Committee comprises representatives from 30+ industry, community and government sectors with interests in integrated catchment management and sustainable natural resource management. The group was incorporated on the 17th March 1995 and today, collectively, reaches out to thousands of catchment residents through our stakeholder delegates, landholders and associated networks throughout the catchment.

Read its summary profile here.

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Migratory shorebird populations in Moreton Bay have declined by up to 79%. The Moreton Bay Foundation, a QSN member group, has published the findings of a collaborative research project that used drones to survey shorebirds. The trained network detected 99% of birds and only falsely detected birds 3% of the time. The project concluded that some species were highly sensitive to disturbance from the drones while others were less affected. The project recommended that recreational and commercial drone use needs to be carefully regulated to ensure that roosting shorebird flocks are not approached within distances that will disturb the most sensitive species likely to be present.


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The irreversible damage that mining for coal seam gas can wreak on cropping land through subsidence was a highlight of a scientific paper published late in 2022 by four members of The Royal Society of Queensland. “The coal seam gas industry is causing irreversible damage to the landscapes of the Darling Downs, including its highly productive agricultural soils”, according to lead author Assoc. Prof. Peter Dart, member of QSN member body The Royal Society of Queensland.

The ABC gave an account of this threat in a news piece published on 8 October 2022 and Queensland Country Life (paywalled) on 11 October, based on a press release by Prof. Dart.

Coal seam gas and agricultural land

See separate post focused on the damage the coal seam gas industry causes to agricultural land including an account of the Glendon field day on 26 August 2023.

A separate post traces the history of state planning policies on the protection of agricultural land.

Coal seam gas and landholders’ rights

The Environmental Defenders Office has generously consented to allow QSN to re-publish two leaflets outlining Coal Seam Gas: Community Submission and Appeal Rights and Queensland Resources Law: Landholder Rights and Resource Activities.

References – further reading

Dr Peter Dart and Col Lynam, members of The Royal Society of Queensland, have compiled this primer on the coal seam gas industry: Are you aware that Queensland coal seam gas is a risk to food security?  The paper includes a useful table of recent reports and media columns with hotlinks. The paper has been written exclusively for the Queensland Science Network.

The capture of both major parties in both the Queensland and national jurisdictions is plainly documented by this newspaper column on 13 May 2024 by John McCarthy.

Dave and Liza Balmain, Glendon, Nangwee, have drawn attention to microbial corrosion of the casings of gas wells. This process could render hollow all assurances by the industry that they fully remediate wells after exploitation.

Seismic risks of the coal seam gas industry
Dart, Lynam and former Royal Society of Queensland President Dr Geoff Edwards have written a peer-reviewed article, published as an Occasional Paper “Coal Seam Gas Mining: Potential to Induce Seismic and Aseismic Events and Aquifer Discontinuity”. This paper, along with a press release issued by the Society’s President and other publicity material, can be found on a dedicated page.

Historical material

The Greens published a leaflet summarising this industry – under its Action on Coal and Gas campaign.

Fact sheets published by the Department and independently by gas company QGC in 2006 explain the basics (19MB). Keep in mind that these are more than 16 years old. A fact sheet by CSIRO Methane Seeps in the Condamine River March 2017 is more recent and includes a useful schematic of the geological strata in the region.

A prescient 2006 internal report Is There a Drop to Drink? by Principal Policy Officer Geoff Edwards warning of the dangers of this industry was leaked and placed in the public domain by a Senate Committee.


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Wildlife Queensland is offering a free will-making service for those who would like to sponsor the vital work that the group tackles.

By partnering with Australia’s top-rated will-writing platform, Gathered Here, Wildlife Queensland is offering its supporters a free will-writing service that easily allows a donor to leave a gift in their will to help protect Australia’s at-risk species. 

“Having an up-to-date will is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your family. But it’s also one of the easiest ways to leave a lasting legacy for wildlife. For a limited time (until 30 September 2021), Gathered Here is also offering supporters free and unlimited lifetime updates to their will* – a win for wildlife because ‘where there’s a will there’s a way.’

Write a free wildlife-friendly will in just 10 minutes.

Please contact Wildlife Queensland at bequests@wildlife.org.au or phone 3844 0129 for further information.

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Information about management and stewardship of the pastoral lands of Australia can be found in several places on the websites managed by The Royal Society Queensland and the Royal Societies of Australia:

  1. An extensive repository of knowledge about the stewardship of rural lands can be found on the rural policy webpages of The Royal Society of Queensland.
  2. The QSN webpage Stewardship Incentives and Rangelands Policy includes a brief account of the sequence of policy activities, commencing with the foundation document, to…
  3. …the proceedings of a series of three Stewardship of Country webinars held in February and March 2021 by the Royal Societies of Australia and…
  4. …the establishment of the Rangelands Queensland website.
  5. The Pastoral Lands Information Hub contains a large archive of relevant material.

Carbon farming update

For anyone contemplating taking out a carbon credits project, Alan Lauder’s Carbon Stocks and Flows page on the Society’s website is a must-read.

For a short communication on whether high or low grazing pressure increases carbon sequestration, see a letter to Science of 24 Nov. 2023 by David Eldridge: “Australia’s carbon plan disregards evidence”.

Land ethic

Prof. Brian Roberts has been a pioneer of Australia’s Landcare movement and has published numerous works outlining a new approach to Australians’ relationship to the land. A special page has been dedicated to his writings: https://scienceqld.org/2023/12/11/land-ethics-roberts/.

In 1998 the Department of Natural Resources and Mines published a guide for its departmental staff entitled Land Ethics, being an interpretation of the objects of the 1994 Crown lands legislation.


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