Although the primary purpose of this website is to showcase the activities of Queensland’s non-government scientific societies, a page has been reserved for links to sites and resources of the Queensland and national governments.
Queensland Government
The Queensland Government has an “open access” policy which means that in principle, all non-confidential material is available to the public free or for the cost only of reproduction. Finding material however is not always easy. The Government’s “Discover and use Queensland Government Publications” is a central point of access for gazettes, scientific and annual reports, current departmental strategies and other statutory and official reports.
Also see the Library catalogue where you may search for books, publications and reports on a range of environmental and natural resource management related topics. Among many other resources, this catalogue indexes scientific papers published by officers who work in these areas of the public service in their professional capacities. Please note the proviso on this page about the currency and applicability of these resources.
The Science site of the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation provides a wide range of resources, including the Queensland Science Capability Directory which indexes the State’s research centres, institutes, facilities, research hospitals, precincts, laboratories and other research organisations.
The Queensland Chief Scientist is a whole-of-government position providing independent high-level strategic advice to the state government on the role of science, research and innovation to meet Queensland’s challenges. The site offers:
WildNet and other wildlife sources
The WildNet Program within the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation acquires and manages a range of information relating to Queensland’s wildlife. Information from the WildNet database approved for release is made available via the following internet applications:
- Species lists,
- Biomaps
- Environmental reports online
- Queensland Government Open Data Portal
- Queensland Spatial Catalogue
- Queensland Globe
Metadata from relevant articles from the Proceedings of The Royal Society of Queensland have been incorporated within the WildNet database with links to the associated species and reserves. Information about other sources of Queensland wildlife information can be accessed via Useful wildlife resources.
Resource Planning Guidelines – Natural resource management
From c.1995-2006 the Department of Natural Resources published a series of Resource Planning Guidelines that are no longer readily accessible . Some of these documents have enduring value, though legislation and policy has in many cases changed substantially since then. These papers are copyright to the Queensland Government. The Australian Web Archive has captured the set of published guidelines as they stood at August 2004: Resource Planning Guidelines in Trove.
Some titles are re-presented on a dedicated page.
Evaluating the best use of State land
Departmental officer David Marlow wrote an internal departmental guideline on land use planning in 1996. His paper explains the very distinctive mindset and criteria that need to be brought to evaluating the attributes of public land with a view to alienating (selling) them from the public estate or changing to some other public purpose. The process is very different from that adopted by urban and regional planners operating within the statutory development control regime. The State land planner is assessing whether property rights should be granted from the Crown and in what form; the statutory planner (most commonly employed by local government or consulting to applicants) is assessing whether property rights already enjoyed by the landholder should be intensified.
Long Paddock
The Long Paddock is a Queensland Government portal that has provided climate and pasture information to the grazing community since 1995. The site provides access to rainfall and pasture outlooks and decision support tools to support land management decision making and planning for landholders, educators, consultants and extension officers.
Stock route maps
Queensland has a network of corridors for the movement of cattle, sheep and other stock – these may follow river systems, Indigenous trade routes and trails. Maps of these routes including changes made in 2024 may be found in PDFs and on the Queensland Globe.
Strategic Guide to Natural Resource Management (NRM) in SEQ (South East Queensland)
This 2000 benchmark publication by the SEQ Regional Strategy Group under the chairmanship of Michael Petter, initiated by Mary-Jane Weld and coordinated by Michelle Evans is divided into three parts. […]
Vegetation mapping - Revised SLATS methods produce different results
On 30 December 2021, the Minister for Resources, The Hon. Scott Stewart, released the latest SLATS report. This report marks the first release in a new era of SLATS reporting […]
Australian Government
A “lost classic” is the CRC for Greenhouse Accounting archive at National Library of Australia.
This chart of responsibilities in natural resource management as at November 2001 indicates the scope and complexity of functions discharged by the national government.