Highlighting flagship projects in drought resilience

Vic Hub’s impacts and achievements across Victoria

 

Beginnings of the Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub

 

Ash Skinner, Wadawurrung Traditional Owner, gave a warm, detailed and explanatory Welcome to Country before the Vic Hub’s Resilience Showcase for 2024 began. Iain Martin, Vice Chancellor of Deakin University, the Vic Hub’s Knowledge Broking team, then welcomed everyone to the day. Summing up the Hub, Iain said: “The Vic Hub is all about water management, land management and drought resilience – and all the social and economic benefits that come from that.”

Deakin University’s David Halliwell, Deputy Chair of the Vic Hub’s Investor Oversight Committee, gave an introduction to the day, speaking about the collaboration that drives the Hub.

Professor Michael Tausz, Vic Hub Director, drew laughs with one of his opening lines welcoming everyone “to this ‘show-off’, I mean showcase of what we’ve achieved”. Prof Tausz picked up the Hub’s collaborative approach, describing the different set-up of the Vic Hub model, detailing how the nodes are the Hub’s ears and eyes on the ground, as well as the centres of action.

“It’s important to have an impact, to make a difference, and we have shown that the hubs are doing this.”

He mentioned the Federal Government’s further eight years of funding for the hub model. “An eight-year commitment to a program is not something we hear very often. It shows the impact that the hub model is having, and its success.”

He spoke about the reviews and inquiries from the ground up, “telling us we need long-term programs”.

It also shows the collaboration also between the State and Federal Governments. “I really want to acknowledge the collaboration with DAFF [Department of Agriculture, Fishers and Forestry] where we listened, consulted and co-designed; it was quite a novel experience that I have taken away from this role. We have also achieved a strong collaborative network with the other seven hubs.”

Vic Hub Regional Director, Fiona Best, who is also CEO of North-West Node Birchip Cropping Group (BCG), said, “This is a wonderful opportunity to share where we’ve come from, and what we’ve achieved.”

She recapped discussions that began in 2020 – in the middle of COVID-19 – that led to creating the Vic Hub, with questions such as “what does drought preparedness look like?”

Creating the Vic Hub has put together a powerhouse of partners with established networks. The Hub’s geographic reach through the regional nodes, in particular when talking to local farmers and stakeholders, is another strength.

“It’s a complex arrangement, but it really was going to be able to deliver a better outcome. The power of the collective has been a key factor in the success of what we’ve been able to achieve.”

Cross-Hub collaborations

 

Rebecca Wells, CEO of Mallee Regional Innovation Centre (MRIC), the Vic Hub’s North-West Irrigated Horticulture Node, began the session on cross-hub collaboration. She talked through the Modern Drought Management of Perennial Horticulture Plants project to describe the depths of collaboration.

Rebecca Lester, Program Lead at the Knowledge Broker team Deakin University, then gave an overview of the Pasture 365 project, specifically asking whether more diverse pastures can build resilience to support 365 days of feed production.

Hub-wide collaborations

 

Jane McInnes, from North-East Node Riverine Plains opened the Hub-wide collaboration section of the showcase, presenting on the Containment Feeding Adoption project, which is all about boosting business performance and resilience.

This was followed by Cam Nicholson, from South-West Node Southern Farming Systems, who gave an overview of the Drought Resilience Information and Knowledge Sharing (DRInKS) project, speaking about its origins in information sharing between the Nodes.

Cam emphasised the Vic Hub’s four-stage drought model.

“It doesn’t always go from uncertain to drought; it’s not a cycle. We have to be responsive to the time going from good periods to uncertain periods, because we move between these periods three times more than the others.”

The showcase then moved into Node-led projects, touching on a few of the flagship endeavours.

Node-led flagship projects

 

Julian Hill, from Gippsland Node Food & Fibre Gippsland, spoke remotely about the Green Dams project; followed by Grace Hosking, from the NW Node, who talked about the beginnings and subsequent success of the Young Farmers Network.

With consultation a backbone of how Vic Hub Nodes determine research priorities, the NW Irrigated Horticulture Node’s Alina Saeed, gave greater detail into consultation as a process, using lessons learned from the Blue Green Algae water-forecasting project as an example. Dr Sara Hely from the NE Node then gave an overview of renewable energy opportunities in agriculture.

The SW Node’s Cam Nicholson stepped back up to the podium, talking about building drought resilience through calculating the impact of climate change on farm profit.

 

Hub-wide initiatives

 

Vic Hub Knowledge Broker Dr George Cunningham opened the session talking about the two Think Tanks the Hub has held in the past couple of years. he explained how key issues are identified and then what is the connection to drought resilience and what the opportunities for collaboration are.

Carolyn Staines from Federation University, the Vic Hub’s Digital Ag partner, spoke about a project on digital solutions for agriculture, looking into soil-health implications for surface spraying effluent, followed by Don Gunasekera, from Deakin Uni, who gave an overview of the approach to an impact assessment tool.

The University of Melbourne’s Dr Peter Fisher talked about his role as Victoria Soil Coordinator, and how that fits in with the Vic Hub’s soil projects. Along with outlining results of the national soil survey that closed at the end of the April (with the Vic Hub returning the highest number of results), Peter mentioned how one of his greatest pushes is to include young people into soil research.

Beyond the Hub

 

Andrea Cross, who featured on episode 1 of the Vic Hub’s podcast Innovation AG, spoke about the journey to establishing 150km Feast.

 

WestVic Dairy’s Libby Swayn talked about the project looking at the adequacy of surface water supplies in the Heytesbury dairy region, led by the SW Node.

Hub future

 

Vic Hub Associate Director of Drought Resilience, Te’o Lau Dr Viliamu Iese, from The University of Melbourne, spoke about the future of the Vic Hub, known as “Hub 2.0”. The exciting wrap-up was a great finale to the showcase, with a final wrap-up and thanks given by Vic Hub IOC Deputy Chair, David Halliwell.