Webinars, seminars and events

The Queensland Herbarium hosts free public webinars/seminars, usually once a month, between 12pm and 1pm. Extra webinars/seminars are frequently scheduled so please check this website for updates.

These are live streamed using Microsoft Teams webinar and sometimes presented live in person in the F.M. Bailey Room at the Queensland Herbarium, Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mt Coot-tha Rd, Toowong (room limits apply).

Contact geoffrey.c.smith@des.qld.gov.au for a link to a webinar.

14 October 2024, 12–1pm

Challenging Communication: Engaging Eager Minds in Science & Fire

Samantha Lloyd, Principal Scientist, Healthy Land and Water [Online]

Communicating science and contentious land management issues, such as fire, in appropriate and engaging ways has always been a challenging, but critically important endeavour. However, with the advancement of online information access and an increase in the severity and frequency of some nature hazards, it is more important now than ever, to communicate these difficult topics well. Moreover, we want to ensure that we communicate in a way that reaches across society, including those who are not yet engaged and children.

Natural resource management (NRM) plays a vital role in bringing together stakeholder groups across the Australian landscape, leading the way for innovative and adaptive land and biodiversity management and communicating these topics in digestible and engaging formats. This presentation will feature examples of successful communication and engagement of science and complex land management topics across a diverse stakeholder audience.

Established in 1998, the Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium (QFBC) partners with stakeholder organisations to support private landholders, land managers, utility providers and fire agencies to improve fire management and biodiversity conservation and build landholder/manager capacity through engagement, training and research. Key to the success of the QFBC is a commitment to communicating information in a way that best suits the audience, be that private landholders, public land managers or researchers. The most recent addition to the QFBC communication and engagement library, is the new Backing on to Bush workshops. This workshop offers a more “hands on” approach, interpreting all the elements of the bush that attendees live in and around, that the whole family can attend.

Science and nature picture books and stories have always held a special place in the hearts of children. However, appreciation and recognition for the broad and beneficial outcomes of science and nature-based children's literature has grown rapidly over the past decade. In particular, there has been increasing demand and interest in ecological and environmental books, which help to address topics that may otherwise be confronting for children. Alight: A story of fire and nature (CSIRO Publishing), follows the story of Australian plants and animals during and after a planned burn. This non-fiction narrative story provides opportunity to speak with children not only about fire safety and preparedness, but the vital role of fire in the Australian landscape.

Dr Sam Lloyd is an award-winning Principal Scientist (fire ecologist) for Healthy Land & Water (the official Natural Resource Management body for South East Queensland), a dance teacher with Achieve Performing Arts Studio and a writer. Her first book, Alight: A story of fire and nature, published in 2023 by CSIRO Publishing and illustrated by Samantha Metcalfe, is a children's non-fiction narrative which shares the story of Australian native plants and animals during a planned fire and gently explores the importance of healthy fire to the plants and animals of Australia's bush.

12 November 2024, 12–1pm

Why Brisbane does not burn? Or could it? The fire environment of Australian cities

Rod Fensham, Queensland Herbarium and Biodiversity Science, DESI & School of Environment, University of Queensland [Online & In person]

Destructive bushfires which destroy buildings and inflict loss of human life regularly afflict the cities of the Australian east coast. A review of the incidence of destructive bushfires revealed their relative absence from Greater Brisbane compared to the other east coast capital cities of Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Hobart, despite all cities occurring in the forested eastern region of the continent. This study examines three factors that influence the incidence of destructive bushfires and attempts to assess the vulnerability of these Australian cities. The incidence of days with extreme Forest Fire Day Index (FFDI) values (>50) was highest for Melbourne and lowest for Hobart. Wind directions on these extreme days was generally from inland areas where forest can be associated with the urban fringe. Wet sclerophyll forest, which represents a substantial hazard, fringes parts of Melbourne and Hobart, while Brisbane and Canberra adjoin a higher proportion of cleared areas which alleviate the impact of destructive fires. Fine fuels decline from south to north and are thus highest in Hobart and lowest in Brisbane. The incidence of hazardous fires can be related to a composite of these three factors and indicate that Melbourne is most prone to destructive bushfires and Brisbane least prone. Climate change projections indicate that the incidence of extreme FFDI values will increase on the Australian east coast exaggerating the impact of destructive fires.

Rod Fensham is a Professor at the University of Queensland and a Principal Botanist at the Queensland Herbarium and Biodiversity Science unit in DESI. Rod does quantitative field ecology in the big natural playground of Queensland and is motivated to understand how the bush ‘works’, avoid extinction and better manage Australia’s natural resources. Rod is also the author of several books including the ACE Guide to eucalypts Brisbane and The Leichhardt diaries: early travels in Australia during 1842–1844.