CeRDI Newsletter Summer 2025

Message from the Director

Distinguished Professor Helen Thompson

It has been an exciting start to 2025 with research activities in full swing and new partnerships and research programs in the pipeline.

We are pleased to announce a three year extension to our long-term partnership with Precision Agriculture which has significantly contributed to advancing agribusiness decision-making through data, insights, and action, ultimately benefiting the agricultural community. In the coming years, our research partnership will focus on improving soil nutrient calculations, enhanced reporting and data analytics.

The Southern Farming Systems led Assessing the Small Farm Dams project is enhancing hydrological understanding of how dams capture and retain water, especially during drought conditions. Data from drones and sonar surveys are used to map dam structures, deliver new and important information to assist farmers to better manage water security on their properties. Additional data is being collected from the weather stations, soil moisture probes and water level sensors. A spatial decision support tool has also been developed to allow advisors and farmers to assess the suitability of their existing dams.

In February, I attended my first meeting as a newly appointed member of the Soil CRC Board. Held in Ballarat, the meeting provided an opportunity to work with the other Board members to support and extend the work and vision for the Soil CRC. CeRDI researchers and Federation University PhD students, provided updates to the Board about research and projects supported by Soil CRC funding. In other news, Dr Nathan Robinson has recently been appointed by the Soil CRC as Program Leader for the Soil performance metrics research program.

The stories in this newsletter highlight a selection of just some of the collaborations CeRDI is supporting. Please get in touch with any ideas that you may have for collaborating with us. 

Distinguished Professor Helen Thompson
Director, CeRDI

March 2025

Precision Agriculture - CeRDI partnership extended

CeRDI and Precision Agriculture Pty Ltd  have recently signed a new three-year agreement to further extend our research and development partnership.

This partnership began in 2017 with the aim of accelerating the adoption of precision farming techniques in Australia. Together we’ve focused on creating innovative digital agriculture tools, spatial mapping, data visualisation, and decision support systems tailored to the needs of farmers and agronomists which led to the launch of the Soli platform. Soli is an advanced soil data management platform designed to meet Precision Agriculture’s business data management and processing needs.

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  Between 2022 and 2024, CeRDI and Precision Agriculture, in partnership with the Food Agility CRC, delivered significant enhancements and extension of Soli, providing a valuable platform for reporting and actioning spatial soil data and variable rate amelioration. Through this project, soil reporting and mapping tools were aggregated into the single platform and their creation optimised, to provide more timely generation of spatial soil health reports from multiple data sources. The rebuild of the Soli platform resulted in a flexible and modern platform for Precision Agriculture, with the capability for rapid addition of new features and functionality, while meeting the challenges posed by an ever-evolving cyber security environment.

  Continued research and development will focus on further enhancing Soli's capabilities, to deliver impact for improving farm productivity and soil health.

  In working with the Precision Agriculture team, the CeRDI technical and research teams have benefited from the shared experience in handling and processing high resolution nutrient and soil data, improving data management processes and investigating spatio-temporal patterns in key nutrient constraints on farms.

  The next stage of the CeRDI - Precision Agriculture research partnership will focus on areas including improving soil nutrient calculations, reporting and data analytics.

Soil CRC: New appointments

The Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils (the Soil CRC) has recently appointed CeRDI’s Distinguished Professor Helen Thompson to its Board of Directors. The Board comprises independent, skills-based members and participant representatives, with a Chair providing oversight of the Soil CRC activities, performance and strategic direction. Helen was elected by the Members of the Soil CRC as a representative of the Major Partners at the last AGM in November 2025 and attended her first Board meeting in Ballarat in late February.

The Soil CRC was established in 2017 to improve soil science for enhanced farm management. Through collaboration with industry, researchers and the community, the Soil CRC supports industry linked collaborations for outputs that support farmers to increase productivity, yield and profitability for sustainability. 

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  Four extensive programs of research have been established that includes support for PhD research:

  1. Investing in high performance soils;
  2. Soil performance metrics;
  3. New products for soil fertility and function; and
  4. Integrated soil management solutions.

  Federation University is a Major Partner of the Soil CRC and works across all of its four research programs. The Soil CRC’s innovative Visualising Australasia’s Soils (VAS) project is led by CeRDI’s Associate Professor Peter Dahlhaus. VAS  is a dynamic web-based platform where Soil CRC researchers, farmers and the broader agricultural industry can share soil information, activities, and research findings. The Soil performance indicators  project, led by CeRDI’s Dr Nathan Robinson, is another Soil CRC project that’s delivering innovative research findings about the soil indicators farmers are using to inform and support their farming practices. CeRDI PhD graduate, Peter Weir, has been conducting research examining in-paddock variability of plant available water. This research has been supported by the Soil CRC.

  In another announcement from the Soil CRC, CeRDI’s Dr Nathan Robinson has been appointed Program Leader for the Soil performance metrics  research program. Nathan will be supporting activities linked to the research portfolio in a part-time capacity as in-kind contribution by Federation University to the CRC.

  Further details about both appointments will be featured in an upcoming newsletter.

Federation University research showcased at Soil CRC Board meeting

Researchers and PhD candidates from Federation University showcased their Soil CRC research to the Chair and board members of the CRC during their recent board meeting held in Ballarat on 24^th and 25^th of February.

The meeting was introduced and facilitated by Soil CRC CEO Dr Michael Crawford, with Distinguished Prof Helen Thompson delivering an overview of Federation University.

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  Research updates about Soil CRC projects were delivered by CeRDI researchers, including:

  • Assoc Prof Peter Dahlhaus: Visualising Australasia’s Soils: building a legacy (Project 2.3.003)
  • Jude Channon: A coordinated and consistent approach to managing and enabling soil data (Project 2.2.005)
  • Dr Alison Ollerenshaw: Soil performance indicators (Project 2.1.006, Project 2.1.009)
  • Peter Weir: In-paddock variability of plant available water (Project 2.S.011)

  Bret Ryan, Southern Farming Systems, delivered insights from the work conducted to maximise agriculture sector adoption and engagement for the Soil CRC, which is part of the ‘Accelerator Program’ (Project 1.4.007). Three Federation University PhD candidates also provided updates on the progress of their research. Presentations were delivered by James Sargeant, Md Adnan Al Moshi, and Mohammad Arif Rahman.

  Above: CeRDI’s Jude Channon presented insights from the research conducted into soil data management. Image provided by Soil CRC.

Technology revolutionises farm dam mapping

Researchers at CeRDI have been using drones and sonar surveys to map dam structures in Victoria, with the aim of improving water security for farmers. These provide a comprehensive view of dam structures and will assist land holders to better manage water security on their properties.

Commencing in 2022, this three-year project is led by Southern Farming Systems  and involves researchers from the Future Regions Research Centre (FRRC)  and the Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) teaming up to understand small farm dam hydrology and improve decision-making during drought and a future impacted by climate change. The $1 million project is part of the Victorian Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub , funded by the Federal Government’s Future Drought Fund. Thirteen dams are included in the study, located across Victoria, including in  Wangaratta, Gippsland, Bendigo and across South West Victoria.

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  Recently, a licenced drone operator was used for the LiDAR data capture of five of the 13 dams in the study. Sonar data was captured for all the dams in the study area. CeRDI’s Rick Pope and Peter Weir utilised sonar equipment fitted to a small, remote-controlled boat. Depth readings were stored by an Android mobile app as the boat traversed the dam, covering a range of up to 120 meters and capable of measuring depths of up to 100 meters, delivering data assessments of the underwater topography of the dams. The area was also mapped using a drone equipped with LiDAR capturing millions of data points for both dam locations. 585.6 million data points were collected from one dam, and 1.02 billion data points for the other 4 dams.
   

  

  Raw point cloud LiDAR data for Dam2D

  

  3D view of Dam2D using point cloud LiDAR

  Research Associate Rick Pope commented: "Precise ground control points were captured via RTK GPS, achieving remarkable accuracy to 10 mm horizontally and 20 mm vertically. Advanced processing transformed the raw LiDAR point cloud data into highly detailed 3D models, enhancing visualisation and analysis capabilities of the five dams under review."

  The combination of drone LiDAR and low-cost sonar represents a major development for technology use for mapping dams. With this new approach, engineers and environmental experts can collect a comprehensive dataset of dams that can be used by landholders, farmers and researchers, to inform future water planning and maintenance.

  The project will be completed later this year, culminating in the delivery of online tools to enable farmers to draw their catchment over a dam and calculate the water balance predictions. This extends the work previously completed by the CeRDI team in the Lake Corangamite region which led to the development of a tool for farmers about drainage lines, watershed areas and surface water flow directions. Federation University researchers will continue to collect farm dam monitoring and other data to support future research.

  The Assessing the Suitability of Small Farm Dams project was supported by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, through funding from Future Drought Fund Drought Resilience Innovation grants. The project is managed by Southern Farming Systems.
   

  

  Sonar equipment used to survey dam topography

  

  Sonar equipment attached to radio controlled boat to survey dam topography

  

  Lidar drone

  

  3D bathymetric map of Dam2D

   

  A short video of the drone Lidar mapping:
  https://youtu.be/mz5QCMzQb30?si=4Nk6FXM3hncEyGX3 

  Additional reading:
  Improving water security for farms and lakes in the northern Lake Corangamite area
  Understanding the big role of small farm dams 
  Improving water security for farms and lakes 

Advancing the conservation of Latham’s Snipe with new habitat management guidelines

The Latham’s Snipe Project commenced in 2014 with the goal of improving knowledge about the ecology and migration to support conservation of the species. Over the 10 years of the national monitoring program, large volumes of data have been collected by citizen scientists, under the leadership of CeRDI’s Dr Birgita Hansen.

This includes abundance data from a range of sites in eastern Australia and data on flight initiation distances (FID), obtained when birds are flushed during surveys.
 

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  The FID data have been subjected to an analysis to determine appropriate vegetative buffer widths to reduce disturbance effects on snipe. This study has been accepted for publication in PLOS One and will be available online later in 2025. The minimum width recommendations in this publication have been included in new guidelines for restoring and managing snipe wetland habitat. The information presented in the guidelines are drawn from the Latham’s Snipe Project and predecessor publications (e.g. the Naarding reports from the 1980s). The guidelines are intended for use by land managers such as Natural Resource Management (NRM) bodies, practitioners, landholders, Councils, land developers and environmental consultants.

  The guidelines will be periodically updated as new knowledge is generated. They are freely available with the goal of improving consideration of Latham’s Snipe’ habitat needs when land use development changes are proposed.

  Since publication in mid-January, the guidelines have attracted over 650 views and 180 downloads, attesting to the broad interest in the community for this type of practical guidance material.

  The guidelines can be accessed from Federation Figshare: https://doi.org/10.25955/28139495.v1 

Harnessing citizen science to save the endangered Bogong Moth

Bogong Moths are a crucial food source for Mountain Pygmy-possums but the decline in moth numbers is raising concerns about both the survival of the moths and the threat to the primary food source for the possums.

At only about 2.5cm long and weighing less than a gram, Bogong Moths complete an epic 1,000km migration each year. They are found in every Australian state and territory, except for the Northern Territory, and from there head towards alpine regions in Victoria and New South Wales, where critically endangered Mountain Pygmy-possums are waking from their hibernation.

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  Bogong Moth numbers dropped by an estimated 99.5 per cent in 2017-18, and the moths were subsequently listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2021.

  This decline prompted a collaboration between Zoos Victoria and researchers at Federation's Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) to develop Moth Tracker – a multi-year citizen science platform to support research and conservation efforts.

  Moth Tracker is hosted on the State Wide Flora and Fauna Teams (SWIFFT) , an online platform that enables members of the public to upload sightings of the Bogong Moth during their seasonal migration. Bogong Moth sightings can improve our understanding of the moths’ migration. In turn, this can assist in the conservation of the moth and the possum by providing information such as the availability of food for the Mountain Pygmy-possum.

  CeRDI Senior Research Fellow Dr Birgita Hansen says the dwindling moth numbers threaten the possums' survival.

  "It's a different conservation situation because there is one threatened species relying on another species, which is also under threat," Dr Hansen said.

  "The project is trying to understand where the moths are in the landscape, trying to understand the seasonality in the populations - where they are and what they're doing."

  Moth Tracker gathers open-source real-time data on the dates, locations, and numbers of Bogong Moths that travel during the annual migration periods. It has a mandatory photo upload and records the time, day, and location of the sighting. Contact details of people submitting Moth Tracker sightings are not collected, only their names.

  Many people may mistake Bogong Moths for much larger ones, so Zoos Victoria has included a simple but informative identification guide to help contributors distinguish them.

  Dr Hansen says the site has been well-used by contributors from the start but more recently, there has been a big increase in moth sighting submissions, with Zoos Victoria recently reporting more than 800 submissions including 500 that were verified as Bogong Moth sightings.

  Zoos Victoria Conservation Campaigner Estelle Van Hoeydonck is thrilled with these results.

  "We are incredibly grateful to the many citizen scientists across Australia who have been looking out for Bogong Moths and contributing their sightings to Moth Tracker. In the six years since launching Moth Tracker, we have never seen such high numbers, and we encourage people to keep looking out for these special moths over the coming weeks."

  New knowledge collected from Moth Tracker is being used to inform decision-making about future conservation and recovery efforts for both the Bogong Moth and the Mountain Pygmy-possum. Since 2006, Zoos Victoria has been involved in the recovery program for the small marsupial, which is native to south-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales.

  The project also highlights the value of the SWIFFT network, which is an independent community knowledge network supported by CeRDI and is open to anyone or any organisation interested in threatened species and biodiversity conservation.

  "SWIFFT started as a community conversation where people got together to share information on threatened species in western Victoria," Dr Hansen said. "It was a simple wiki page and was just for Western Victoria. That was in the early 2000s, with video conferences running alongside it. It was all about knowledge sharing on threatened species in the region."

  "Then it extended beyond the region to encompass the whole state and the opportunity arose for CeRDI to refresh the SWIFFT website and make it more modern and accessible.

  "It now has an online presence where people can interact with the information easier than what they could have done with a wiki."

  SWIFFT has been supported by Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA), Zoos Victoria, the Ballarat Environment Network and Federation University. SWIFFT partners, participants and contributors include community environment and conservation groups, government agencies and authorities, education and research institutions, conservation organisations and landholders and managers.

  SWIFFT also delivers quarterly webinars, previously hosted by DEECA (Ballarat) and now hosted by CeRDI.

  If you see a Bogong Moth or a moth you think could be a Bogong Moth, take a photo and upload it to Moth Tracker. It's quick and easy, and will help scientists better understand how to help the moths and if they will make it to the mountains this year. Learn more: https://www.zoo.org.au/moth-tracker/ 

  Story was first published on 29 November 2024 via Federation University newsroom: Harnessing citizen science to save the endangered Bogong Moth | Federation University 

Online Farm Trials: GRDC updates and contributor research

CeRDI researchers, Dr Nathan Robinson and Dr Aakansha Chadha have been weaving their way across the country attending the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) research updates and sharing information about the Online Farm Trials (OFT) project.

Each year the GRDC delivers symposiums across Australia showcasing the latest work in grains research. This year, updates have delivered include Adelaide, Perth, Bendigo, Wagga Wagga and Goondiwindi.
 

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  The updates provide an opportunity to share information at an OFT-dedicated booth with Nathan and Aakansha were on-hand to discuss recent features and to answer questions about OFT with industry representatives, OFT users and data contributors.

  OFT provides a web-based portal that enables open and free access to on-farm, or field based, cropping research trial data and information. It offers interactive maps, searching and viewing tools which enable access to relevant information on a range of cropping topics, issues and methods. Launched in 2015, OFT is a collaboration between the GRDC and CeRDI.

  Above: Peter Bird, Senior Regional Manager at GRDC Western region, with Dr Aakansha Chadha at the GRDC Updates, Perth.

  As part of the ongoing development of OFT, CeRDI researchers have been connecting with stakeholders and sharing information and invitations to participate in research about the project’s impact. Data contributors have been invited to share insights and experiences in using OFT via an online survey, which will provide a timely review of the OFT experiences of contributors, and deliver insights supporting the future vision and expansion.

  Further information: https://www.farmtrials.com.au 

  About the research: https://tinyurl.com/8jp6x4aa 

News snippets

Presentation at Commerce Ballarat Industry Chat: Alison Ollerenshaw delivered a presentation at the February Industry Chat which was hosted by Commerce Ballarat. Alison provided an overview of the research that CeRDI recently completed for the Central Highlands Growers and Producers Hub. Alison delivered insights linked to the research findings around current business experiences, opportunities for expansion and growth and business challenges for artisan and small-scale growers, producers and retailers across the Central Highlands region.

The research report is available at the Central Highlands Growers and Producers Hub website: https://www.centralhighlandsgrowers.com.au/ 

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  Recent publications:

  Camilleri, M., & Ollerenshaw, A. (accepted). Examining the impact of a Health Justice Partnership service on the health and wellbeing of regional young people. Rural and Remote Health. https://doi.org/10.22605/RRH8984 

  Hansen, B., Walters, J., & Akers, R. (2025). Guidelines for restoring and managing wetland habitat for Latham’s Snipe. Federation University Australia. Report. https://doi.org/10.25955/28139495.v1 

  Ollerenshaw, A., Thompson, H., Luke, H., Cooke, P., Best, D., Scholz, N., Fear, D., Craig, N., Telfer, J., Wright, A., & Kruger, S. (2025). The application of digital tools for knowledge sharing in agriculture: a longitudinal case study from four Australian grower groups. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 230, 109843. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2024.109843 

  Weir, P., & Dahlhaus, P. (2024). Beyond soil moisture probes: improving field scale soil moisture mapping. Discover Soil, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44378-024-00025-0 

Higher Degree by Research news

PhD candidate featured in February’s Soil CRC newsletter: CeRDI PhD candidate Peter Weir was featured in the February issue of the Soil CRC newsletter. Peter’s research was showcased for its innovation and the merging of weather radar and rain gauges data to estimate the spatial distribution of soil water within a paddock, something that will potentially be very useful to farmers and their advisors. To read the full story visit:  

Better understanding of within-field spatial variability of soil water - Soil CRC 
 

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  Congratulations to Jude Channon for successfully completing her Confirmation of Candidature in late 2024. Jude is undertaking research into data management attitudes, capability and support infrastructure for the small sciences. Jude’s PhD is being supervised by Dr Jenny Martin (Principal) and Dr Nathan Robinson (Associate).

  Sonia Proctor has commenced her post graduate research with a PhD to explore soil health and carbon management levers for farming systems optimisation. Sonia is being supervised by Dr Ben Fest. We’ll profile Sonia’s research focus in a future issue of the newsletter.

  Rida Mazhar is preparing for her Confirmation of Candidature. Rida is conducting research Maximising data integration and interoperability for better regional outcomes.

About CeRDI

The Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) is a research centre at Federation University Australia focused on:

• the application of information and communications technology (ICT) and the development of innovative, world class knowledge management systems;
• significantly advancing the digital literacy and knowledge management capabilities of partner organisations;
• fostering partnerships for the development and implementation of eResearch with industry, government and academia; and
• measuring the impact of eResearch and digital innovation through longitudinal research.

Contact CeRDI

For further details about CeRDI’s diverse portfolio of research please visit our website: www.cerdi.edu.au, or contact Director, Associate Professor Helen Thompson: h.thompson@federation.edu.au

Mailing Address

Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation
Federation University Australia
PO Box 691
Ballarat Vic 3353

Office Location

Suite 15, Greenhill Enterprise Centre
Ballarat Technology Park
University Drive
Mount Helen Vic 3350

Phone: +61 3 5327 9314
Email: support@cerdi.edu.au

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