ANNUAL REPORT 2001 - 2002 - SunRISE Mapping and ... 21 Inc SunRISE 21 Inc SunRISE 21 Annual Report 2001 - 2002 Page 7 BRL Hardy, Southcorp and Simeon Wines – Crop Plans SunRISE 21

INC.

A0043653B

ANNUAL REPORT2001 - 2002

Sunraysia Regional Initiative for aSustainable Economy - 21st Century

SunRISE 21 IncSunRISE 21 IncSunRISE 21 IncSunRISE 21 Inc

SunRISE 21 Annual Report 2001 - 2002 Page 1

SunRISE 21 Offices at 54 Lemon Ave, MILDURA

All requests for further information regarding this Annual Report should be addressed to:

SunRISE 21 Inc. PO Box 997, Mildura, Victoria 3502

Telephone: (03) 5022 1588 (03) 5023 7355 Facsimile: (03) 5021 1457

Email: [email protected] Website: www.sunrise21.org.au

Incorporated Association Number A0033161L ABN 81 397 614 997



Table of ContentsTable of ContentsTable of ContentsTable of Contents

CHAIRMAN’S FOREWORD...................................................................................... 3

THE YEAR IN SUMMARY ........................................................................................ 4

Delivering Improved Water Use Efficiency Across the Murray-Darling Basin ................ 4

Murray Valley Citrus Marketing Board – Citrus Plantings Database............................... 4

Australian Citrus Growers – National Citrus Plantings Database ..................................... 5

Dried Fruits Approved Supplier Program – Property Crop Plans..................................... 5

Sample Property Crop Plan .................................................................................................... 6

BRL Hardy, Southcorp and Simeon Wines – Crop Plans.................................................... 7

SunRISE 21 Digital Orthophotos ........................................................................................... 7

Property Plans and District Plans .......................................................................................... 7

Impact of Irrigation Incentive Schemes................................................................................. 7

Sunraysia Drainage Strategy .................................................................................................. 8

MAIN PROJECTS ...................................................................................................... 9

MDBC Project – Delivering Improved Water Use Efficiency Across the Murray-Darling

Basin. ......................................................................................................................................... 9

Scoping Study for a National Citrus Plantings Database................................................... 10

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND AUDITOR’S

REPORT.....................................................................................................................12

BOARD OF MANAGEMENT...........................................................................................28

STAFF MEMBERS ............................................................................................................29



Chairman’s Foreword

Highlights of the 2001 - 2002 are easy to find as SunRISE 21’s principal activity remained as the creation and production of digital mapping products that are now our lifeblood. This year saw SunRISE 21, in conjunction with the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, engaged in a tri-state project to develop tools to monitor and report water use efficiency. A timely reminder of the importance of such projects is the one in one hundred year drought that now surrounds us. Our role is to trial methodologies and software tools developed by the project in some local irrigation districts. Other continuing or new projects include the citrus planting databases with the Murray Valley Citrus Marketing Board and the Australian Citrus Growers. Also involvements with the Dried Fruit’s Approved Supplier Program, Crop Plans for local wineries, orthophotos and research into the impact of irrigation incentive schemes. SunRISE 21 again supported, and proposes to support into the future, development and implementation of the Sunraysia Drainage Strategy with the provision of accommodation, administration support and mapping services. A feature of our work this year has been the collaborative nature of it with both national and local agencies. It is clear that such alliances are benefiting both parties. I am keen to see this emphasis continue. Finally I would like to thank all the staff and Board members for their support and efforts during the past twelve months.

Ross Lake CHAIRMAN

SunRISE 21 Inc.SunRISE 21 Inc.SunRISE 21 Inc.SunRISE 21 Inc.



The Year in Summary

Highlights of the reporting period of 1st July 2001 to 30

th June 2002 include:

Delivering Improved Water Use Efficiency Across the Murray-Darling Basin

This is a Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC), tri-state project developing tools to monitor and report water use efficiency for irrigated horticulture in districts with pressurised water delivery systems. (See Page 9 for further details.) SunRISE 21’s role in this project is to trial methodologies and software tools developed by the project for the Sunraysia irrigation districts of Merbein and Coomealla. The first phase of the Sunraysia component commenced with Merbein in collaboration with Sunraysia Rural Water Authority. This involved collection of irrigated crop and culture details for properties in the Merbein irrigation district and trialling of an ‘Irrigation Inventory Tool’ (IIT). The IIT is software (ArcView8) being developed to manage collection and standardisation of base information for water use efficiency measurement at property, district and regional scales.

Murray Valley Citrus Marketing Board – Citrus Plantings Database

SunRISE 21 supported the Murray Valley Citrus Marketing Board (MVCMB) with further development and maintenance of their citrus information system. The system was established by SunRISE 21 in 2000 and comprises orthophoto imagery and planting details for registered citrus properties. The system provides a platform for integrated collection, storage and analysis of industry information to improve planting statistics, forecasting and planning. SunRISE 21 supported the MVCMB in further developing the system to meet business needs and in establishing the 2001 plantings database. Analysis of databases has commenced with outputs including improved information on plantings changes and trends.



Australian Citrus Growers – National Citrus Plantings Database

Following success of the MVCMB information system, Australian Citrus Growers (ACG) contracted SunRISE 21 to undertake a scoping study detailing costs, timeframes and resources for adoption of the system by the major citrus regions in Australia. The regions include: New South Wales (Riverina, Bourke, Narromine and East Coast NSW), South Australia (Riverland), Queensland (Central Burnett, Emerald, Bundaberg), Northern Territory (Darwin and Katherine) and Western Australia. (See page 10 for further details) The scoping study formed the basis for a funding application to Horticulture Australia.

Dried Fruits Approved Supplier Program – Property Crop Plans

SunRISE 21 continued to produce Crop Plans for participants in the Approved Supplier program with over 520 dried fruit growers accessing Crop Plans for their properties.



Sample Property Crop Plan



BRL Hardy, Southcorp and Simeon Wines – Crop Plans

SunRISE 21 supplied Crop Plans to over 260 wine grape growers. The Plans provide growers and wineries with information for quality assurance purposes, property records, planting areas and contracts.

SunRISE 21 Digital Orthophotos

SunRISE 21’s updated version of orthophoto imagery (February 2000) has been in demand by individual property owners, industry groups, land developers, land and water agencies and numerous consultancies. The orthophotos have been progressively generated in-house by SunRISE 21 using ER-Mapper software and control from the 1992/1996/1997 orthophotos and digital elevation models.

Property Plans and District Plans

Over 200 hard copy plans (mostly large format – A0/A1) were designed and printed for purposes ranging from individual property planning (redevelopment, soil surveys, irrigation design), to project management (study area maps, infrastructure planning, land development) and plans incorporating charts and tables of project information for reports and funding submissions.

Impact of Irrigation Incentive Schemes.

SunRISE 21 was engaged by DNRE’s Catchment and Agriculture Services (CAS) to integrate existing CAS and SunRISE 21 databases to analyse changes in irrigation practices for the period 1997 to 2001. Incentives uptake through the Sunraysia Salinity Management Plan was incorporated to estimate the change attributtal to this incentive scheme in comparison to total change for the pumped irrigation districts of Merbein, Mildura, Red Cliffs and Robinvale. Results from the study may be further used to explore the impact of irrigation practice change for drainage catchments currently being monitored for drainage outflows and water table parameters. Extrapolation of results across irrigation districts could improve predictions of the potential for improved irrigation practices to reduce salinity impacts to the river Murray.



Sunraysia Drainage Strategy

SunRISE 21 continued to provide administrative and project support to the Sunraysia Drainage Strategy Task Force and to provide office space to the Task Force Executive Officer, Mr Ron Dudley to May 2002. Ron worked closely with the SunRISE Mapping team in development of digital data sets fundamental to information needs of the Drainage Strategy. The Task Force is convened by the Mildura Rural City Council to develop a strategy relating to the collection and disposal of irrigation drainage and urban stormwater drainage currently being discharged to the river or inland to evaporation basins. The Task Force facilitated completion of the following three reports:

A Management Plan for the Improvement of Urban

Stormwater Quality for the Mildura Rural City Council

(November 2001)

Sunraysia Drainage Strategy - Background and Issues

Paper

(January 2002)

Sunraysia Drainage Strategy – Volume 1 The Strategy

(June 2002)

Key Stakeholder Organisations are:

� Mildura Rural City Council

� Sunraysia Rural Water Authority

� First Mildura Irrigation Trust

� Mallee Catchment Management Authority

� EPA Victoria

� Lower Murray Region Water

� Department of Natural Resources and Environment

� Murray-Darling Basin Commission

� SunRISE 21 Inc

� Goulburn-Murray Water



Main Projects

MDBC Project – Delivering Water Use Efficiency Across the Murray-Darling Basin

This is a tri-state project developing tools to monitor and report water use efficiency (WUE) for irrigated horticulture in districts with pressurised water delivery systems. South Australia, with partners in the Sunraysia region of New South Wales and Victoria, are collaborating to deliver a series of tools facilitating WUE reporting at a farm, property, district and regional scale. The project is funded under the Strategic Investigations and Education program of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and co-funded by the River Murray Catchment Water Management Board (RMCWMB) and Primary Industries & Resources South Australia (PIRSA). There is also considerable in-kind support from the Department for Environment and Heritage, SunRISE 21, Central Irrigation Trust, Sunraysia Rural Water Authority, Western Murray Irrigation and the Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation. The project has two major components, a Farm Level Water Management Module (FLWMM) and an Irrigation Inventory Module (IIM). The IIM will provide the framework for collecting base information required for WUE measurement at property, district and regional scales, and provide information to the FLWMM. SunRISE 21 is contracted to the RMCWMB to facilitate the Sunraysia component of the project which commenced - in collaboration with Sunraysia Rural Water Authority - with the collection of crop and culture details for horticultural properties in the Merbein irrigation district in November 2001.

Data has been incorporated into the IIM ready for calculation of an aggregated, district-wide water use efficiency – to be undertaken in 2003. The Sunraysia – New South Wales component will involve further trials of the methodology for the Coomealla irrigation district in collaboration with Western Murray Irrigation, commencing late 2002.



Scoping Study for a National Citrus Plantings Database

Improving the accuracy of citrus crop forecasting is a high priority in the citrus industry, identified at the regional forums held in 2000 and highlighted in the citrus investment plan 2002 – 2007. The ability to accurately forecast crop production depends heavily on the accuracy of planting statistics. The Murray Valley Citrus Marketing Board’s adoption of SunRISE 21’s ‘SunLIS’ methodology as a pilot program in 2000 demonstrated the capacity of the system to significantly improve the response of growers to an annual survey and hence, the accuracy of citrus planting details. (The annual survey now involves the mailing of Crop Plans to growers which they can keep for property records and use to notify MVCMB of changes to plantings.) In November 2001, the Australian Citrus Growers (ACG) contracted SunRISE 21 to undertake a detailed scoping study into costs, timeframes and resource requirements for

adoption of the SunLIS (Sunraysia Land Information System) methodology across all major

citrus growing regions in Australia.

The Citrus Plantings Database will provide:

• A spatial system for collection, storage and analysis of citrus planting data to improve planting statistics, industry planning and provide a platform for improved crop forecasting.

• More effective selection of sampling sites for crop forecasting

• A system that can incorporate other spatial data (such as climate, soils, topography) to further enhance crop forecasting.

• A system to complement other spatial data systems and projects eg. Heat Unit Mapping (Ron Hutton), Fruit Sizing (Ken Bevington), GPS yield mapping/precision agriculture etc.

• A user friendly tool to maintain and communicate planting details and trends

• A system that enables geographic (spatial) analysis eg. citrus plantings within certain radius of pest incursion.

• A system that can enhance the standardisation of analysis and reporting of citrus plantings across all Australian citrus regions and be compatible through to the National, ACG system.

• A system that can be adopted by other horticultural industries A review of annual activities and information requirements of the citrus industry was undertaken and represented in the following flow chart:



Citrus Planting Statistics and Crop Forecasting Program – Flow Chart



SunRISE 21 Inc.

Financial Statements

and

Auditor’s Report

For the year ended 30 June 2002

































Board of Management

The SunRISE 21 Board combines private and public sector expertise with the knowledge of experienced horticulturists. The Board comprises community leaders and key industry representatives who are able to represent the views of various sectors of the community.

Mr Ross Lake -

Chairman

Managing Director,

Viticulturist

TASCO Inland Australia, Pty Ltd

Mr Stephen Smith -

Deputy Chairman

Irrigation & Environment Implementation Committee,

Real Estate

Mallee Catchment Management Authority

Mr Peter Clark –

Secretary

Catchment Planning Manager, Department of Land & Water Conservation, NSW

Mr Philip Shugg –

Treasurer

Director, Shugg Consulting

Mr Ron Dudley

Executive Officer, Sunraysia Drainage Task Force

Mr Bill Nicol

Director, Nicol Projects

Mr Owen Lloyd

Viticulturist First Mildura Irrigation Trust

Mr Richard Wells Viticulturist Sunraysia Rural Water Authority Mallee CMA, VIC

Mr Geoff Woods Regional Director of Agriculture, Far Western Region, NSW Agriculture

Mr Vernon Knight Director, Mallee Family Care

Mr Don Rowe

Communications Officer, Sunraysia Rural Water Authority



Staff Members

Current Employees

Sue Argus SunRISE GIS Project Manager July 1995 to February 2001 B.Surv,L.S, MIS SunRISE 21 Executive Officer Commenced February 2001 Kathryn Davis GIS Project Officer Commenced May 2000 B.Env.Mgt Jeremy Vowles GIS Technical Officer May 2001 to June 2002 Liz Garbutt Admin/GIS Technical Assistant July 1997 to February 2001 Executive Assistant Commenced February 2001 Ron Dudley Executive Officer June 2000 to May 2002 Sunraysia Drainage Task Force

Past Employees

Ian Ballantyne Projects Director July 1995 to January 2001 Brenda Driscoll Executive Assistant February 1997 to February 2001 Graeme Thornton Farm$mart/FarmBis Facilitator August 2000 to June 2001 Colin Watson GIS Technical Officer Returned to DNRE March 2001 Paula Gordon Executive Officer May 1994 to December 2000 Glen Sutherland Kickstart/Farm$mart Facilitator June 1997 to April 2000 Todd Goodman GIS Project Officer January 1998 to January 1999 Fiona Betts GIS Technical Officer April 1999 to January 2000 Tim Williams GIS Technical Officer June 1999 to August 1999 John McLaughlin Vegetation Mapping Project Officer September 1997 to February 1998 Carolynne Lanigan Admin/GIS Technical Assistant June 2000 to December 2000 Cath McQuie GIS Technical Assistant November 1998 to February 1999 Tara Klizska GIS Technical Assistant August 1998 to August 1999

Documents

ANNUAL REPORT 2001 - 2002 - SunRISE Mapping and ... 21 Inc SunRISE 21 Inc SunRISE 21 Annual Report 2001 - 2002 Page 7 BRL Hardy, Southcorp and Simeon Wines – Crop Plans SunRISE 21