The Call for Abstracts for the 19th Biennial Conference of the Australian Rangelands Society, to be held in Port Augusta SA from 25th to 28th September 2017, has now opened.

The conference’s Organising committee is seeking abstracts for potential inclusion in the conference program that address the theme Transition to Transformation. This theme recognises that external and internal factors are driving significant change across the Australian rangelands. Its communities and industries are in a state of transition, which will result in major changes in how the rangelands are appreciated, used, managed and governed.

A number of sub-themes have been identified, which encapsulate the areas of most significant change. These are:

  • Living with climate change.
  • Transitioning to new industries.
  • Regional development in the rangelands
  • The changing grazing industries in the southern rangelands
  • Northern Australian Development
  • Changing face of Indigenous managed lands
  • Coping with drought
  • Monitoring after ACRIS
  • Capital flows in the rangelands

Authors are encouraged to align their abstract to one or more of the above sub-themes or, if none are appropriate, the overarching conference theme.

Abstracts must be lodged by 17th March 2017, via the online abstract submission portal that can be found in the 19th Biennial Conference pages on the ARS website. Full instructions (and terms and conditions) for lodging an abstract can be found via the above link. Submitters of abstracts will be notified via email by 17th April 2017 whether their abstract has been accepted for inclusion in the conference program, and the mode of presentation. Further instructions for the development of papers and posters will be issued at that point.

The conference’s Program subcommittee is currently very busy securing a top-notch line up of key note speakers for each sub theme, and expects to receive many high quality abstracts that will ultimately result in an outstanding experience for all conference delegates. In addition to standard modes of presentation (i.e. presenting a full paper, posters), the Program subcommittee is considering some alternative modes that it believes will maximise opportunities to present and further encourage networking amongst delegates.

For further information on the conference program, please contact either of the Program subcommittee co-Chairs, Paul Erkelenz or Martin Andrew.  For any enquiries on submission of abstracts via the online abstract submission portal, please contact Lisa Pearson.