Grant Stone, Queensland Government, Environment and Science, GPO Box 2454, Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia.  Email: Grant.Stone@qld.gov.au

The paper “Long Paddock: climate risk and grazing information for Australian rangelands and grazing communities” has recently been published by – authored by Grant Stone, Ramona Dalla Pozza, John Carter and Greg McKeon from the Queensland Department of Environment and Science (DES).

The Long Paddock website is a Queensland Government initiative that has served Australian rangelands scientists and land managers since December 1995. Long Paddock was developed to provide relevant and tailored information to Queensland and Australian rural landholders, managers, pastoralists (graziers), researchers, advisors, students, consultants and extension providers, enabling them to incorporate climate-related risk into their decision making.

Grant and his co-authors give an insight to the history and current status of the Long Paddock website and premier products offered, including: the series of rainfall and pasture growth (relative to history) posters, the AussieGRASS environmental calculator model maps and the suite of FORAGE property reports, which are all available from the website. Other subjects of interest are: the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), Queensland Drought Declaration maps, Climate Outlooks and Future Climate webpages.

The digital publication of the paper is “open access” and available at https://www.publish.csiro.au/RJ/RJ18036.  The Long Paddock website is operated by DES’s “Science Delivery and Knowledge Division” with support from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) through the Drought and Climate Adaptation Program (DCAP), which is an initiative to improve drought preparedness and resilience for Queensland producers.