Background:  

Mature-age student with lots of non-academic experience. Completed Bachelor of Agribusiness at Gatton in 2002. Commenced MPhil/PhD project in 2005.

Study Area: Managing the Natural Environment

Project Title:  Assessing risks of grazing as an end for mine sites in central Queensland

Project outline: The project develops a risk assessment model to support decisions concerning cattle-grazing as a possible end use for rehabilitated mine land in central Queensland. Mining companies are required to rehabilitate mined land to standards acceptable to the regulator, to nominate an end use for the sites and to support their choice of end use by assessing risks to its sustainability. While some sites are sufficiently productive to support cattle, there are still risks that management of the cattle (graziers' land management) may expose the site to risks of erosion. This research investigates the drivers of graziers' land mangement behaviour, and models risks to the environment using Bayesian Belief Networks as the modelling framework. 

Advisors:

Principal: Dr Geoff Slaughter (ex NRSM, now USQ)
Other: Dr Carl Smith (NRSM), Dr David Mulligan (UQ Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation), Dr Donald Cameron  NRSM)

Collabrating Organisations:

Australian Coal Association Research Program

Contact Details:

• E-mail: r.maczkowiack@uq.edu.au