The Grazing Land Management Officer will partner with community groups and Landholders to support the uptake of sustainable land management practices, including land and water management, biodiversity conservation, healthy pastures and soils, and effective environmental management practices.

The role will also deliver project activities and support to community groups, schools, Local Governments and land managers, providing extension and education to landholders focused on sustainable grazing land management and climate smart agriculture. Project support includes data tracking and acquittals of projects, managing aspects of reporting obligations, project budgets and supporting project logistics.

Strategic Context

The role supports key actions and activities of the organisation and assists in the achievement of the organisation’s vision and mission:

• Contemporary governance and dynamic leadership will be the hallmarks of Desert Channels Qld Board, Chief Executive Officer and staff team,
• The Desert Channels Qld will ensure the organisational capability and capacity to grow its existing projects, services and products, and develop its emerging projects, services and products,
• The DCQ teams will continue to: design and deliver their various grazing land management projects, services and products; undertake their ongoing professional development; and attract and retain experienced and knowledgeable team members,
• Building stakeholder capacity and business growth of DCQ will continue to be driven by a strategically focused Board, delivered by a dynamic and entrepreneurial Chief Executive Officer and team, and guided by our vision, mission, ethos and values.

The Desert Channels Queensland Project Officer aims to:

• Provide support to the Desert Channels Region, regional communities and individuals through activities that increase engagement and participation in Natural Resource Management activities.
• Increase community awareness and access to knowledge of sustainable grazing, land management and natural resource management (soil, water, pasture, biodiversity) practices.
• Support the uptake of and increase the number of land managers that have adopted sustainable land and water management, biodiversity conservation and environmental management practices.
• Equip land managers with the information and skills to enhance environmental resilience and landscape productivity.
• Ensure widespread recognition that a healthy and resilient environment is the driver of rural productivity and community strength.
• Use innovation, creativity and technology in land management and business practices.
• Boost community capacity by attracting and retaining a skilled and motivated workforce to meet partner, client and donor needs.
• Increase Indigenous participation in community based-NRM across the region.

In this context, Sustainable Land Management Practices are those that:

• maintain, for current and future generations, the region's capacity to sustainably produce food
• enhance the capacity of rural and related landscapes to deliver ecosystem services such as clean air and water, healthy soils and biodiversity conservation.

Workplan Deliverables

The key activities and deliverables for this position are:

1. Coordinate, manage and maintain grazing land management projects, as well as appropriate data and tracking (and acquittals if required) of DCQ projects, including performance reporting material.
2. Develop and deliver landholder and community engagement and education activities that contribute to implementing projects.
3. Develop and publish educational or communication material in collaboration with other staff.
4. Provide high level extension with landholder contacts to ensure an integrated program of actions to fulfil project requirements, meet the needs of the region and provide regional and business intelligence to DCQ.
5. Support the Operations Manager to develop projects, and manage client relationships.
6. Manage historical and new projects data.
7. Collaborate with the GIS Officer and Field team to ensure monitoring and reporting systems are maintained.
8. Collate project information (in both hardcopy and soft formats).
9. Attend team meetings and workshops as required.
10. All work must be done in accordance with approved workplace health and safety requirements, DCQ policies and procedures.
11. Staff are to conduct themselves at all times in accordance with DCQ’s Code of Conduct and present a positive image of DCQ in behaviour and demeanour.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

Education / Qualifications:

• A background in land management, natural resource management and/or a relevant degree is desirable.

Specialised Job Knowledge / Experience / Demonstrated Ability:

• Proven ability to support multiple projects within required timeframes, on budget and in milestone requirements. Tasks require a diverse range of skills and could be administrative, technical, project operational or a combination of these.
• A demonstrated ability to engage with a wide range of stakeholders (for example: landholders, community groups, state and local government officers, industry specialists and regional business organisations), build relationships with landholders and co-ordinate with multiple stakeholders on projects including landholder and stakeholder contracts, management and acquittals.
• Manage workloads and prioritise tasks to ensure that project reporting and milestones are completed to full contractual requirements.
• Computer literacy including Microsoft Office suite, spreadsheets, Google Office Suite, Finance systems, and the ability to adapt to Government report systems including MERIT and any other required system as directed by contractual obligations.
• Demonstrated working knowledge of budgeting, and cost control principles, including the demonstrated ability to develop, manage and analyse financial budgets and prepare and review contracts at the project level.
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills to coordinate, motivate and obtain cooperation and assistance to perform various tasks within a diverse team.
• Demonstrated ability to undertake and/ or learn effective extension activities with key stakeholders, individuals and groups.
• The ability to develop and implement work practices to improve operational efficiency, and provide support to the Operations Manager and the team.
• Knowledge of, or experience in, natural resource management and the issues affecting remote and regional Australia would be an advantage.

Licence Requirements:

• Queensland C Class Driver’s Licence is mandatory

Personal Attributes

• Communication – proven ability to connect with a range of people in diverse situations.
• Planning – ability to plan and prioritise work effort individually and as a team.
• Teamwork – ability to foster team spirit and build and maintain co-operative and productive relationships.
• Flexibility – Ability to appropriately change responses, techniques etc to situations or problems to achieve a desired result.
• Adaptability – Ability to act independently based on broad direction and to accommodate changes in the environment, organisation, culture, rules, values, technology, responsibility, etc.
• Initiative – Ability to take or organise action to achieve goals – a self starter.
• Detail mindedness – ability to attend to all details, no matter how small, which may affect quality or performance.
• Work Quality – ability to set high standards and goals for self and others.
• Dependability – ability to meet deadlines, schedules and time commitments, keep promises and complete tasks as arranged.

Selection Criteria

The key selection criteria that will be used to identify candidates for this role are:

• Tertiary qualifications in natural resource management, sustainable agriculture, environmental science or similar disciplines are desirable.
• Demonstrated experience in managing and delivering complex projects (landholders, staff, community groups or consultants/contractors), such as grazing land management projects.
• Demonstrated ability to work in complex and changing environments with minimal supervision.
• Knowledge and understanding of natural resource management (soil, pasture, water, biodiversity) issues affecting the Desert Channels region of Queensland and possible strategies to address these.
• Demonstrated ability in report writing as well as effective collection, collation and presentation of data and information.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a team, developing and maintaining positive relationships to assist the growth of an organisation.
• Demonstrated capability, or ability to acquire the capability, of utilising computer software such as Microsoft Office, Google Cloud and Government report systems.

A position description is attached.