The Cudgegong river begins in the Wollemi National Park just west of Sydney, and flows via the Macquarie, Darling, and Murray rivers into the Coorong wetlands (halfway across Australia). Regular readers will recall us lamenting the lack of enviromental flows to the Murray mouth, or our watery visit to the Macquarie Marshes. For the geographically challenged, we offer a map of the upper Cudgegong catchment.
The mapping software forces us onto XP or 2000. For the initial setup, all we had was XP. Up to now we've been avoiding XP on principal - the new licensing model is just a bit too fascist. (We await a virus that disables the activation key.) Having now used it, we can now avoid it for other reasons. It is however nice to see that Microsoft have finally ripped off the last useful thing from Mac OS - the recent applications concept. Fortunately, we have moved to 2000, which is the pick of Microsoft's operating systems.
The annoyances in XP are nothing compared to the user interface in the main GIS package, ArcView from ESRI. It is a shame that they have spoilt a very powerful package with sloppy design and programming. It consists of multiple applications, and normal operations require switching between them. Due to poor locking semantics, you need to close for every swap. Many simple and obvious operations are not possible without third party tools. The help is neither well written, nor well integrated. We're not alone in our derision. The ESRI developers need to take a class in software useability, and the quality control department needs to be sacked.
The project took much longer to get started than it should, but life's like that. It has also ended up being much longer than originally planned, but most IT projects are like that. To kick things off, Scott and a cameraman went for a fly in a chopper. Since then, he has reflown the river countless times from his office chair.
The video data allowed Scott and assorted other experts to provide a preliminary assessment, and choose 100 sites along the river for closer examination. After considerable work, we were able to assemble maps for the ground troops to use, and a database for the handheld computer to store the collected data.
Over the course of the project, we have learnt more about weeds and erosion than we ever expected. We will never be able to look at the countryside the same way again. (That looks like a Degraded Riparian Environment. There is no Understory in that Remnant Vegetation Community) We have also learnt a lot about mapping, and GIS software. This provides us with another skill that we can offer our rural customers, and provided us an insight into how much data 'big brother' has access to. Given the extent of the damage that our ancestors have wreaked on our country over the last 200 years, there should be plenty of opportunity to apply our new found skills.
Spending so much time on one project is almost like being back in the city. The commute is much more pleasant, dirt all the way, dodging kangaroos and emus instead of pedestrians, and swerving towards rabbits and foxes instead of empty cans. And of course the birds are spectacular. The rosellas and kookaburras are everywhere of course, but now and then we spot a king parrot, a glossy black cockatoo, or perhaps even the elusive turquoise parrot.
With the initial project setup out of the way, we decided to take a break while the bulk of the data is collected. We returned to Gulargambone to run some more classes, and help out a few people with computer problems. Helen took the chance to go roo shooting, and having done it once, has no desire for a repeat. After a bit more tripping around (in warmer climates), we will return to Wollar to assist with the preparation of the final report.