Geoscience Australia's Graduate Recruitment Program

Stephen's Story

I joined Geoscience Australia in 2007 after finishing an honours degree in Geomatic Engineering at the University of Melbourne. I was attracted to the Geoscience Australia graduate program by the exposure and opportunities it offered. I was able to travel, undertake more training and work on projects with a national scope. The experience that I have received would be hard to match in any other organisation.

My first rotation was in the Natural Hazards Impact Project, looking at spatially mapping the completeness of the current Australian earthquake catalogue. It was the first time the technique I used had been applied to the Australian catalogue, and it gave me a chance to apply my spatial skills to an area of science I had no previous experience in.

In my second rotation I moved to the Geothermal Energy Project, where I was responsible for developing spatial analysis techniques to prioritise areas for the next stage of heat flow and temperature acquisition in the project. I was able to get a good insight into the issues involved in establishing what is a new and relatively high profile project, and the work gave me great experience in interacting closely with a number of state government agencies.

My final rotation was with the Remote Sensing Science and Strategy Project, in conjunction with the South Australian Research and Development Institute. I looked at the feasibility of using different satellite imagery products to examine the spatial and temporal extents of frost in the grain and grape growing regions of SA, to help feed into risk management strategies for these areas. I presented my work at the 2008 Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic conference and got important feedback for any possible follow on work that Geoscience Australia may undertake in the area.

All in all, the graduate program gave me the chance to use my university skills in projects and areas in which I would never have had the chance to experience in a more spatial-specific type job. And just to finish, it really would be wrong not mentioning the opportunity we had to travel to north-west WA with the graduate group to complete field work for the tsunami modelling project; which was more than welcome in the middle of a Canberra winter!

I am now working in the Remote Sensing Science and Strategy Project in the Geospatial and Earth Monitoring Division.