December 2007

• Geoscience Australia holiday shut-down period
• New times for Geoscience Australia
• Geoscience Australia awards outstanding ACRES distributors

Geoscience Australia holiday shut-down period

Geoscience Australia will close down for the holiday period at 12:00pm Monday 24 December 2007, and re-open on Thursday 3 January 2008.

During this period all general access areas will be closed to the public. This includes the Sales Centre, the Library, the Geoscience Education Centre and the Foyer.

Geoscience Australia would like to wish everyone a safe and happy festive season.

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New times for Geoscience Australia

Following the November 24 General Election, Geoscience Australia is now placed within the new Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism (DRET), with The Hon Martin Ferguson AM, MP as the Minister and Dr Peter Boxall AO the Department Secretary.

The new Administrative Arrangements and Ministry for the Federal Government were released on 3 December.

"This is a terrific outcome for the agency," said CEO Dr Neil Williams. "Having one Minister to report to is unique in the history of the agency. In the short term, it will be business as usual for Geoscience Australia, as a prescribed agency within the department. The dynamics of a new portfolio will naturally bring a new focus on our work.

"Minister Ferguson knows Geoscience Australia and the industry - he is engaged and enthusiastic and this augurs very well for us.

"Dr Boxall has also expressed his pleasure in the opportunity to work directly with the business sector in an area of huge economic potential. He has more than a passing interest in the work we do, with a brother who is a petroleum geologist in Scotland," Dr Williams said.

"Dr Boxall has met informally with Chiefs and Managers at Geoscience Australia and has visited and inspected the building and much of our work," he said.

The Minister will be briefed by Geoscience Australia on December 21.

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Geoscience Australia awards outstanding ACRES distributors

The year's highest performing distributors of Australian Centre for Remote Sensing (ACRES) satellite imagery products were recognised at an awards dinner held on 29 November in Canberra.

The awards recognise the important role distributors play in providing direct service and advice to regional clients and handling more than half of all ACRES satellite imagery and data.

The network of distributors was established to help clients select products best suited to their needs. They have specialist knowledge in the remote sensing industry and experience in data processing and interpretation to provide a solution to client problems. Some distributors also conduct customised training sessions to assist clients to acquire basic remote sensing skills.

The Gold award was made to Geoimage, who specialise in the sale and processing of satellite imagery for the mineral and petroleum industries and the natural resources sector.

Queensland Natural Resources and Water, who provide specialist technical advice and digital image processing services to the Queensland Government and university users, took out the Silver award.

Resource Imaging Australia, won the Bronze award for providing expert service and advice and satellite data to a wide variety of clients.

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