News Archives
Click on a month to go directly to the listing for that month; otherwise browse through the archive anyway you wish! The old archived news articles from the previous version of the web site - before March, 2006 - have had all hyperlinks removed as they would no longer work under the new structure.
2005 January February March April May June July August September October November December
2006 January February March April May June July August September October November December
2007 January February March April May June July August September October November December
2008 January February March April May June July August September October November December
2009 January February March April May June July August September October November December
21st February 2005: Web site launched
The Gaia Resources web site was officially launched today. This is a major step for the business, and opens up the provision of a range of additional services to our clients. For more information on our site, please feel free to contact us via the contact page.
22nd February 2005: Forum on-line
The forum was released today and provides a general forum for the environmental community. This PHPBB2-powered bulletin board is now open for comments.
3rd March 2005: Digital Birding Tool Testing
One of our first R&D projects, the creation of a digital birding tool, has begun testing. This tool comprises of a PDA-style handheld phone, on which specific forms for the collection of bird data from surveys have been created. The unit can also take low-resolution photographs, for use as habitat descriptors or just as reminders, and can also record the calls of birds. Testing is envisaged to take place over the next few weeks to streamline data entry and to upgrade the user-friendliness of the system. A future upgrade is planned to integrate a GPS with the device.
11th March 2005: Melbourne Trip
Piers is off to Melbourne from Friday the 11th of March and will be back in Perth for Wednesday the 16th of March. While this is a personal trip, Piers will be also testing the new digital birding tool in and around the Melbourne suburbs. Piers is contactable by mobile during this time as per usual, and will check email daily to avoid disrupting support services to clients.
16th March 2005: DBT Testing Complete
The testing of the Digital Birding Tool (or at least round one of the testing) finished with the end of the Melbourne trip. While it was quite successful, there are a few aspects of the DBT that need some additional development, including site location data and extended bird lists for other states. The DBT should be back out for a second round of testing in WA later this month.
20th March 2005: Client areas on-line
Our two clients on support contracts, Biota Environmental Sciences and the Western Australian Museum's Natural Sciences section, had their client areas released today. These areas include a range of documentation as PDF documents and provide an indication of our support movements over the next few months.
26th March 2005: Dedicated DBT page released
A dedicated page for the Digital Birding Tool has been developed and is located on the web site here.
30th March 2005: More DBT Testing
More testing on the Digital Birding Tool has been undertaken today at Thompsons Lake in Perth. There are still a number of issues to work out with the software, but the system development is close to finalisation for version 2.0. A commercial release will begin development as version 3.0.
17th April 2005: Research page released
A specific page has been released documenting the research we are currently undertaking. This is in preparation for an on-line survey of environmental consultants, which will hopefully be undertaken in the next few months.
22nd April 2005: Forum revamp
We've added in a new area for environmental researchers to the forum area. This is intended as an area that environmental researchers can use to ask for advice, assistance or just to discuss aspects of their work.
12th May 2005: Trip and Forum Update
Piers will be away on Friday the 13th of May (scarily), but should be in mobile range for any urgent queries. In addition, we've just sent out some articles for newsletters to promote the forum area, which might help in raising awareness about this resource.
18th May 2005: DBT Upgrades
We have just ordered some additional hardware for the Digital Birding Tool project. The addition of a Compact Flash sleeve, additional battery and a GPS device will add significant functionality to the tool. Version 3.0 should begin testing in early June.
30th May 2005: DBT Testing Milestones
With the integration of some previous records for version 2.0, the Digital Birding Tool testing reached two milestones today. Over 1,000 separate records have been recorded, representing over 5,000 individual birds. The most numerous species to date is the Pacific Black Duck (1,148 birds seen), and the least is the Australasian Bittern (only recorded from a call). This represents over 15 hours of testing to date.
14th June 2005: Forum Notice
We recently sent out some notices to a number of newsletters to drum up support for the forum. The RSWA newsletter for June was the first one we saw, but the link in the article was incorrect. If you are having problems accessing the forum you can access it by clicking here.
7th July 2005: End of First Year!
The end of the financial year marks the end of our first year of operation. During the year we performed well financially, but our real wins were in research. We have one paper accepted and one submitted, but more rewarding is the support we gave to environmental researchers - almost $6,000 was donated during the year through free services and lower rates.
9th July 2005: 100 Species
testing trip around Bold Park notched up our 100th species in testing for the Digital Birding Tool. This was a Swamp Harrier soaring overhead. Testing of the unit has also gone on for more than 24 hours.
11th July 2005: ECA Newsletter
Two items appeared in the latest ECA newsletter from us - an invite for members to jump into the forum, and an announcement about the second annual environmental costs research we are undertaking. More information on the research can be found on our research page.
14th July 2005: Capability Profile
We recently added a capability profile to the web site. The profile is available as an Adobe PDF document, just under 1MB in size.
12th August 2005: 10,000 Birds
In our testing of the Digital Birding Tool, we've just passed 10,000 individual birds seen around Perth. That comprises of 110 species. The most commonly recorded bird is the Eurasian Coot (1,813 birds).
29th August 2005: Busy
It's been a busy week or two, with projects on the go with Oceanica, Rio Tinto and the Western Australian Museum. In addition, Piers has recently been nominated and accepted as a committee member of the Environmental Consultants Association.
11th September 2005: More birds!
The busy period kicks on, but Piers managed to get out and do some more birding with the Digital Birding Tool. Updates are available on the DBT page.
16th October 2005: GIS Support Continues
Piers has been assisting Oceanica with a range of GIS tasks for the past few weeks. A summary of this work has been added to the GIS Solutions page on the main site.
5th November 2005: Forum Off-line
The WA Environmental Forum is no longer available, due to a lack of interest. This was an interesting project to technically implement, and disabling it frees up space to test several other projects, including a Wikipedia implementation and an on-line database for displaying the results of our birding using the Digital Birding Tool.
17th November 2005: Back to DBT Testing
The recent busy period has meant that testing of the Digital Birding Tool has paused, but we're back on track with some more testing. Some memory issues are plaguing testing, and it looks like a new unit will be needed in the new year. With the recent arrival of the Rainbow Bee-eaters, we've just recorded our 113th species around Perth.
1st December 2005: News on Digital Birding
After a long period of testing the Digital Birding Tool has had to halt for the moment, due to some problems with the i-Mate unit. We're looking at alternative units and have some under investigation from the USA. However, this hiatus has given us the time to start development on the Digital Birding Database, an on-line database for storing the records collected with the DBT.
23rd December 2005: Merry Christmas
We'd just like to wish all of the people (and why not, even those search engine robots and viruses) that visit our web site a Merry Christmas. At this time of year, when things are quiet, we spend a bit of time looking at how we've done and planning for the rest of the financial year. We've got some exciting projects coming up, and look forward to describing them on the site in 2006.
28th January 2006: Web Site Offline
The Gaia Resources web site will be off-line for the next month or so - we expect a new and revamped version to be back on in March, 2006. In the meantime, client areas and the capability profile will remain on-line.
20th March 2006: Web Site Online
Today we see the launch of the new Gaia Resources web site, version 2.0. This revised web site has additional functionality and better organisation than our previous site. Client areas are still in place, and have been during the transition. The web site also includes more details of our solutions, and some links to on-line databases. Please feel free to email us feedback, or to let us know if you're having problems accessing the site.
28th March 2006: Digital Birding Database
We launched our first web-enabled database, the Digital Birding Database, today. Browse through the functionality and see what you think - this is a proof of concept database to show that you can quickly get something from the web that's useable in reports.
29th April 2006: Projects and Time Out
Progress continues on various projects - an on-line database documenting environmental reports has been released for Rio Tinto under their client area. On another note, we will be closed from the 18th to the 29th of May while we spend some time in the United States - yes, partly for a holiday.
17th May 2006: Leavin' on a jet plane...
We are currently away from Perth on a trip to the United States. We will return on the 30th of May. During this time, we're meeting with a few organisations to discuss data management and other technologies, so stay tuned for updates in June.
30th May 2006: ...don't know when I'll be back again
We're back from a great trip to the U.S. - meeting with a couple of organisations to discuss data management, and getting in some quality birding! Details of the birds seen in San Diego will be included in the Digital Birding Database soon (once we sort out an integrated taxonomic checklist!).
4th June 2006: San Diego Bird Records
Bird records from the recent trip to San Diego are in the Digital Birding Database. You can interactively search for particular sites, or you can see a summary of the bird species and numbers seen for the whole trip by checking out this page. Thanks are extended again to David Kimball from the San Diego Audubon Society for his hospitality on the trip!
17th June 2006: Digital Birding Milestones
The Digital Birding Database reached two milestones today; we have visited over 100 different sites, and recorded over 25,000 individual birds.
23rd June 2006: Big Announcement
We're moving into a new office at the start of July!
We will be sharing Biota Environmental Sciences' new office at 228 Carr Place, Leederville. New contact details will be released shortly.
Also, this coming week sees us travel to Dampier to present at the Rio Tinto mid-year Environment Conference. We will be away from the 27th to 30th of June, and unfortunately won't be contactable via email during this time.
6th July 2006: The Office
We are very pleased to announce that we have an office!
We are now sub-leasing Biota Environmental Sciences' new office at Level 1, 228 Carr Place, Leederville. New contact details are on the About Us page.
10th August 2006: Getting fat, saying "Hi"
We're settled into the new office in Leederville (although we're still trying to find the best coffee and lunch places) and it's been an excellent first month.
We'd like to welcome a new client, the Western Australian Maritime Museum, and say "Hi" to all the Pilbara Iron staff that are now using the databases and documents in their client area.
24th August 2006: Upcoming Malaysia Trip
There's still no official verdict on the best lunch and coffee place in Leederville.
This is an advance notice that Piers will be away in Malaysia from the 23rd September until the 10th of October. Expect some more bird records to be added to the Digital Birding Database upon our return!
28th August 2006: 6,000 records
A quick birdwatching session on Sunday morning ticked the Digital Birding Database over 6,000 records (totalling over 26,000 individual birds from 250 species).
Piers will be away in Malaysia from the 23rd September until the 10th of October.
29th August 2006: Different searches
Digital Birding Database today; the introductory page has been re-shuffled, and there is now a species specific query, so you can find where a particular species has been recorded.
Piers is going to be away in Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo (!) from the 23rd September until the 10th of October.
5th September 2006: More upgrades
More changes to the Digital Birding Database; the results from the species search can be used to access site-based results; and in reverse, the results from the site searches can be used to see where else particular species have been recorded.
Piers' upcoming trip to Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo is getting closer - Gaia Resources will close from the 23rd September until the 10th of October.
18th September 2006: 1 week to go...
Piers' upcoming trip to Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo is at the end of this week! Gaia Resources will close from the 23rd September until the 10th of October.
A few minor updates have been done around the site - our Projects page has been updated, as has our specific Rio Tinto project page.
22nd September 2006: Gone bush
Gaia Resources is currently closed until the 11th October while Piers heads to Malaysia.
You can contact Piers via email - he will check his email when he can.
11th October 2006: Back and rarin' to go
Piers is back from his Malaysia trip and back in the office, so Gaia Resources is open once again for business.
Once we get some taxonomic checklist issues solved for South-East Asian bird species, we will add some records from the trip to the Digital Birding Database.
12th October 2006: Hiring!
We're currently advertising for a casual GIS position to help us out with some digitising and other projects that we have.
If you are interested in joining us, then have a look at the details on our new Jobs page, and keep an eye our for future positions on this page.
17th October 2006: Upcoming trip
Piers will be heading to Karratha from the 31st October until the 5th of November. Partially this is for work on Rio Tinto's ECC project, but it is also to spend the weekend volunteering with their Birdwatch program at Karratha Station. Email contact will be unavailable during this time.
31st October 2006: Karratha Station
Piers is in Dampier and Karratha until the 6th of November. This includes work on Rio Tinto's ECC project, but it is also to spend Friday to Sunday volunteering with the Rio Tinto Birdwatch event at Karratha Station. Piers will not be contactable by email during this week, and the mobile phone will be out of the picture for the weekend.
6th November 2006: Birds
Piers is back from the Dampier and Karratha trip - and the records are already in the Digital Birding Database. Piers added 10 species to his personal list and saw a few 'lifers', as well as having a great time! A new page on our volunteer projects is now available here.
4th December 2006: First employee
Today is a big day for us - today Undraa Boldbayar joins us as a GIS Operator. Undraa joins us to assist with a range of GIS activities - and her background in computer science is great for the wide range of work we undertake for our clients.
8th December 2006: ApoesPort C6550 I
This week has been a big week - on Monday Undraa Boldbayar joined us as a GIS Operator. Today, on Friday, we took delivery of a new professional "Colour Multi-function Device" - a FujiXerox ApeosPort c6550I. This unit significantly increases our in-house capabilities, adding 2400dpi full colour printing and 600dpi scanning (200 A4 pages a minute!), up to A3 size.
18th December 2006: Season's Greetings
Merry Christmas to all our clients and colleagues, and best wishes over the upcoming holidays and festive season. Gaia Resources will be closed from this Friday, the 22nd of December, and we will re-open on the 2nd of January, 2007.
2nd January 2007: Happy New Year
Welcome to 2007! We are back on deck and looking forward to another challenging and rewarding year ahead.
3rd January 2007: Research Associate
A great start to the new year - Piers has been made a Research Associate with the Directorate of Collection and Content Development and the Directorate of Conservation and Collection Management of the Western Australian Museum.
23rd January 2007: Gaia Resources Scholership
One of our initiatives for 2007 is the launch of the Gaia Resources Scholarship. This is a $3,000 scholarship for the student with the highest TER score entering a spatial sciences degree with Curtin University's Department of Spatial Sciences. We hope that this helps attract students to a profession that has been great to us!
7th February 2007: Birds WA CRSC Secretary
Piers has been elected to be the Secretary of the Birds Australia (WA) Conservation and Research Sub-Committee, and attended his first meeting last night.
14th February 2007: New PDA Units
We have just acquired two new TDS Recon PDA units which we are in the process of preparing and installing. We will shortly be offering these units - fully customised to your requirements, with training and support - for hire. These units provide great support for our Field Data Collection solutions.
20th February 2007: And the winner is...
Today Piers presented the inagural Gaia Resources scholarship to Curtin University student Charlotte Plug. Charlotte was the student with the highest TER score entering a Geographic Information Science program at the University.
21st February 2007: Job open!
Following up our scholarship presentation yesterday, we are now seeking a casual GIS operator to join our team. Check out the jobs page for more information.
6th March 2007: Travel ahead
Piers will be heading off to Auckland and back through Canberra for a Life Sciences Identifier workshop. This trip starts on the 24th of March and Piers will be back on deck on the 10th April, after easter. Contact via mobile and email will still be running during this time and operations will continue.
12th March 2007: New client, still going on a trip
We'd like to welcome our newest client, the Western Australian Herbarium. We are working with them on a number of database related projects.
Piers will be heading off to Auckland and back through Canberra for a Life Sciences Identifier workshop, from 24th March to the 10th April. Contact via mobile and email will still be running during this time and operations will continue.
23rd March 2007: Auckland and Canberra
Piers is away in Auckland and then Canberra for a Life Sciences Identifier workshop. He will be away from today until the 10th April. Contact via mobile and email will still be available during this time and operations will continue.
5th April 2007: Another one joins the fold!
Piers is back from the Life Sciences Identifier workshop. It was a great trip - more on that soon.
We'd like to take the opportunity to welcome another staff member. Nicole Trudgeon joins us in the near future as a second GIS operator.
14th April 2007: More news that you can poke a stick at
A lot of news today - Nicole Trudgeon joins us on Monday 16th April as a second GIS operator. We've also updated our products page with our new Ruggedised PDA units, which will be ready for leasing on the 1st May, 2007. And we're an institutional member of TDWG.
And stay tuned for some more exciting news from us late next week...
28th April 2007: Better late than never, but here's the big news...
We've been holding off on the big news, but here it is... We are moving to larger offices on the 1st of June, 2007. We'll still be in Leederville, and we'll update our contact details as we organise the move over the next month.
To support our expansion to these offices, we are also now looking for two new staff - a Database Operator and an Office Assistant. Check out our jobs page for information on these.
15th May 2007: Getting ready...
Preparation for the move to our new office continues - we will be moving over the long weekend in June, but it looks like service for phones and email may be disrupted during that week.
We're still looking for an office assistant for the new office - check out our jobs page here for details.
24th May 2007: Morning teas and office closures
We held a morning tea today with Biota Environemntal Sciences for Australia's Biggest Morning tea, a fundraiser for cancer research. We raised $200 from donations, and Gaia Resources matched that to donate a total of $400.
We will be closed between 5th June and 8th June while we move offices.
We're still looking for an office assistant for the new office - check out our jobs page here for details.
31st May 2007: TDWG Bioinformatics Project complete - office closures
We completed a project on collating global bioinformatics project recently for TDWG. You can see this live on the web - click here to access it.
We will be closed between 5th June and 8th June while we move offices.
e're still looking for an office assistant for the new office - check out our jobs page here for details.
1st June 2007: Closed
We are closed between the 5th June and 8th June while we move offices. Our email will be down and phones will divert to messages while we shift office. See our contact page for more details of the new office!
10th June 2007: Open
We have moved into our new offices! Unfortunately, we still have no Internet access but this should be rectified by the 15th June. In the meantime, we're back up and running with project work.
We're still looking for an office assistant - check out our jobs page here for details.
12th June 2007: Wired!
We're back on the Net with our new ADSL2 broadband connection - earlier than expected, too!
We're still looking for an office assistant - check out our jobs page here for details. We will shortly be placing ads to widen our search for this position.
18th June 2007: I don't feel so lonely in this big office any more...
Tim Carpenter joins us today as our first full-time employee!
Tim's role is Lead Database Operator - he has eight years experience in a range of database and web technologies. Tim will be heading up a lot of interesting database and web projects in the future.
21st June 2007: New week
Charlotte Plug joins us today as our third GIS Operator! Charlotte was the winner of the 2007 Gaia Resources scholarship.
This has been a pretty big week for us, with Tim starting on Monday. Tim's just done some updates to our Digital Birding database - check out the Google map for the distribution of bird species!
2nd July 2007: Another staff change!
Undraa Boldbayar is back from her holiday - this time as a full-time GIS Operator.
We're off to a flying start to the new financial year, with many site updates going on and many new projects on our books. Stay tuned for more updates on these over the coming month.
16th July 2007: News feed live!
We now have an RSS feed of the latest news items from Gaia Resources.
Use the links below to add the feed to your favourite feed reader.
18th July 2007: Green Power
We've just signed up with Synergy to use their Green Power product in our new office. This is in line with our Environmental Policies - we aim to have as small an impact as we can on the environment.
27th July 2007: Holiday Moods
Both Tim and Nicole are in the holiday mood at the moment. Tim headed off to the UK for three weeks yesterday, and Nicole's back from a trip to Italy on Monday.
3rd August 2007: More staff on board
Andrew Dennison will be joining us after his current trip to New Zealand as our Lead GIS Operator. Andrew has a wealth of experience in GIS technologies (his bio and CV will be up on our People page soon).
Andrew will be working on a range of GIS projects, as well as developing our Field Data Collection services through our PDA units.
10th August 2007: New Positions Open
We are currently looking for a casual GIS operator to join our team (and we're still looking for an Office Assistant). Details of both of these positions are on our Jobs page.
21st August 2007: Welcome to Andrew!
Andrew Dennison started with us today. Andrew's bio and CV will be up on our People page shortly.
In the meantime, applications for the Casual GIS Operator are open until the end of the week. Details of this, and other positions that are open, are on our Jobs page.
23rd August 2007: Trippin
Applications for the Casual GIS Operator are open until the end of the week. Details of this, and other positions that are open, are on our Jobs page.
Piers will be away from the 1st to 24th September on a trip to Europe, partly for work, and partly for a holiday.
30th August 2007: Thanks to all
Thank you to the GIS applicants who applied for the Casual GIS position. We have made an offer an will be announcing a new staff member soon.
In the meantime, Piers is off to Europe until the 24th of September, but the office will remain open.
24th September 2007: Back on deck, long weekend
Piers is back from his European trip, after a successful presentation to staff at Rio Tinto's corporate office in London and a holiday. His travels continue this week with a trip to Pannawonnica for the 2007 Rio Tinto birdwatch on Friday.
The Gaia Resources office will be shut for the coming long weekend including Friday and Monday.
27th September 2007: Position open, office closure
We are currently recruiting for a GIS position - either full-time or casual. See our Jobs page for details.
Our office will be closed for an extra-long weekend: we're closed on Friday and Monday of this weekend.
2nd October 2007: Jobs and Birds...
We are currently recruiting for a GIS position - either full-time or casual. See our Jobs page for details.
Piers is just back from the Rio Tinto 2007 birdwatch event near Pannawonnica, which was a great weekend. Thanks to all the people who participated, especially Nev, Jodie and Melissa for organising it.
9th October 2007: Jobs, jobs, jobs....
Three job related things today: We'd like to welcome Dudley Pallewela as a new casual GIS operator, who started last week.
Secondly, interviews are underway for the GIS position recently advertised, and another announcement will be made about that in the near future.
Finally, we have opened a new job, for a Database/Web Operator. See our Jobs page for details.
12th October 2007: Bye bye
We'd like to say thanks to Undraa Boldbayar for working with us over the last 11 months - she leaves us today for a job in the mining industry, and will be missed around here!
While talking about staff changes, we are currently advertising for a Database/Web Operator. See our Jobs page for details.
19th October 2007: Birds and jobs
Piers recently came back from the 2007 Rio Tinto birdwatch, and his data pushed the Digital Birding Database over 30,000 recorded birds and 267 species.
We are currently advertising for a Database/Web Operator. See our Jobs page for details.
22nd October 2007: Pelican Case Reseller
Gaia Resources is proud to announce that we are now a reseller for Pelican Cases. We will shortly be adding product and pricing lists to our Pelican case page.
We are currently advertising for a Database/Web Operator. See our Jobs page for details.
12th November 2007: Back from Adelaide
Piers is just back from a trip to Adelaide, where he represented the Western Australian Museum at a meeting of the Council of the Heads of Australian Faunal Collections.
We are still advertising for a Database/Web Operator, and the first round of interviews starts this week. See our Jobs page for details.
23rd November 2007: Anabats
Gaia Resources is please to announce another partnership - with Specialised Zoological. We now support SZ in their work with Anabat detectors - we handle the hiring and shipping of these units, while SZ handles the data that is collected.
We've also closed applications for the Database and Web Developer position while we make our decision. Candidates will be informed of our decision early next week.
27th November 2007: OSGEO Support
We are now officially supporting OSGEO, the Open Source GIS group. While we have been using open source products for a while, we have just sponsored OSGEO to subsidize their upcoming stand at the WALIS Forum 2008 in Perth. Gaia Resources will be there as well.
Like the rest of the industry, we're starting to prepare for Christmas - our office will be closed from the 24th December until the 4th January to celebrate the end of a fantastic year for the company.
5th December 2007: More position news..
We'd like to announce that Akeal Hayek has joined us this week as a GIS Operator. Akeal is a graduate from Curtin University, with a background in surveying.
Also, the Web/Database position has officially been filled and Lloyd Edwards will join us after the Christmas break (24th December to 7th January).
12th December 2007: Annual summary out
While we're getting ready for the end of year festivities, our first annual summary is out and on our web site here.
Our office will be closed between the 24th December and the 4th January for a break over Christmas.
21st December 2007: Closed
Gaia Resources is closed until the 7th January, 2008.
Our annual summary for 2007 is on the web site here. We look forward to seeing all our clients, colleagues and suppliers in 2008!
7th January 2008: We're Back
We're back as of today, and another new employee is starting with us.
Lloyd Edwards joins us as a Database Operator and will be working on a range of projects for our clients.
17th January 2008: Friday on my mind...
Our office will be closed on Friday, 18th January while we go to the Test Match at the WACA ground to watch Australia play India. We'll be back on deck on Monday.
19th February 2008: 2008 Scholarship
Piers presented the 2008 Gaia Resources scholarship to Benjamin Zeeb today during the Orientation Day activites at Curtin University. More information on the scholarship can be found here.
5th March 2008: Earth 2.0 and WALIS
We are proud to annouce the launch of our Earth 2.0 application today. Earth 2.0 is web-based data management application specifically designed and developed to assist organisations undertaking biological surveys.
Stay tuned for more news regarding Earth 2.0 and also about our upcoming stand at the WALIS Forum next week!
12th March 2008: WALIS Forum starts today
We will be at the WALIS Forum at our stand starting this afternoon. Come past and say hello if you are at the Forum and catch up with what's been happening with us this year.
14th March 2008: WALIS Forum Ends
The WALIS Forum finished this afternoon. Congratulations to Chris Tweedie from Landgate who won the business card draw at our stand for a couple of bottles of wine.
Thanks to everyone who dropped past to say Hi to us - we're looking forward to the next one in 18 months.
17th March 2008: PDA Roadshow
Based on the wide range of interest that we received from the recent WALIS Forum, we are looking to run a series of presentations about the state of mobile computing for environmental work.
These workshops will be run towards the end of April and will be a bit of a travelling roadshow - we'll come to you to show you the latest gear. If you are interested, please email Piers to register your interest.
19th March 2008: PDA Roadshow and Job
We are looking to run a series of presentations about the state of mobile computing for environmental work. These workshops will be run towards the end of April. If you are interested, please email Piers to register.
We are also advertising for a Junior Developer to join our team - the ad is advertised on seek.com.au.
26th March 2008: Trips, PDAs and Jobs
Piers is off on a trip to Canberra to represent the WA Museum at several meetings, then on to Melbourne to visit several organisations and then finally on to Sydney to see some suppliers and the Australian Museum crew. He's back on the 10th April.
Don't forget, we're planning a Field Data Collection roadshow - email Piers to register your interest. And we are also advertising for a Junior Developer to join our team - see the ad on seek.com.au.
10th April 2008: Back
Piers is back from his trip to the East Coast, where he met with a range of people from a number of places. Thanks to people from CSIRO, Museum Victoria, Australian Museum, Birds Australia and Lisasoft for the time and hospitality!
The position of Junior Developer is closing soon - see the ad on seek.com.au.
18th April 2008: Still recruiting...
The Seek advert for the Junior Developer has closed, but we're still looking for candidates who have Java and other experience. The details are on our Jobs page.
24th April 2008: ANZAC Day
Tomorrow marks ANZAC day in Australia, and is a public holiday. Our office will be closed for the day. We'll all be back on deck on Monday.
5th May 2008: Please bear with us...
We are currently re-architecting the network at our offices in Leederville. This means that we might lose e-mail connectivity occasionally over the next couple of weeks whilst any teething problems are sorted out. If you need to contact us urgently, please call us on +61 (0)8 9227 7309.
8th May 2008: IAIA 2008
Piers Higgs, the Director of Gaia Resources, presented a joint paper with Sam Nelson from Greenbase this morning at the International Association of Impact Assessment conference in Perth, on how to streamline environmental compliance data using technology and processes.
29th May 2008: Earthwatch and Curtin Uni Support
Firstly, thanks to Akeal, several of the Gaia Resources crew will be assisting the Curtin University Spatial Sciences Deparment as volunteers to help run GIS workshops for high school students. Akeal, Andrew and Charlotte will be helping out with these workshops in June.
Piers has been appointed to an IT Steering Committee for the Earthwatch Institute for a community based climate change and science project.
3rd June 2008: Finally, some more birds!
More data has been added to the Digital Birds Database for the first time in a while. Piers had a quick survey on the weekend of old favourite Herdsman Lake. There is also a range of Malaysian records being added behind the scenes, so they will be on-line soon.
A new blog from Gaia Resources will be coming to this web site shortly which gives us the ability to add more detail than these news posts, and be a bit more wide-ranging in our discussions.
3rd June 2008: Curtin Uni Support
Andrew, Akeal and Charlotte assisted with the running of a GIS Workshop for high school students at Curtin University Spatial Sciences Department. The workshop involved navigating to locations around the globe in Google Earth to complete a quiz.
13th June 2008: Earthwatch Update
Piers raced across the country to Sydney on Thursday to attend a Steering Committee meeting for the Earthwatch Institute. This is for a community based climate change and science project, called ClimateWatch.
(and then promptly caught the flu)
25th June 2008: End of Financial Year!
Andrew and Piers went to the ESRI Resources Symposium yesterday. Piers has posted a new blog post about the upcoming 9.3 release on the blog page.
We're coming up to the end of financial year (how did that happen?), and as such our office will be slightly disrupted. We're off at a staff meeting this afternoon for a couple of hours, and then on Monday 30th the office will be closed.
27th June 2008: Our office is closed!
We are closed this Monday the 30th June for the end of the financial year. We'll be back on deck on Tuesday the 1st July.
1st July 2008: Happy New (Financial) Year
Welcome to the 2008-2009 Financial Year. We're back on deck and raring to go.
Joining us today is Ryan White as a Junior Developer. Ryan comes on board to help out with a range of web applications, including Earth 2.0, and a range of other Java applications we're working on.
29th July 2008: Blogging away...
Everything is finally settling down after a very busy start to the new financial year. There's not been much news lately for us to report, but we've been busy on the blog lately. Have a look at some of our recent articles about our ventures in open source, cool NASA imagery and even how we're handling field data sheets in Earth 2.0.
10th August 2008: More birds
After a survey around Lake Gwelup this morning, more records have been added to the Digital Birding Database, bringing the total to over 31,000 individual birds. We still have quite a few records to add from historical trips, and more will be added from Piers' upcoming involvement in the 2008 Rio Tinto & Birdlife International birdwatch, this year to be held at Hamersley Station in the Pilbara.
8th September 2008: Birds on the brain...
A few more records from the weekend from a survey of Lake Joondalup were added to the Digital Birding Database.
There's been a few new projects underway at Gaia Resources lately; our new HermesLite product, work with BHP Billiton on PDA units and weed data standards, and a range of work with the Atlas of Living Australia. These are a really varied bunch of projects, but we'll be putting up blog articles about these projects in the course of the coming weeks.
25th September 2008: Online Demonstrations
Gaia Resources are pleased to announce that a number of demonstrations of web enabled databases and mapping are now accessible here. All of the demonstrations are composed entirely of open source components and show the power and flexibility that can be achieved using these technologies.
Also, Andrew has added a new blog post discussing the relative merits of the available open source desktop GIS packages.
26th September 2008: Public Holidays and Workshops
Monday the 29th September is a public holiday here in Western Australia, so our office will be closed. We're also going to be closed for most of Tuesday the 30th while we attend a Behind the Scenes tour at the Perth Zoo. We'll be back in the office at 2pm for some internal workshops.
Our latest demonstrations of web enabled databases and mapping are accessible here or in the "Products" menu above - and for our infrequent blog visitors, Andrew's recent blog post about open source desktop GIS packages is worth a read.
30th September 2008: Back on deck
We're back from our day trip to the Perth Zoo, and we've done up a blog post about it in our blog. It was a great way to spend the morning getting some experience with a range of Australian animals.
October is fast approaching, and we'll be presenting at a range of events. Firstly, Piers is presenting at an ECAWA meeting (see here for details), then at the upcoming TDWG conference in Fremantle (see here for details of the conference) and finally in late October, at a WAMSI workshop about marine data management (see here for details).
7th October 2008: ECAWA Presentation
Piers will be presenting a talk about Information Management, with a focus on data sources and tools that can be used, at an ECAWA meeting tomorrow night (8th October) at 5:30pm. The talk will be held at the Graduate School of Business in Perth - for more information see here.
He'll also be presenting at the upcoming TDWG conference in Fremantle (see here for details of the conference) and finally in late October, at a WAMSI workshop about marine data management (see here for details).
9th October 2008: TDWG
Anyone near Fremantle, Western Australia who works with biological data - note that the TDWG 2008 conference will be held in the Maritime Museum in just under two weeks. This international conference is all about bioinformatics data, standards, sources and projects. There is a day dedicated to the Atlas of Living Australia, for which there are day registrations available. We'll be there and presenting during the conference as well.
Piers' talk at the ECAWA went well last night - he's put up a blog post about it on our blog, including the handouts from the night in digital format for those that couldn't attend.
14th October 2008: Recruiting
We've started planning for next year, and are looking to add another GIS person to our team. We're looking for a graduate who wants to learn, and has some experience or exposure to a few technologies. More details can be found on our Jobs page.
Don't forget that the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Conference is on next week in Fremantle. Come and see us there.
25th October 2008: TDWG over, still recruiting...
After a week of great talks and long dinners, the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Conference is over for 2008. Piers' presentations at the conference can be found as both Powerpoint presentation (1.9MB) and Flash video (7.8MB) files.
We're still recruiting for a GIS graduate. The advert is on our Jobs page, and we're planning on the applications closing at the end of this month.
29th October 2008: Recruitment closing soon
Just a short note: the GIS Graduate position we're advertising here closes on Monday the 3rd of November. We'll be working through applications the week or so afterwards.
Piers did his third presentation for the month today at the iVEC Marine Data Workshop. This was an industry perspective on metadata, based on his work on previous projects. The presentation and a videocast are to be made available by iVEC in the near future.
3rd November 2008: Position closes today
One final reminder: the GIS Graduate position we are advertising closes at the end of the day today. Those people who have already applied will be emailed during the next week with our decisions on interviews and times for them. Thanks to all applicants who have applied so far!
5th November 2008: Position Closed
We've finished the recruitment drive for the GIS Graduate position. Interviews for the position will start in December once the university exam period is finished. An announcement will be forthcoming after the interview period.
Meanwhile, Piers and Andrew are preparing for a week in Sydney as part of the Ecological Society of Australia conference for 2008. Piers is presenting (yes, again) a speed talk, and Gaia Resources will have a stand at the conference. Come along and say hello!
6th November 2008: The Athlete Returns
Tim's back from competing in the Noosa Triathlon, and he's added a post about his experiences in our blog.
Meanwhile, Piers and Andrew are preparing for a week in Sydney as part of the Ecological Society of Australia conference for 2008, in Sydney. Piers is presenting (yes, again) a speed talk, and Gaia Resources will have a stand at the conference. Come along and say hello!
19th November 2008: More birds...
Piers has just updated the Digital Birding Database with a few more records from his surveys, including his sightings from the Rio Tinto 2008 Birdwatch. There are now 31,856 birds recorded in this database from 284 species.
Just another reminder; Piers and Andrew will be in Sydney at the Ecological Society of Australia conference for 2008, from the 1st to 5th of December.
27th November 2008: More Frequent Flyer points
Andrew and Piers are heading to the Ecological Society of Australia conference in Sydney from the 1st to 5th of December. Piers is presenting a "Speed Talk" on Tuesday afternoon and we'll have a booth at the conference. If you're around and want to talk about environmental technology in any sense, please drop past and say hello!
It's not that far from the end of year; we'll be announcing some big projects for 2009 and doing a wrap up blog post once the ESA conference is over.
8th December 2008: Back
Andrew and Piers are back from the Ecological Society of Australia conference in Sydney, and we're all hands on deck to get things finished before the end of the year. Our office will close on the 19th of December (we'll be out from lunchtime for a Christmas lunch), and we'll be back on the 5th January.
16th December 2008: Almost there...
We've posted an end of year review (of sorts) on the blog. It's been a great year, thanks to our clients, suppliers and of course, the team behind the scenes here. We're now starting to wind down towards the end of the year - this Friday the 19th is our last day and we'll be out for a final lunch for the year. We'll open again on the 5th of January.
19th December 2008: And that's it for 2008
Gaia Resources is closed from the 19th December through to the 5th January.
We hope everyone has a great festive season. See you in 2009!
5th January 2009: Welcome back!
We're back on deck after a few weeks off to recharge. 2009 looks like being a really interesting (and quite busy) year.
We hope you all had a great break over the festive season, and look forward to catching up with all our clients, suppliers and colleagues over the next few weeks.
12th January 2009: Another one joins the fold
We've got another employee starting today - Mel McVee joins us today as a Spatial Analyst. Mel's come on board to help with the wide range of work we've got coming up in 2009 - announcements about some of the big ones will be coming in the next few weeks.
14th January 2009: New position open
Due to the workload we've got scheduled for 2009, we have started recruitment (again!) for a Junior Office Assistant. Details of this position are held on SEEK - please apply through that web site.
16th January 2009: New position closing early
As mentioned on Wednesday, we have started recruitment for a Junior Office Assistant, details of which are on SEEK (please apply through that web site). Please note that due to the large number of applications we have received, it is likely that we will close the applications on Monday, 19th January.
19th January 2009: New position closing today
A final notice regarding the new Junior Office Assistant position (details of which are on SEEK - please apply through that web site). Please note that due to the large number of applications we have received, we will close the applications at 5:00pm today - Monday, 19th January.
19th January 2009: New position closed
We have closed the recently advertised Junior Office Assistant position and are working on shortlisting and interviewing applicants. This is quite a task with over 130 applications, so please bear with us while we work through this listing. When we have made a decision on the position we will notify all unsuccessful applicants.
27th January 2009: New staff member
After sifting through nearly 150 applications for the Office Administrator position, Corinne Barnes joins us today. Thank you to all the people that applied for this position - we were overwhelmed with the number and quality of the responses.
6th February 2009: SWAEI Project Launch
The Southwest Australia Ecoregion Initative Conservation Planning project was officially launched on Thursday 5th February. Gaia Resources role in the project is to provide a range of support; we're handling a lot of GIS data work, running conservation planning activites and generally handling a lot of the technical work on the project. For us, it's exciting to be involved in a project that will have positive conservation outcomes for the southwest corner of the continent.
17th February 2009: 2009 Gaia Scholarship
Piers presented the 2009 Gaia Resources scholarship today to Matthew Aravidis, who is starting his GIS and Geology degree at Curtin University. This is the third year that we have undertaken a scholarship - and it was the first time there have been multiple entrance scholarships, which bodes well for the future of our industry!
Gaia Resources office in Leederville will be closed this Thursday the 19th February when we attend a professional development day. Look out for a blog post on that after the event.
25th February 2009: Travel and projects
Piers and Tim are preparing for a trip east from the 9th to 13th of March to present about HermesLite and Earth 2.0 to several organisations in Canberra, and then to follow up with clients in Sydney. It's a good chance to practice what we learned in our recent presentation skills workshop.
We'll also take the opportunity to annouce another large project; Gaia Resources will be working with Coffey Environments, Marsden Jacob and MJ Rogers & Associates to assess climate change risks for the South Coast NRM region.
2nd March 2009: Long weekend
Just a brief reminder that today is a public holiday here in Western Australia today, so our offices are closed.
4th March 2009:
Curtin University has put up a PDF article about the recent scholarship presentations, where Piers presented Matt Aravidis with the Gaia Resources 2009 scholarship.
In other news, Piers and Tim are heading east next week. The guys are presenting to the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts in Canberra, and Piers is heading to Sydney to catch up with a few clients there.
9th March 2009: East
Piers and Tim are heading to Canberra and Sydney today to do some presentations and meetings with the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, the Atlas of Living Australia, the Australian Museum and the Earthwatch Institute. Tim will be back on Thursday, and Piers will be back next week. In the meantime, the office continues to hum with activity...
16th March 2009: West
Piers and Tim are now back from their trip to Canberra and Sydney. The trip was well worth it, and thanks to everyone who saw us during the various site visits. A blog post is coming soon on the trip.
3rd April 2009: Tag, you're it...
Piers is heading to Darwin this weekend, and will be catching up with a few clients and suppliers over the early part of next week. At the same time, Andrew heads back into town from his recent holiday.
9th April 2009: Happy Easter
Piers is back from Darwin, where he had a great time and a good meeting with the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (and see the blog for more info). Meanwhile Andrew continues to play tag by heading to the WWF offices in Northam...
We hope that everyone enjoys the break over Easter - we'll be back on deck on Tuesday the 14th April.
15th April 2009: Another employee!
Matt Aravidis, who won the 2009 Gaia Resources scholarship, starts with us today as a casual GIS operator. Matt is studying GIS and Geology at Curtin University.
24th April 2009: On the road again...
Piers heads to Tasmania this week to the Faunal Collections Informatics Group meeting in Launceston. Piers will be talking about a few projects he's been working on with the FCIG group and representing the Western Australian Museum.
Following the meeting, Piers will meet up with Akeal and Mel in Brisbane to head to the University of Queensland and participate in a workshop with the developers of Zonae Cogito, software we use for systematic conservation planning.
5th May 2009: Back early
Piers is back from the Tasmania-Brisbane trip - and Tim is also back from his Half Iron Man in Busselton (4:30:44!!!)
Over the past few days, we've had major outages with the internet and email services in our office, but these seem to be resolved now.
12th May 2009: Upcoming event...
We've just sent out invites to a "Thank you" event for a wide range of data suppliers. A large number of people have been helping us by providing data for the projects we're undertaking for clients such as the South West Australia Ecoregion Initiative, South Coast NRM Group, and a few other organisations. If you're a data supplier to us, please RSVP to corinne@gaiaresources.com.au by the 8th of June.
Don't fear, we'll be holding another event in September for everyone else!
25th May 2009: Recruiting
We are recruiting once again - this time for a Senior Developer position. More information can be found on the Jobs page, or directly at the Seek advert.
Feel free to contact Piers directly for more information on this position.
29th May 2009: Long weekend coming up...
This weekend is a long weekend in Western Australia - Foundation Day. So our office will be unattended on Monday the 1st June.
We are still accepting candidates for the Senior Developer position. However, if you are interested, get your resume in quickly - we have started interviews already. More information can be found on the Jobs page, directly at the Seek advert, or you can contact Piers directly.
5th June 2009: Position closed
We've closed off applications for the Senior developer position and we hope to have an announcement on the position next week.
8th June 2009: The end of an era
So, as Piers has written in the blog, this is Tim Carpenter's last week here with us at Gaia Resources. Anthony Jones will replace him in mid July after being the successful candidate for the Senior Developer position. Please bear with us during this transition.
We'll be closing early on Friday for Tim's leaving drinks. He'll certainly be missed around the office, and we wish him the very best in his new job!
12th June 2009: The End Is Nigh
Today is Tim's last day - and as a result we're shutting down early today for Tim's leaving drinks. We'll be back on deck on Monday.
15th June 2009: Drinks Cancelled
Due to a lack of interest in the drinks event, we have cancelled the drinks that were scheduled for Wednesday night at the Belgian Beer cafe. We'll take that on board and organise something different for later in the year to see if that gets more support.
19th June 2009: More travel...
Piers is away from the office this week on a holiday. A range of updates on projects will be coming, along with the usual end of financial year summary, when he is back.
29th June 2009: Back!
Piers is back in the office from his Malaysia trip. Updates on several projects are coming in the near future, as well as the end of year review.
3rd July 2009: More blogs
Andrew and Piers have posted a couple of blog entries in the last week. Piers has also been up to Kalgoorlie on a quick trip to the WA Museum site there (thanks, Zoe!), while Andrew and the majority of the GIS team have been at Curtin helping with student workshops (another blog coming).
Stay tuned for the end of (financial) year wrap up early next week.
6th July 2009: Conferences?
Which conferences are you going to in the second half of the year? Let us know by taking our survey.
7th July 2009: SWAEI Workshops
Our office will be quite empty until Friday, while Mel, Akeal, Corinne and Piers head to the SWAEI Target Setting Workshops. They will be presenting details of the wide range of data that has been gathered for the project, and helping support the target setting process.
13th July 2009: Anthony's First Day
Anthony Jones joins us today as a Senior Developer. Anthony has already been getting immersed in our systems and projects, and comes from a background in the defence industries, specifically in simulation technologies. You can welcome Anthony by sending him an email.
21st July 2009: Another new staff member
Tom Brownlie will be starting at Gaia Resources on the 10th August, as a Senior Consultant. Tom will be handling the growing needs of Earth 2.0, our PDAs, and participating in a range of activities and projects across the business.
30th July 2009: Travel (again!)
Outfitted with a new 3G modem, Piers is heading to Canberra for a few different meetings on projects and the GLAM-WIKI event next week. Look for him on Twitter during his travels, and there will be a summary blog post when he returns.
10th August 2009: New staff and Wikimedia recap
Piers is back from his trip to Melbourne and Canberra, and has published a blog post about the GLAM-WIKI event he attended last week in Canberra.
Today is also the first day for Tom Brownlie, who joins us as a Senior Consultant. Our People page will be updated soon with information about both Tom and Anthony.
27th August 2009: WALIS Forum
We're starting to plan for the WALIS Forum, which is held in November here in Perth. We'll have a stand once again, and have just been told that the paper Andrew and Piers are preparing on the Rio Tinto Environmental Characteristics and Capabilities project has been accepted, called "Rio Tinto: Managing Environmental Data on a Large Scale".
14th September 2009: More travel...
Piers will be heading to Canberra on Wednesday for a short two-day workshop with the Atlas of Living Australia, kicking off some work in the citizen science arena. More on this will be coming in a blog post after the workshop.
22nd September 2009: Climatewatch launch
The Climatewatch project launched on Monday in Melbourne. We've been working on for some time - you can read more about the launch here, or you can check out our latest blog entry, which also talks about our latest project with the Atlas of Living Australia.
25th September 2009: Long weekend
Monday the 28th of September is a public holiday here in Western Australia, so our offices will be closed. Most of the crew will be back on deck on Tuesday - Mel and Piers are taking off for holidays.
13th October 2009: Gaia Resources at WALIS Forum 2009
We will be at the WALIS Forum again this year. Have a look at our latest blog post for all the details.
7th November 2009: Rio Tinto & Birdlife Birdwatch
Piers and AJ went to the Rio Tinto and Birdlife International birdwatch event this morning, wandered around Herdsman Lake, and generally had a good time mucking about outdoors seeing birds. More details will be coming in a blog post soon.
We've been quiet getting ready for WALIS - but you might see a few changes on the web site in the next few days, so look out...
21st December 2009: Christmas Closures
Gaia Resources will be shutting for the break at the close of business on Wednesday the 23rd December, so that we can all go to Rottnest Island for our end-of-year function on the Thursday. The office will re-open on the 4th of January, 2010.
We hope all our clients, suppliers, colleagues and friends have a safe and enjoyable festive season - see you in 2010!
5th January 2010: We're back
Gaia Resources is open again for 2010. We're spending a few days restructuring, rolling out new systems and generally coming back up to speed - so bear with us in this first week while we find our feet. We hope you all had a great break!
26th January 2010: Australia Day Public Holiday
Gaia Resources is closed on the 26th January for the Australia Day public holiday. We'll all be back on Wednesday, the 27th January.
1st February 2010: Mobile applications kicks off
Our work for the Atlas of Living Australia, which we blogged about a while ago, has continued into 2010. As part of this work, we welcome Timo van der Schuit to our team, who will be undertaking mobile application development in partnership with Museum Victoria and the Atlas. Piers, Anthony and Timo will head to Melbourne this week to kick off the project with a design workshop. Stay tuned to our blog and the Atlas web site for more updates on our work in this area (and our company Twitter feed too).
8th February 2010: Back from Melbourne
Anthony, Timo and Piers are back from their recent trip to Melbourne, where they participated in a mobile application development workshop with Museum Victoria, and a BioCASE workshop with a range of Australian herbaria. More on these projects will be appearing in our blog soon.
22nd February 2010: Curtin Scholarship and Presentations
Tomorrow, Piers, Anthony and Ben will be heading across to Curtin University. Piers will firstly be presenting the Gaia Resources Scholarship for the Spatial Sciences department, and then the lads will head to the Computer Science department to kick off a research and development project with them for 2010.
23rd February 2010: Scholarship awarded
Congratulations to Sean Gilmore, who was today awarded with the Gaia Resources 2010 Scholarship. Piers presented the award at the Department of Spatial Sciences orientation event at Curtin University. More details of our projects with Curtin will be coming up in a blog post.
25th February 2010: Public Holiday Approaching!
Just a short note to our clients in the eastern states and overseas; Monday the 1st March is a public holiday here in Western Australia, for Labour Day. Piers will also be travelling for the rest of next week to Sydney and Canberra (with AJ) for work on the Atlas of Living Australia. Tom and Akeal are also travelling to OZRI 2010.