SQNNSW Innovation Hub partnership to feature at Bangalow Film Festival

 What do the renowned Mexican ranger Alejandro Carrillo and the Southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales (SQNNSW) Innovation Hub have in common? 

They’re both heading to the Bangalow Film Festival on Saturday 16 March, where they hope to continue education and communication about successful regenerative farming. 

This unlikely collaboration came about through a Regenerative Rangelands Field Day in late 2023, which the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ)-led SQNNSW Hub was proud to support. 

The Field Day was hosted by central-west Queensland graziers Donald, Wendy and Jody Brown, of Arlington Park and Latrobe Station in Longreach, and was part of a larger project aiming to assess satellite-mapping technology as a future decision-making tool and tracking system. 

The Regenerative Rangelands Field Day attracted more than 80 enthusiastic producers and an incredible line-up of talent, including Alejandro Carrillo, an internationally renowned regenerative rancher from Las Damas Ranch in Mexico’s Chihuahan Desert. 

Mr Carrillo shared his knowledge around carrying more than three times the number of cattle than the neighbouring ranches on a per-acre basis, while lowering his inputs substantially. 

While Mr Carrillo was Down Under, he offered his insights as part of the Thinking Forward video – a key component of the Hub and Brown family’s collaboration. 

Now, that video is set to feature at the Bangalow Film Festival on Saturday 16 March 2024. 

Jody Brown said she was thrilled the important messages from the Thinking Forward video would be shared to an even bigger audience through the Festival. 

“Protecting the places we love and improving the landscapes, these things go hand in hand, wherever you are from”, Ms Brown said. 

The SQNNSW Innovation Hub supports producers and their communities in growing resilience to manage climate variability through innovation, collaboration, and building capacity and capability. 

The SQNNSW Hub is one of eight national Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs, a flagship of the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund. 

View Thinking Forward video here. Acknowledgement to Henry Simmons TV for producing the film.