Gayini is 85,000 hectares of complex, dynamic and interconnected ecosystems in the Murrumbidgee catchment in south west NSW. It is one of the largest wetland restoration projects in Australia, involving a range of non-government and government organisations.
Gayini is owned by the Nari Nari Tribal Council, an Aboriginal not-for-profit organisation that manages Gayini, with a consortium of partners, including Murray Darling Wetlands Working Group, The Nature Conservancy Australia, and the UNSW Centre for Ecosystem Science. The consortium aims to protect and restore the landscape’s land and water values and Aboriginal Cultural Heritage values and create sustainable economic value.
Gayini faces a complex web of challenges, and there are a range of government and non-government organisations collecting data over the land and water for research and decision-making purposes. River management pressures like water extraction, pollution, and invasive species threaten the health of the ecosystems. The impacts of livestock grazing, floods, fires and a changing climate also need to be understood. There are commitments to environmental flow management and sustainable grazing practices.
Strategic management requires navigating diverse interests, incorporating Indigenous Knowledge, and addressing data-sharing issues. The lack of clarity regarding who is collecting data in the region, data accessibility and the challenge of integrating data from various sources hinders comprehensive understanding and informed decision-making in managing land and water resources.
A trusted environmental data and information supply chain for Gayini will enable a partnership between regional parties that brings together existing data from diverse sources to provide a comprehensive regional overview of data collection efforts and the availability of trusted data, models and information products.
This project will develop enduring infrastructure that enables discovery, access and reuse of trusted data across multiple providers for management, decision making and environmental research.
The Gayini Data Hub will comprise the following outputs, which will be capable of generic application to other landscapes:
This project is part of the ARDC Planet Research Data Commons’ Trusted Environmental Data and Information Supply Chains focus area.
Gayini is a regional use case that aligns with national and international priorities – it is an area of national and international significance, providing habitat and breeding grounds for waterbirds, including migratory species listed under international agreements, rare and endangered frogs and birds, as well as threatened plants. The environmental values are under threat from multiple pressures including feral animals, grazing, water extraction, and renewable energy development.
Effective management of the complex, dynamic and interconnected ecosystems requires multidisciplinary research, across ecology, hydrology, and climate science.
For researchers, the benefits are huge, both in accessing valuable data, and in contributing directly to improving environmental outcomes. Gayini provides habitat and breeding grounds for waterbirds, including migratory species listed under international agreements, rare and endangered frogs and birds, as well as threatened plants. A regional view allows researchers to easily see what data and models exist for a region and where the gaps are so they can see how their research can contribute to completing the picture for Gayini.
The trusted environmental data and information supply chain for Gayini will be created in partnership with experts in that region, who will collectively determine what constitutes trustworthy data and analytics. Governments are investing in the collection of data (e.g. fisheries, environment) and management of resources (e.g. grazing and environmental flows). Government regulators will have access to the best data and models available so they can make faster and more accurate decisions on the cumulative impacts of developments, as well as reporting management progress.
The managers of Gayini will have streamlined access to scientific data so it can be combined or interpreted alongside Cultural Knowledge to enable timely, evidence-based decisions on management practices and reporting.
A trusted environmental data and information supply chain for Gayini will enable a partnership between relevant regional parties that brings together existing data from diverse sources effectively for the realisation of the 2023 Strategic Adaptive Management Framework vision for Gayini.
It will provide a comprehensive regional view of data collection efforts and the availability of trusted data, models and information products, enabling more efficient and effective research into regional ecosystem processes, management effectiveness, environmental impacts and trends.
Potential research use cases include:
The Nari Nari Tribal Council and consortium members will be supported to manage the lands and waters of Gayini effectively through data-driven decision support and streamlined reporting tools. Metadata will support the evaluation of data and models as accessible, fit-for-purpose, trustworthy, and reusable by clearly describing the rights of data owners, the provenance of data and information products, and the context around the data.
On 1 April 2025, project partners met in Hay, NSW, on Nari Nari, Wiradjuri and Yitha Yitha Country, to discuss the new Gayini Data Hub project. Sessions covering project objectives, high-level data infrastructure approaches, regional examples, data assets and user needs were led by Professor Richard Kingsford (UNSW) and Jamie Woods (Nari Nari Tribal Council).
Outcomes from this workshop will be combined with input from other partner engagements to develop specific use cases and requirements to inform the design and development of the data infrastructure solution for the Gayini Data Hub.
