Lying between the Indian, Pacific and Southern Oceans, Australia's climate-in particular its rainfall-is difficult to predict reliably and accurately, driven as it is by the interplay of a complex set of systems

Weeds pose a significant threat to natural ecosystems in Australia and consequently large quantities of resources are spent each year to manage them.

Over the years a great deal of work has been directed towards improving the selection, testing and evaluation of biological control agents for weed control.

For the 2007/08 Defeating the Weed Menace program (DWM), we proposed to build and test a prototype robotic aircraft and surveillance system to detect aquatic weeds in inaccessible habitats.

The integration of environmental weed control within a broader natural resource management framework is an important component of a whole-of-systems approach to conservation and management of our ecological assets.