Other Services
Native Title and Heritage Management
Preston Consulting provided independent environmental advice to six Indigenous Native Title claim groups on BHP Billiton’s Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The SEA is being undertaken to assess the environmental impacts associated with the future development, expansion, operation and closure of iron ore mines and associated infrastructure in the Pilbara region of WA.
Preston Consulting prepared and implemented the consultation programme, prepared presentation materials and held several meetings with each of the Indigenous Native Title claim groups to explain the SEA, environmental impacts and controls. Preston Consulting then provided detailed feedback from those meetings to BHP Billiton.
The resultant consultation report will be used by the WA EPA in consideration of BHP Billiton’s SEA.
Our people have also negotiated Native Title on behalf of several mining companies (names provided upon request). Heritage management is included as part of our project planning activity. We have completed or supervised heritage surveys, Section 16 and 18 applications and consultations with many Traditional Owner groups.
Agriculture
Phil Scott, Rod Short, Steve Robinson, Gerard Grealish and Neil Lantzke have all worked for the WA Department of Agriculture. They completed agricultural research, investigations, reporting, consultation and technical advice for the Department across a range of natural resource management areas that includes irrigation, salinity control, farm economics, soils, hydrogeology, agroforestry, eucalyptus oil production, farm planning and horticulture. Neil went on to manage a significant scale horticulture operation to the north of Perth.
Energy
Our personnel have been involved in the planning, financing, construction and operation of a range of power stations in South East Asia and Australia. We have completed a life cycle analysis for carbon for magnetite, gathered the data and reported National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting data for companies such as Sons of Gwalia, CITIC Pacific Mining and Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline.
Water Resource Management
Starting with basic research into agricultural salinity, a number of our personnel have had significant experience with the Department of Agriculture in water management. This has been enhanced by experience at a range of mine sites across Australia, where water supply, water security, water storage, use and release have been significant issues. Our personnel have also managed water drilling and assessments, securing relevant water licences for companies such as CITIC Pacific Mining, Iluka Resources, Australian Aboriginal Mining Corporation, FMG and others.
Data Acquisition and Management
Our experience in data acquisition and management starts with experience in agriculture, fisheries and academic institutions, where our people have been involved with designing, implementing, storing, collating, analysing and reporting on a range of data, from pasture growth to groundwater levels, from topography to standard or infra-red images, from plant species to soil type. More recently we have gained experience in the use of remote un-manned vehicles as a safe, rapid and cost-effective way of capturing data. We have historically worked with companies such as Greenbase, to provide safe data storage, processing and access for clients requiring considerable data sets such as for the National Pollutant Inventory, National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting, and for recording and improving power efficiency.