And so

I just kind of started talking to him.

And I'm like, oh, yeah, I know how to load film.

And we just became really good friends.

And then he started to – my friend David started to hire me to do visual effects plates.

He's like, I need a camera guy to come out and shoot plates with us.

Do you know how to load, you know, VistaVision? I'm like, no, but I'll learn, you know.

the switch from film to digital also propelled you to make the switch from your current job to the future job? Yeah, a little bit.

Basically, if they, they take the leg wool off, all of a sudden the fitters and, and so forth don't have any advantage anymore when every time we do this, it, it completely backfires.

It backfires, yeah.

A-and I, and that's kinda the reason I brought that up is, uh, a-and from the outside looking in, you know, we, we sell a lot of sheep in Houston area, right? So we, we have kids that are in school barns.

We have kids that aren't going in to try to win a class in major stock show.

They, they wanna go make the sale.

They wanna have a good experience.

And, and I have seen in the past four or five years, especially since the leg wool trend keeps going, that I, I think these sheep are better cared for.

Where, where are you at personally with that?

So we have a greater opportunity to be able to achieve

our goals.

Working with others, it brings a different perspective into the picture as well.

Different people have different skills, lived experiences, which often leads to better decisions that are being made in a stronger sense, I suppose, of resilience in regards to the matters that are being dealt with on the ground You know, Brendan now would be somebody, for instance, in the area who has dealt with Hudson Bear.

Not everybody has.

So his lived experience in regards to what has worked in the past, what hasn't worked for him and so forth, and the importance of even the experience that he's had with that collaborative approach and having those expertise, the different expertise on board.

is such an important skill set now in the local community, which means that they're able to help the neighbour or the neighbour's neighbour or whatever it might be.

So, Matt, what are the takeaway messages from the Good Neighbours program that you'd want to leave with listeners?

I think, yeah, that need to work together needs to really be emphasised so that farmers know that they're not in it alone and that they can seek support from their neighbours or from local land services to coordinate a control program that will reduce those impacts for them.

Some of the other issues that you've got there as well is that there can be a limited awareness of pest movement or the numbers of animals that could be there.

I've spoken to farmers who have been quite shocked at the number of pigs or deer that they've had on their property that they just had no idea.

I was speaking to somebody a few months ago and they thought they had five or six pigs that were coming in and ripping up a part of an almond orchard that they had.

Only to find out when the local land services went out there and set up cameras and stuff that they had 100 plus pigs that were having an impact there.

So it was quite a shock to the system.

And as Georgia was saying, in regards to the mindset that people have, some people think that it's somebody else's problem.

And I guess Matt or Georgia, do you have any examples of where there's been a big win with that collective effort to tackle a problem? Are there any examples, I guess, just to show people what's possible?

Matt, I wanted to bring you in why are biocontrols kind of relevant when we're thinking about the Good Neighbours program and land managers working across boundaries?

It's got to do with best practice for a lot of the people that are working in that space to that integrated approach of having more than just the one kind of like way to tackle an issue that might be on the land.

So We like to go to herbicides quite often to knock down the weeds that are coming up in different areas and different places.

But there are certain types of weeds where herbicides can be very difficult or they're not as effective.

And it could be simply because of the style of plant.

So cactus, I'll use cactus as a great example.

We can get contractors to go through or people to go through and say, to spray out cactuses but sometimes cactuses can be less than an inch in height underneath a bush that you're just never going to see so you just can't expect your farmer or your contractor to be able to knock that over and there's a cost factor as well sometimes the problem is just so big that you need a different way of approaching it.

and how best they can embrace that technology to bring about the kind of impact that they're wanting to have.

And for some, just knowing that they're not alone can make a huge difference.

With one of the last people actually that I've spoken to only very recently, where I went and visited them and sat down in their kitchen and we had a cuppa and they described the relief that they felt when they realised that they weren't going to have to try and deal with this alone and the impact on them mentally to think that this thing that was up until that point overwhelming was now something that that they weren't walking that journey by themselves that they had the government believe it or not who actually cared because we do care and we want to see the best for all those land managers or farmers that are working the land And they can really feel isolated.

And sometimes the problem can seem insurmountable.

And what it takes is it takes somebody to get alongside them and to go, rightio, we're here to help.

Let's make a plan.

And while good neighbours, we are able to help with some of the funding and some of the coordination in some places and in some instances, we obviously can't do that with every single problem that is out there.

But what we can do is we can encourage people and point them in the right direction and that's where Local Land Services, that's why we're here.

I think that's one of the key things for us is helping people build those relationships between their neighbours is what will lead to the longer term benefits out of this.