Gaia Resources

18/06/2026

This Throwback Thursday, we’re looking back to 2022 and our spatial analysis project with the Shire of Mundaring. To help native species move safely between fragmented habitats, we used open-source QGIS to map out optimum wildlife corridors.
By building a data-driven model that balances vegetation cover against road-crossing risks, we created an iterative tool that helps local governments put their revegetation budgets exactly where they matter most.
Smart, transparent tech delivering real environmental action. ✨
See the methodology 👇

One of the side effects of urban and agricultural development is vegetation fragmentation, which affects biodiversity conservation and environmental quality. In order to restore and protect existing habitat, it is important to provide linkages between fragmented areas, which will encourage the movem...

17/06/2026

Almost 1 in 2 Australians are diagnosed with cancer before the age of 85, so we wanted to do our bit to help.

We recently held an online Australia's Biggest Morning Tea coffee chat, taking some time out to catch up and raise some money for the Cancer Council. Money raised helps the Cancer Council with Research, Support and Prevention, helping to get one step closer to a cancer free future.

For every person that attended our coffee chat, a donation was made. It was great to get together (virtually) while doing something to help a very worthy cause

16/06/2026

What do you get when you combine science, technical expertise and sheer grit in a collaborative environment? The Shared Environmental Analytics Facility was launched a couple of weeks ago and Gaia Resources are proud to be a part of the project.

The Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute said it best:
SEAF is transforming the way WA uses environmental data. It turns massive volumes of information into smarter insights to improve biodiversity outcomes and understand cumulative impacts.

You can read more about how our work on SEAF has been helping to create a secure trusted environmental supply chain from industry proponents into a scientifically robust analytical environment via our latest blog.

There’s nothing quite like seeing years of collaboration, science, technical expertise and sheer grit come together to create something that can genuinely make the world a better place.

10/06/2026

With some of our team in Malaysia this week for SEAPAVAA it is the perfect time to celebrate International Archives Week for 2026 and this year’s theme of Archives for Justice.
Particularly relevant these days with our CEO Piers presenting earlier this week in Ipoh on the future of AI in archives and the inevitable conversation about sustainability and technological accountability.
If you’ve been following our content for a while you’ll recognise the topic of our tool MATE and how it can be used to increase access and insights from the history stored in collections and archives. AI can be a useful tool for things like transcription and description, amongst others, but there is still a lot to be unpacked about the carbon cost, water usage and accountability of providers - a conversation we’re glad to be a part of.

If you attended the conference and were looking for a copy of Piers’ presentation pack please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] for a copy.

08/06/2026

This week marks the kickoff of the SEAPAVAA conference in Ipoh Malaysia.

We have an amazing team of three on the ground since the weekend and they have been very busy presenting our Duct Tape and Downloads presentation yesterday about digital preservation on a budget. This marks the third version of this presentation to be shared with the archival community after its origination at iPres2025 last year and a presentation we are really passionate about.

Also look out for our CEO Piers presenting soon on AI in archives and the sustainability equation for this future pathway.

If you see Piers, Tyler or Sarah around be sure to grab them to talk about all things archives, digital preservation and our passion for open source software to secure your heritage for decades to come.

03/06/2026

Gaia Resources attended another Australian Society of Archivists Professional Development Day for the WA branch a couple of weeks ago, which had a focus on the Records in Contexts standard.

As part of the day, our Founder and CEO, Piers, gave a talk about the technological opportunities and challenges for the Records in Contexts standard, which you can find on our blog which also recaps the event.

Our work in other environmental projects that have implemented data standards and technology stacks just like Records in Contexts has given Gaia Resources some profound insights into just what would be needed, for both systems and data, into the future.

Read more at our blog, or get in touch with us to find out more.

Gaia Resources has been supporting the Western Australian branch of the Australian Society of Archivists’ Professional Development days for quite a few years:

02/06/2026

We're counting down the days to SEAPAAVA!!

There's only
5️⃣days until Sarah and Tyler present the third iteration of the Duct Tape and Downloads (DTaD) workshop and
6️⃣ days until Piers presents on AI in collections.

We asked Sarah, Tyler and Piers what they are most looking forward to

Sarah - "I'm excited by the recognition we've received for DTaD. I'm looking forward to engaging with a new audience. There will be lots to learn and take on, but it's a very cool opportunity."

Tyler - "Mostly looking forward to seeing some new and known faces. Excite about DTaD. Also excited to see Malaysia, it will be my first time visiting. Birds, I have so many birds to see. Rhinoceros hornbill!!"

Piers - "I'm looking forward to hearing all about the audio-visual archives across the regions and what their challenges are. It'll also be nice to be back in Malaysia for the first time in too long a time for me"

Are you heading to SEAPAAVA? Let us know in the comments, we'd love to see you there!!

29/05/2026

What’s driving the future of open-source enterprise CMS? 🌐

Drew Robinson from our team recently headed across the ditch to Wellington for DrupalSouth 2026. Beyond the great coffee and catching up with old friends, he brought back some major insights on where sustainable, ethical tech is heading:
- Drupal CMS 2.0: The game has changed. The barrier to entry is dropping fast with curated, ready-to-use setups that don't lock you in to blackbox systems.
- AI with a Human Lens: The conversation has shifted from "Will AI replace engineers?" to "How do we use AI to remove friction so humans can focus on the hard problems?"
- Gamifying Accessibility: A massive shoutout to the NZ Government team for their open-source CWAC tool. By publishing site accessibility data openly, they've created a friendly rivalry between departments that is actively driving up web usability for all.

Ultimately, Drew's biggest takeaway wasn't about the software at all. It was about the power of the people making it happen on a global scale through their personal contributions.
Catch the full breakdown, including the latest on Drupal CMS and AI traffic management, over on our blog.

Travelling for a conference is always an outsized experience. New places, new people, new connections, new directions, so much input! So it was with much excitement that I travelled to Wellington New Zealand recently for the Drupal South 2026 conference.

28/05/2026

This Throwback Thursday we're throwing back to 2018: Ground disturbance

Looking back at our archives, in 2018 we were blogging about helping Western Australian mining companies navigate the MRF (Mine Rehabilitation Fund) and AER (Annual Environmental Reporting) by meticulously aligning satellite imagery pixel by pixel.

Fast forward to today, and the tech landscape has shifted rapidly beneath our feet.

Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have revolutionized how we can track ground disturbance. But over the last 20+ years of doing this work, we’ve learned that the flashiest tools fail without good governance. Best practice for disturbance mapping in 2026 requires:
✅ Efficiency: Reviewing the ability for technologies like AI to assist in some aspects of this work,
✅ Human Expertise: Keeping experienced minds in the loop to catch the nuances and provide oversight, and
✅ Operational Integration: Ensuring your data actively interacts with your business workflows, approvals, and permitting etc.

As we said in 2018 - we’ve always been about creating win-win situations that minimize footprints on the land through the use of robust data. While technology changes, expertise and evidence never go out of style.

With over $12 billion dollars in new mining projects coming on board and likely to proceed (Business News Western Australia, May 7-10 edition) – and stable commodity prices – things are looking up for the Resources sector in Western Australia. Resources companies in Western Australia and elsewhe...

25/05/2026

How do you translate the United Nations’ 2030 biodiversity targets into practical, on-ground technical solutions? 📊🌿
To celebrate the recent UN International Day for Biodiversity (22 May), we handed the blog over to our resident Consulting Scientist, Gill White. She maps out exactly how Gaia Resources’ environmental projects help us achieve our mission of ‘making the world a better place’. Gill provides some snapshots of how we are doing this at different scales:
Locally: Partnering with WAMSI to provide spatial support and manage multiple databases for the Westport program,
Regionally: Collaborating on the newly launched Pilbara Gateway for the Shared Environmental Analytics Facility (SEAF), allowing industry to model cumulative impacts without compromising raw, commercially sensitive data,
State level: Delivering Western Australia’s open-access biodiversity data platform (Dandjoo), and
Nationally: transforming state datasets through automated pipelines for the federal Australian Biodiversity Data Repository (BDR).
Better data means better decisions for our planet's future. Dive into the full detail in Gill’s blog.

The theme for this year’s United Nations International Day for Biodiversity on 22 May 2026 is ‘Acting locally for global impact’. To celebrate this day, we’ve handed the blog over to Gill White, one of our Consulting Scientists, to reflect on how the environmental data projects we deliver at...