Laptops for community groups

Pre-loved laptops are helping local groups with conservation projects across the Wet Tropics region.

Terrain NRM has donated laptops to 11 community groups from Kuranda and Cairns to the Tablelands and Innisfail – and they are now being used in plant nurseries, on research projects and to monitor threatened species.

Johnstone Region Landcare Group’s Fay Falco-Mammone said the donation had doubled her organisation’s laptops.

“We only had one laptop and with several revegetation projects on the go it’s great to have another one so we can have project information on hand and improve our communications with partners, project managers and other group members,’’ she said.

At Innisfail’s Mamu Aboriginal Corporation, the new laptop is being used on a project to remove Koster’s Curse, an invasive weed, from Wooroonooran National Park, and it will also be used for online training courses.

Kuranda Envirocare’s Cathy Retter said the laptop would be a home for the group’s growing acoustic frog-call data, water quality and plant nursery records.

“Having this at the nursery means we can also use the online rainforest key to identify seedlings brought to us for possible propagation, we can bring manual record-keeping online and store all our records from private computers in one place,’’ she said.

Laptops have been donated to the Cairns Bats and Tree Society, Frog Safe, Johnstone Landcare Group, Kuranda Envirocare, Mamu Aboriginal Corporation, Mulgrave Landcare and Catchment Group, Rainforest Rescue, Reef Restoration Foundation, Treeforce, Trees for Evelyn and Atherton Tablelands, and Tree Kangaroo and Mammal Group.