The Collins Australian dictionary defines juncture as, "a point in time, especially a crisis; a state of affairs; a joining or being joined; a point of joining or connection". There has been plenty going on at The Mulloon Institute during July to fit with some, if not all, of those definitions, except of course the bit about a crisis!

Adopting a "state of affairs" definition and demonstrating good governance, the Board met during July to oversee our activities including our budget. Our expenditure remains within our means and while we would like to be spending more, we need to attract more donations to ensure we do that responsibly.

Increasingly, we are being approached to advise and assist landholders and communities in their quest to improve their landscapes, so one of the topics of the Board's discussion was how best to respond. Effectively we have been consulting in this fashion, but now believe we can take this to a higher level, and in the process earn income for The Mulloon Institute (TMI) to enable our work to be expanded. Getting the structure right and the resources in place will be our immediate work in progress. This is certainly a very positive "juncture" for TMI.

In previous updates I've mentioned we were supporting a bid under the Cooperative Research Centre Programme, so in July the application, coordinated by the University of New England (UNE), was lodged. The Farming Smarter CRC bid will now be considered by the Federal Government and here's hoping it makes it to the next stage of assessment. In lodging the bid the Expression of Interest provided the following short version summary:

"The Farming Smarter CRC will improve the productivity and profitability of Australian farms through the development of farmer informed farm-centric AgTech enabled solutions. The CRC will have a commercially focussed, cross-sector research program to ensure the benefits are translated to industry. This will result in more prosperous regional and rural communities through the creation of agricultural jobs, while stimulating national and international demand for Australian grown AgTech".

Luke Peel has been our contact during the preparation of the bid and I thank him for his expert input on TMI's behalf. The Farming Smarter CRC bid is a good example of a "joining or connection", another juncture!

Speaking of bids, I'm afraid our grant application to SUEZ I mentioned in my May Missive wasn't successful. There will be many more community and government based opportunities that we will continue to pursue to assist our vital work.

A successful application last year was from the Environment Trust of NSW so July saw Pete Hazell diligently completing a twelve month progress report on how some of that grant has been allocated to preparation work for the next stage of the Mulloon Community Landscape Rehydration Project (MCLRP). The expenditure of that grant will accelerate in the coming months particularly following approval from the NSW Office of Water which we would hope will occur in September/October. That grant will assist build the next stage but a much greater level of expenditure will need to be acquired for the balance.