Helping north Australian red meat producers tackle climate risks
The Northern Australia Climate Program (NACP) aims to improve the red meat industry's capacity to manage drought and climate risk across northern Australia. This includes Queensland, the Northern Territory and the northern half of Western Australia.
Drought is one of the biggest challenges graziers face. It has a significant impact on agricultural output, productivity and on-farm income.
Effective use of forecasts when making decisions is vital. It can help producers manage the economic, environmental and social impacts of climate and weather variability.
This program has improved the level and sustainability of drought preparedness among red meat producers in the north.
It provides tools and frameworks to drive implementation of research findings and related technical and management recommendations.

In Kununurra, Western Australia, a rural reporter interviews a pastoralist and climate extension officer, with scientists from the University of Southern Queensland and Bureau of Meteorology, about the Northern Australia Climate Program
NACP structure and our role
The program is divided into 3 parts:
- Improving the basic science and operational skill of seasonal and sub-seasonal (multi-week) climate forecasting systems directly relevant to northern Australia's red meat industry.
- Developing innovative and targeted products for use in drought monitoring, planning and prediction. These are designed for producers and others in the red meat supply chain.
- Integrating and embedding weather and climate forecast information into northern Australian grazing industry networks. This helps improve producer resilience to drought and climate variability.
The Bureau's main focus is on the first 2 parts of the program. We are:
- working with national and international climate modellers to improve seasonal forecasts for northern Australia in our climate forecast system, ACCESS-S
- improving understanding of the drivers and physical processes of droughts, northern rainfall onset, wet season rainfall bursts, and livestock thermal stress events
- quantifying and understanding the development of extreme weather events impacting northern graziers.
Funding and NACP collaborators
NACP is a collaboration between the Meat & Livestock Australia Donor Company and the Queensland Government (under their Drought and Climate Adaptation Program).
They are funding the University of Southern Queensland and program partners for a range of research, development and extension work. The program partners are:
- Bureau of Meteorology
- United Kingdom Meteorological Office
- Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
- Northern Territory Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade
- Western Australia Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development
- Rangelands NRM Western Australia.
Funding has been provided since 2018.