Case Study: Desert Channels Queensland achieves scalable, real‑time environmental monitoring with Fulcrum

How Desert Channels Queensland leverages Fulcrum to collect more data and enable rapid decision making

Desert Channels Queensland (DCQ) is a community-based not-for-profit that funds and supports landowners across the Queensland portion of the Lake Eyre Basin to improve water quality, restore vegetation, protect habitat and rehabilitate erosion. Covering about 510,000 km² and running dozens of concurrent projects, DCQ struggled with slow, resource‑intensive data collection and processing—relying on manual surveys, maps and GPS points that limited monitoring coverage and timeliness.

DCQ adopted the Fulcrum mobile data platform and a crowdsourcing model, building easy-to-use apps (weed and feral animal surveys, groundcover and biomass monitoring, chemical and vehicle audits, asset and events tracking) and a short training video for landowners. The result: far greater data volume, geographic spread and density, automated processing and shareable maps, near real-time decision‑making, and freed-up staff time for higher‑value work—demonstrated by the ability to update apps and sync changes in minutes even on limited mobile coverage.

Desert Channels Queensland

Jade Fraser

GIS Manager