9th National NRM Knowledge Conference – 8-12 September 2025

The 9th National NRM Knowledge Conference will be held in Cairns in September this year. Co-hosted by North Queensland regional NRMs (Cape York Natural Resource Management, Gulf Savannah NRM, Terrain NRM, NQ Dry Tropics NRM & NRM Regions Queensland) and running from the 8-12th in and around Cairns, our sector’s conference is for anyone working, participating or interested in natural resource management – to share, learn and inspire.

This year’s conference theme ‘Changing Landscapes and New Horizons’ reflects both the challenges we face in caring for our changing environment, and the profound impact that integrated landscape management can have in restoring Australia’s unique natural places. It will also explore the innovation and ingenuity that the sector is embracing as we move to tackle the wicked problems of our times. 

Our sector’s conference is for anyone working or interested in natural resource management – an opportunity to share, learn and inspire. We’d love you to be involved no matter where you come from and how you contribute to natural resource management – in your local bush group, on your tractor, crunching data, managing Indigenous lands, running grants programs… We all play diverse roles across the country and we want to hear from you. 

We look forward to seeing you in Cairns!

Interested in presenting at the conference?

We are calling for abstracts – find the guidelines here.

The abstract portal is now open to submit your ideas!

Whether a longer presentation, a poster, a video, or an NRM problem for our hackathon, we’d love your contribution. Partnerships are key to successful NRM, so please feel free to work with others on your submission – ideas for panels are welcome

The conference will follow an arc across the two days. Our themes are:

1. Where we stand; seeing the landscape clearly. Understanding our environmental, social and economic reality and the trajectory of our landscapes. What helps us to understand our current situation and the challenges we face?
2. Rethinking the future; shifting the trajectory. What is critical in shifting the trajectory of the nature and climate crises? Let’s challenge conventional approaches and reimagine systems.
3. Turning vision into action; catalysing investment, delivery and transformation. How do we fund, scale and implement solutions through finance, innovation and partnerships? How are we innovating to make new opportunities and create change?

Conference: 8-12 September 2025

Calling for abstracts:

• Abstract submissions portal open
• Abstract submissions closes: 5 May 2025
• Notification of acceptance:  9 June 2025

Early Bird registrations:

• Opening April
• Closes: 1 Aug 2025

• Monday – Workshops (in and around Cairns)
• Tuesday & Wednesday –  Conference at Cairns Convention Centre 
• Thursday & Friday – Field trips

Help make the 9th NRM Knowledge Conference ‘Changing landscapes and new horizons’ in Cairns the best ever by contributing abstracts and ideas.