As 2008 has drawn to a close and the world economic outlook is somewhat bleak, it isn’t easy to look back at the year that was in a positive light. However, 2008 was a good year for WALIS, with plenty happening and lots of reasons to celebrate.

At the beginning of the year, the primary focus was on WALIS International Forum 2008, which grew into an international event following a challenge the then WALIS EPC Chair, Grahame Searle, threw out at the 2005 WALIS Forum.

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that this year’s forum was the best ever. That claim has been made following several forums now, and that is mainly due to the huge increase in numbers of attendees that we have had at each of the past three forums. However, 818 delegates this year was an increase of around 25 per cent over the previous forum, and Spatial Business News reported that WALIS Forum has now become the largest spatial event held in Australia (with the exception of a couple of major international events).

In line with the cooperative community spirit that defines WALIS, a lot of other spatial events were held in Perth in conjunction with WALIS, including board or council meetings of the CRCSI, SSI, ASIBA and ANZLIC, and the ISA-SSI merger working group. The SSI Young Professionals held a workshop, as did the Australian marine community and government geospatial information committee.

Among other “firsts” for WALIS Forum was the teachers’ stream with some 70 participant teachers. This was very successful, mainly due to the incredible efforts of Phil Houweling from John Calvin Christian College in Armadale.

One outcome from the Teachers’ stream was a renewed interest in the Spatial Technology in Schools competition, the coordination of which in WA was done out of the WALIS Office by Liz Marjot. There were several new schools, both public and private, in the competition this year and the WA winners in both the secondary (Thornlie Christian College) and primary (Nyindamurra Family School) school sections won the Asia-Pacific awards as well.

Phil’s efforts at WALIS Forum and the Spatial Technology in Schools competition established him as one of the seven WA winners at this year’s Asia Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards (APSEA). The two other individual winners were Eugene Browne and Patrick Fitzgerald. The remaining four awards, in industry categories, were SKM (a WALIS Associate Member), NGIS/iintegrate (also a WALIS Associate Member), DEC/EPA and the Government of Western Australia (Landgate, DAFWA, DPI and FESA). The latter two winners, for the State of the Environment Report and for SLIP, were programs that were really only made possible due to the existence of WALIS and its ability to facilitate sharing and access to geographic information.

Landgate also won the Premier’s Award for the SLIP Enabler, which is a remarkable effort given that ICT projects seldom perform well in award processes compared to more visible successes.

During 2008 a number of new SLIP focus areas were progressed, most notably that of a marine focus area through the WALIS Marine Group. In addition to a strategic plan, the group developed a comprehensive business case to seek government funding to develop the focus area which priorities coastal vulnerability as the key issue. The business case has just been completed and has been described by key reviewers as “the best they had ever seen”, for which a lot of credit must go to Ian Berry, as well as the WALIS Marine Group.

A pilot in the area of environmental health was developed, largely by Narelle Mullen and will be funded through the CRCSI during 2009. In addition, work progressed on an infrastructure planning focus area and started on one to deal with Indigenous issues to help meet the CoAG agenda.

The WALIS Pricing Policy was rewritten and will be submitted to Cabinet early in 2009. A large number of WALIS community members were also heavily involved this year in the GIS CUA, which has now been completed (albeit cut as well).

2008 has been the first full year for WALIS Associate Members with 10 members having now formally signed the MOU. Associate Members have contributed actively at WALIS Council meetings and has been a very positive development.

WALIS Advisory Committee, very ably chaired by Rob Freeth, has continued to provide advice to government throughout 2008 on issues including data pricing and access and risk management. Through WAC a very successful agriculture workshop was held, from which a new group has developed to progress issues identified during that workshop. Rob is standing down as Chair of WAC after four years, although he remains a member of WAC and I would like to thank him very much for all the work he has done and the assistance he has provided, particularly to me, over the past four years. Paul Harris has taken on the role of Chair for 2009.

During 2008 WALIS Office underwent a process to become ISO 9001 Quality Assured. This is providing increased rigour in our business processes. There have also been a myriad of other operational projects that office staff have regularly been involved with, including upgrades to WA Atlas and Interragator+, metadata, custodianship, support to various committees and SLICP requests.

The office has also been largely fully-staffed this year for the first time, despite long-term staff members Tess Barkman and Genevieve Gongora-Mesas both leaving for higher duties in other parts of State Government. Having new staff in place has allowed some reduction in annual leave balances and the position of A/WALIS Director has been ably filled by both Lesley Arnold and Dan Sandison during extensive periods of 2008.

In addition to those already mentioned, I would like to thank all current and former WALIS staff members and everyone in the WALIS community that have contributed to the ongoing success of WALIS. I look forward to an exciting year ahead in 2009, which will culminate in what we hope will be “the best WALIS Forum yet” in November, at which the APSEA awards will also be held.

Marnie Leybourne
Director, WALIS