As a small child growing up in Calliope in Queensland's Gladstone Region, I can clearly remember life on our farms, where dams were built to last one season, rainfall was dependable and came every wet season.
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By the time I was in my 20s, we were building dams to hold three years' worth of water as the wet seasons became more unpredictable.
Now in our fourth consecutive year without run off rain, we need to build dams to hold up to five years of water.
As livestock and land managers, the role climate change has played in years of successive droughts is obvious.
Water is our major ongoing climate concern and our need for preservation is paramount to sustain life on land in unpredictable weather as a result of worsening climate impacts.
My friends, family and acquaintances in Gladstone share my concerns for climate change. Farmers are at the frontline of the impacts of climate change.
We're making small changes every day to adapt to new climate and business realities, and we are actively working with governments to allow us to make larger changes to meet this challenge.
Being actively involved within the Gladstone industrial business sector for the past 20 years, I'm respectful and aware of Gladstone being strongly dependent on the mining sector and there remains a strong focus around coal jobs in this region.
However, we are now in a position to be proactive, not reactive and use the world's climate emergency as Queensland's next economic opportunity.
Change is part of evolution; pre-mains electricity, we grew up with diesel generators on the farm, when electricity became cheaper and more reliable, it made sense to adopt that new technology. It is time for us to evolve and embrace the technology of the future.
Gladstone is on the brink of becoming home to one of the world's largest hydrogen-equipment manufacturing facilities, creating hundreds of local jobs.
Gladstone is also home to a unique estuary system and harbour that can potentially deliver 24-hour tidal energy beyond that ever seen anywhere in Australia.
Queensland is one of the most exposed to the risks and the costs of climate change, but we are also best placed to cash-in long term.
My community of Gladstone is a town that is open to change, we welcome the future and the business opportunities that come with it.
- Kyle Beale, fifth generation grazier from Calliope near Gladstone in Queensland.
