Who are Telopea Group?

The Telopea Group is an independent organisation that applies expertise in:

• agricultural economics,
• international trade and logistics,
• resource management,
• microeconomics and macroeconomics,
• geospatial mapping, and, and
• information technology.

Our expertise and technology we develop helps us to identify solutions to major sustainability and economic challenges.

The Telopea Group is a self-funded founder of The University of New England’s Smart Regional Incubator and is based in Manilla, a small rural mining town and district located in regional northwest NSW.

Why Manilla?

Manilla is one of the best locations to observe the weather systems impacting the state.

The name Manilla derives from the Aboriginal word "Mannilae" meaning the meeting point of two rivers - the Manilla and Namoi Rivers. Mannilae is nestled on the plateau between the New England Highlands and Nandewar Range - Dorothea MacKellar's "ragged mountain ranges". Beneath the plateau lies the "sweeping flooding (Liverpool and Gunnedah) plains" that hem the Namoi River as it snakes back and forth to Narrabri and then to Walgett - the heart of north west New South Wales.

Manilla did not become a meeting point of two rivers by accident. The surrounding region is also a point at which three major weather systems often collide and can be readily observed:

• the North Western "Klori" Weather Pattern that is characterised by towering cumulous cloud columns, energetic thunderstorms and associated intense heavy rainfall events. A function of high temperatures, rising heat and high humidity fueled by moisture laden air - "atmosperic rivers" - from the warm tropics and supercharged by the monsoon, cyclones and remanent rain depressions.
• the Coastal Weather Systems that extend over the Great Dividing Range. In the summer months large thunderstorm columns can be observed to the north east of Manillae moist air over the warmer Pacific Ocean in the sub-tropics and included ex-cyclones, heavy rain depressions, off-shore troughs and east coast lows. • the Southern System that typically start as polar cold fronts over the Great Southern Ocean that sweep up over the vast Australian land mass to dominate the winter and cooler months,

Weather Monitoring

Telopea Group seek to fund new weather stations on the flood plain, plateau, in the New England Highlands and at the top of nearby Mount Borah (900m) to better monitor these weather systems, especially the rainfall, atmosperic rivers, thunderstorms and rainfall depressions and the climate.