John is a geospatial consultant based in Fremantle, Western Australia, where he runs Mammoth Geospatial, an open-source-focused GIS company. Specialising in open source GIS consulting and training, his career has taken him from BC & the Yukon to South America, PNG, the Pacific, and Australia. Deeply involved in the open geo community, John started Geogeeks Perth, chaired the first FOSS4G SotM Oceania, organises FOSS4G Perth, and is passionate about promoting QGIS, open source GIS, and the OSGeo community.
Q. So John – Where are you located in the world and what do you do?
Hi Randal, thanks for having me!
Right this minute, I’m hanging out with my family on Vancouver Island. But I’m usually in Fremantle, Western Australia, doing open source GIS consulting/training as Mammoth Geospatial, and geo-community stuff like Geogeeks, OSGeo, and FOSS4G.
Q. How did you get into the Geospatial Field?
I loved my high school geography class, so I took a few geography courses at uni and ended up majoring in geography and computer science. I was lucky enough to get into the co-op program at UVic, so I got some good GIS work experience between semesters. I did stints at places like the BC Ministry of Forests, working alongside old-time pen & mylar cartographers, digitising old maps in Microstation. I also got to spend a summer running around in the bush for the Geological Survey, which mostly involved carrying a backpack full of rocks and getting chased by bears.
After a few years working with GIS, I discovered QGIS, which was a revelation! I headed to FOSS4G Denver in 2011, found my people, and I’ve been obsessed with open geospatial ever since 🙂
Q. I know by the time this gets published it will be too late to submit – BUT – tell me about FOSS4G Perth.
Yes! FOSS4G Perth 2024 (in October) will be our 3rd time (we had events in 2020 and 2021, before covid came to WA), and it’s going to be a heck of a lot of fun.
It’s a one day mini-FOSS4G, with awesome keynotes & invited speakers, a bunch of talks from the West Aussie open geospatial community, and a fun social, funded by sponsors. There is a big & growing community here and this is a chance to bring it together. This year, we’re hosted by the ISPRS TC IV Symposium, so we’ll also get to rub shoulders with an international crowd.
International & regional FOSS4G events are amazing, but with travel getting expensive and budgets being tight, it can be hard for people to make the big journey. I reckon local FOSS4Gs are a great way to bring the magic to the community and win hearts and minds!
Q. As part of Geohipster’s Crack Research before any interview happens – Are you a Canadian in Australia OR an Australian who has been to Canada?
I was born in Canada, I get back to my beloved Yukon & BC as often as I can. But I’ve been mostly in Australia for the last 13 years 🙂
Q. Mammoth Geospatial ran an Aboriginal workshop in 2023, Why run a workshop and what was the outcome? (I’m probably going to have to word this differently).
We were invited by Winyama to the Indigenous Mapping Workshop in Melbourne/Naarm last year. It was an amazing event. We helped organise a 2 day Intro to QGIS session, where my friend Khia and I tag-team-trained a group of about 25 motivated First Nation learners from all over Australia. We used the theme of cultural fire management to work through the fundamentals of QGIS.
Winyama is an Aboriginal-owned company that does a ton of capacity building in the Aboriginal community. They have an amazing model where they bring Aboriginal technical experts to communities and build skills through culturally-relevant training sessions. I’m a huge fan of the work they do, and I’ve been lucky to join the fun.
Q. So back in my early days I was a geology major. It appears you’ve done some work with Mining companies. Here’s my weird Geology question: What is the state of GIS in Mining? Way back in my college days we used computers to keep the nicest rocks from falling off the table.
Perth is home base to a LOT of mining companies, so it’s been a big part of my GIS work since I showed up in 2011. All the companies have not just rocks and land to manage, but logistics, tenure, and heritage and environmental obligations, so GIS is a super important part of this. I reckon it’s probably why Perth has such a high score on the GIS-people-per-capita scale.
For my part, I’ve been really focused on helping these companies use open source GIS, especially QGIS, PostGIS, Mergin/QField, and web mapping. It’s a game changer for them. Not just because it’s free (though that helps), but because people love to use it. Once field geos get started with QGIS and Mergin/QField, there’s no turning back!
Q. Have you ever gotten in a car and just driven east across Australia?
Hah yep! And back. And there again, and back, and there, and back 🙂
The last time I crossed the Nullarbor was when covid turned the world upside down in March 2020. We’d been digital nomading, housesitting our way up and down the east coast of Australia. When everyone realised things weren’t normal, all our house sits got cancelled. We were trying to figure out what to do & where to be, when we heard the Premier of WA say on the news that closing the state border was absolutely not on the table (ha!).
We realised that it was time to get in the car and race to WA, and find a place to hunker down near my partner Cholena’s family. We did the 2500 km to the border in something like 2 days. They closed it a few days later, so I guess it was the right idea 🙂
Q. Hold up! What’s a Nullarbor?
Hehe, it’s a massive treeless plain that stretches across the southern part of Australia. It’s part of the 1200 km drive between Norseman and Ceduna, where there are more kangaroos than people. No towns, just the odd roadhouse. There’s one stretch of road that runs dead straight for 146 km (that’s about 90 miles for the metrically challenged). It’s hauntingly beautiful! Just don’t drive it at night 🙂
Q. Best and Worst Things About Perth?
Best things… It’s a relaxed, beautiful city on the Swan River next to the Indian Ocean, with amazing weather and great ocean swimming (mind the sharks). It’s in the giant state of WA which has incredible deserts, forests, mountains, and an exquisite coastline. Friendly people, strong economy, easy to get around, etc. Mostly not crowded.
Worst things… It’s super far away from everywhere! Which is both bad and good, I guess. The mid-summer heat can be relentless. And the housing situation is dire, especially for renters, which isn’t unique to Perth but makes life hard for a lot of people.
But overall, 10/10, it’s a great place to live!
Q. OK – last question is yours: Anything you want to tell the Readers of Geohipster?
Oh, that’s a tough one! Mostly… FOSS4G rules! If you don’t have one in your town, start one 🙂
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