The Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program is unmatched for the scale of geoscience data acquisition across northern Australia, covering 37 648 individual land parcels and 2.9 million km2. The scale of works has raised many new challenges for Geoscience Australia (GA) through the diverse range of field activities, and the numerous stakeholders from different social and cultural backgrounds, across multiple jurisdictions. Success of the program depended on the development and maintenance of a social licence to operate. This was broadly achieved for fieldwork activities through early engagement with stakeholders, including free, prior and informed consent. Here, we present two case studies of stakeholder engagement for facilitation of data collection: one focuses on broadscale, low-impact field activities associated with the AusAEM survey; and the other on Indigenous-focused engagement related to the Barkly Seismic Survey. Because of the complexity of project planning and managing such a large number of stakeholders, GA’s project governance team was expanded; it now includes a dedicated Land and Marine Access team and a commitment to adopt world-leading engagement practices. One practice is to consider impacts and benefits for all stakeholders—not just landholders—of field activities and data acquisition programs. This includes a plan for how the data are delivered back to the communities and stakeholders, and how information exchanges can be built into projects. The aim is for stakeholders to hold GA in the highest regard and understand the benefits to the Australian people, and ultimately their own communities, from the geoscientific data that GA produces. <b>Citation:</b> Mouthaan, R., Buchanan, S. and Sweeney, M, 2020. Land access and Indigenous engagement for Australian geoscience. In: Czarnota, K., Roach, I., Abbott, S., Haynes, M., Kositcin, N., Ray, A. and Slatter, E. (eds.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, 1–4.

<div><strong>Output Type: </strong>Exploring for the Future Extended Abstract</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Short Abstract:</strong> Under the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, Geoscience Australia staff and collaborators engaged with land-connected stakeholders that managed or had an interest in land comprising 56% of the total land mass area of Australia. From 2020 to 2023, staff planning ground-based and airborne geophysical and geological data acquisition projects consulted farmers, National Park rangers and managers, Native Title holders, cultural heritage custodians and other land-connected people to obtain land access and cultural heritage clearances for surveys proposed on over 122,000 parcels of land. Engagement did not always result in field activities proceeding. To support communication with this diverse audience, animations, comic-style factsheets, and physical models, were created to help explain field techniques. While the tools created have been useful, the most effective method of communication was found to be a combination of these tools and open two-way discussions.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Citation: </strong>Sweeney, M., Kuoni, J., Iffland, D. &amp; Soroka, L., 2024. Improving how we engage with land-connected people about geoscience. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. https://doi.org/10.26186/148760</div>