OUR STORY

It took 18 years to arrive here, and to celebrate this birthday we have taken the plunge into direct-to-industry specialist services. It all started as a realisation for need many years ago, with this insight remaining relevant today and now in the form of 

Soil Insights.

Soil Insights is mostly the work of Toowoomba based Certified Professional Soil Scientist, John McLean Bennett. Having grown up between a sheep, cattle, and cropping farm operation near Wanagaratta, Victoria, and an extensive rangeland grazing property near Bourke, New South Wales, John cut his teeth as an Australian Army officer prior to becoming a soil scientist. This has given him a unique background of real-world farming experience and strategic planning, with a can-do attitude. 

Soil Insights emerged from John's professional experiences, recognizing the undervaluation of soils as a natural asset and the decline in soil science graduates despite increasing job demand. While involved with Soil Science Australia as Federal President, he introduced the Training Board and developed the Registered Soil Practitioner program, now a part of the Australian Government's National Soil Strategy. Through various research projects, John realized that work in agriculture, mining, and the environment often operated in isolated silos, neglecting the complexity of these systems within broader frameworks and landscapes. To address this, he co-founded the Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Systems, aiming for a transdisciplinary approach to land management, but research alone was not enough. In 2018, he led the Australian Government's investigation into soil education capability and capacity, mapping soil educational courses nationwide, identifying gaps and opportunities. These experiences highlighted the significant lack of specialized soil services directly available to the industry, despite the inherent complexity of land systems.

With an ever-expanding network of soils and industry specialists, Soil Insights has developed an effective, scalable model to address this complexity for its clients. Though they specialise in soil and land systems projects, the reality is that modern land management encompasses a range of disciplines. To meet this demand, they pull together a crack team on a per-project basis. Using this model, they’re uniquely able to bridge the gap between agency-level service and freelance-level pricing.

Soil Insights continues to work with all kinds of forward-thinking people and businesses. Our own clients include farmers, government agencies, non-profits, other consultants, finance companies, mining organisations and legal firms. We also conduct subcontracted work to fill gaps in larger collaborative industry and research projects.

Since inception in 2022, Soil Insights has and will continue to grow, although our approach to growth is unashamedly selective. We take on a limited number of projects that align with our skills and values. If you are passionate about what you do and want a team that is dedicated to that same passion, reach out to us.