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Intro: This is a GRDC podcast.

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Shannon Beattie: Svetlana Micic's career has led her from one of the most remote parts of the Northern Territory to Albany in Western Australia, where she has spent the past 22 years as an entomologist with the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development. For a long time, she has been an exceptional communicator of GRDC invested project work around insect pest monitoring, surveillance and integrated pest management. That dedication to ensuring information is shared with those who need it most has led her to be highly respected by growers, agronomists and consultants alike. And it's the reason why she was named GRDC's 2025 Seed of Light recipient for the West at the Grains research updates in Perth. Hi, I'm Shannon Beattie and it was an absolute delight to sit down and talk to Svet about her journey from living on the tip of Arnhem Land to becoming a specialist in broadcast pest management.

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Svetlana Micic: I grew up in Nhulunbuy, which is 600kms east of Darwin, on the tip of Arnhem Land, and is as far east as you can go in Arnhem Land before you hit the Gulf Peninsula. It is a remote bauxite mining town, and I grew up in a very isolated area. We had no agriculture around us as such, but we did have pastoral areas which were 500kms away. However, what I did have was an interest in science and biology.

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Shannon Beattie: So Svet, can you tell me where that love of science and biology came from? Do you have any idea why that was something that intrigued you so much?

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Svetlana Micic: Well, the good thing is my parents emigrated from Serbia, but my mother was a biology teacher, so there was a very strong emphasis on science in our household. But having said that, I did grow up in the Territory with no commercial television, so we did watch lots of ABC and on ABC we had lots of documentaries, and I grew up watching Jane Goodall and all of the interesting things that were occurring. And when it came time to make a decision, I went to what is called a National Science Summer School back then. Now it's the National Science Youth Forum, which is in Canberra, where you have basically science students from around Australia turning up, and they go through what careers are available and what's out there. And that opened my eyes to quite a lot of different career paths. And I've always had an interest in entomology and insects, and that's what really cemented me wanting to go down that path.

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Shannon Beattie: So tell me how your I guess, education sort of progressed from there, Svet. Did you go to uni? Where did you study? What did you study and how did it all progress?

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Svetlana Micic: Well, from there I applied to the only university in Australia at that time, the University of Queensland, which had a Bachelor of Science that majored in entomology. So I went all the way from a tiny mining town with a predominantly indigenous population to a very large city, which was a bit of a culture shock. And that's where I did my uni and majored in entomology. And in my Honours, I actually studied archaeology mites. And then from there, when it came time to look for work and I'd graduated, that's where my parents really did strongly suggest that I look at a career path in agriculture.

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Shannon Beattie: When it came to studying entomology, Svet, there's always a bit of a, I guess, a stereotype around the weird people that like bugs. How did you deal with that at all? And did you face any of that stereotyping when you were studying and in the early phases of your career?

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Svetlana Micic: Oh, absolutely not, because back then we had a very big group of us that went through entomology. So we had the agricultural science students that were going through the ag stream, but they also had to do entomology as part of it. So there was a diverse range of students that were looking at it. And I guess that stereotype never actually crossed my mind because you saw so many different people from different walks of life.

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Shannon Beattie: That's really good to hear. So you graduated from uni. Your parents encouraged you to look down a pathway in agriculture. What did you know about agriculture at that time?

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Svetlana Micic: Very little, to tell you the truth, because coming from a mining town, you're not exposed to broadacre agriculture as we see it today. So what I did was I actually ended up getting my first job in entomology was at the Australian Museum, going through pitfall traps and doing Identifications there. And then from there I progressed to become a technical officer at Tamworth, which was then the Department of Primary Industries in New South Wales. And that opened my eyes to looking at insect pests of broadacre crops.

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Shannon Beattie: So you got into it pretty early on in that broadacre crops side of things, and you've essentially stayed in that area now for the entirety of your career. How did you find the initial foray into that research? What were the challenges?

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Svetlana Micic: Well, from Tamworth, I ended up getting what was then the Department of Agriculture and Food. So that was not challenging in terms of the brain but challenging in terms of trying to find the critters in the field. So I was very lucky to be mentored by Phil Michael, and he was a excellent entomologist and a very fit person. So that's what was really drilled into me that to become a broad acre entomologist, you really need to be fit, because there's a lot of looking on the ground and taking photos and being in the field when the pests are active. So it's all well and good to do your plant counts, but if you're counting insects, you can't just turn up whenever you want. You need to be there when they are. So Phil and I did a lot of work after dark, when we were working on slugs and looking at where the slugs were in the landscape.

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Shannon Beattie: It's interesting you say that Svet, I suppose you wouldn't necessarily think of needing to be physically fit as a trait that one would need to be an entomologist. But I suppose when you're traipsing around paddocks and bending up and down, standing up and down all day long, it really is. You would have to have a level of fitness to be able to let you do that.

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Svetlana Micic: Oh yes, it was really good working with an entomologist like Phil, who had a career that spanned from Kununurra, working on horticultural crops, especially in the cotton back when that was being grown in the Ord, and then moving down to the broadacre growing regions of Western Australia when DDT was being used. And the progression from DDT to synthetic pyrethroids and for insect control meant that he had a really broad experience, and it was very, very interesting in terms of just how his career had changed. And he was very good at mentoring and saying, well, this is how we used to do it back in the day. This is how we used to monitor caterpillars in the ground. There was a lot of laying on the ground as well, looking for caterpillars in pasture crops, which thankfully have not been an issue during my career.

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Shannon Beattie: How did you find the transition from Tamworth to WA, Svet?

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Svetlana Micic: So I've been based in Albany for my whole career, and it was a different move because Tamworth does have a very different climatic zone and they grow sorghum, which is not grown in our part of the world. But having said that, it was a lovely move because in our part of the world and the Albany and Esperance port zones, we do have a higher rainfall. And the good thing in my point of view, not for the farmers, is that the higher the rainfall, the more pests we have and the more interesting it is to find things.

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Shannon Beattie: Talk me through some of the key bits of research that you've done. You've been with DPIRD here in WA since 2003, so that is 22 years for those who are counting. What are some of the key insects that you've researched and some of the key discoveries that you've made over that time?

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Svetlana Micic: Well, I have to say that all the discoveries and all the work we've done has been collaborative. It's either been within our own organisation or with national collaborators. A lot of the times we've partnered with GRDC, and one of the longest-term projects we've been working on with Cesar Australia has been looking at the resistance in red legged earth mites and getting the extension messaging out there that that's developed. We found that first in Esperance in 2006, and it has progressed now where we are the only State still in Australia with synthetic pyrethroid resistance in red legged earth mites, apart from South Australia, but in the southern parts, the Eastern States still don't have synthetic pyrethroid resistance. And that's been one of the biggest findings and the biggest headache I think that we have as an industry. The other work we've been working on is really looking at our ability to grow susceptible crops like canola, because canola is very, very attractive to anything that likes to eat leaves, and looking at better ways to manage pests in our canola paddocks. And from a lot of our research, we've found better ways to monitor. We're not there yet, with AI being able to be used in paddocks, but we've been looking at those different techniques and also working with other state agencies, looking at how better we can surveil for our beneficials and have confidence that they're actually going to do a good job in suppressing pests.

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Shannon Beattie: Svet, you mentioned at the beginning there everything you do is collaborative, and you're also very big on the extension side of things. You are never one to shy away from me asking you to do an interview about whatever pest it is that is becoming a pain. I've done videos with you where you've wanted to talk about these things. Why is that extension side of things so important to you and so critical to the work that you do?

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Svetlana Micic: I think it's really important that our research does get extended to the end user, and that is our farmers. Publishing in scientific journals is fantastic for the prosperity of the data, but we need our messaging to reach the end users, and it really is industry. So it's the farmers, the agronomists and industry who really need to be aware of our findings and where to find the information that they're looking for. That's why the GRDC websites, our own internal websites, have been critical in being able to have the information there.

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Shannon Beattie: I know that you're not one to really like to pump up your own tyres too much. Every time you always will tell me that it's a group effort and that you couldn't have done it without your team. But what would you say is the proudest accomplishment of your career? If we just focus on you for a second, whether it's an award that you've won or a piece of research that you've done or something that's been found. What are you most proud of?

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Svetlana Micic: I have to admit that the thing I'm most proud of is actually getting the Seed of Light. That was a very proud moment for me. And I guess the other big accomplishment is becoming an entomologist. You know, having that idea back in grade 12 and actually achieving it. It really wasn't a concrete thing back in grade 12. It was a 'I'd like to do that'. And then actually having that after my name has been an absolute achievement.

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Shannon Beattie: I think that's actually really nice that one of the things you're most proud of is something that you accomplished, you know, right back at the beginning of your career. Why are you so passionate about it then, that you've been doing it, as we've said, for, you know, 25 plus years now? What is it about being an entomologist that keeps you going?

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Svetlana Micic: I think one of the big things is that it's been so much fun, because not one day is the same, and there have been different challenges that come through the door. So during my career, vegetable beetle, for instance, gonocephalum missellum, when I first said to Phil Michael back in the day, look, this is causing damage to crops. He just went, 'what do you mean? They're in every paddock? We've never seen it'. But with the changes in cropping patterns and people seeding earlier and then it became a little bit warmer, that particular pest became an issue, and it was good to find a solution for it, with beetle baits being registered and working. So that was a really big plus. And I think that's one of the big things, is that we are working in a dynamic system and new things do come up. It's never the same old, same old though if it was, it'd be me out of a job, wouldn't it?

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Shannon Beattie: To finish up with it. Can you tell me what's next for you? You've won the Seed of Light. So what's next on your career journey?

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Svetlana Micic: Well, I did say to my colleagues, 'well, that's it, I've reached the pinnacle of my career, I can sit down and relax'. But I did have a colleague say, well, you're just going to have to change your sights. Now that you've won the seat of light, you're going to have to go and do something better and get another award. Get some letters after your name and well, who knows what will happen. But doing the job I love, I think is really what will be the next step.

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Shannon Beattie: Svet, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. Congratulations on the Seed of Light, it couldn't have gone to a more worthy recipient. And thank you for taking the time to share your journey with everyone today.

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Svetlana Micic: Thank you.

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Shannon Beattie: That was Svetlana Mici from DPIRD, talking about receiving GRDC's Western Seed of Light award at the Grains Research updates in Perth. More information on this topic can also be found in the description box of this podcast or online at grdc.com.au. I'm Shannon Beattie and this has been a GRDC podcast. Thanks for listening.