Mike Fleming Profile

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Mike Fleming Profile

An experienced GIS Analyst that has been using ESRI products since 1995, I recently resigned from the SA public service and I am currently seeking a new contract or permanent position.

Currently based in Adelaide, South Australia, I am keen to see where else GIS could take me. Originally from the far north of South Australia (Try “Oodnadatta” in Google Earth!), my background is cattle, horses, mustering, dust, gidgee trees and gibber plains. My on ground knowledge of the North West soon led me into the spatial sphere, making maps, data capture, interpreting satellite images and establishing ground control points.

In 2007 our young family spent a year at the cold end of the North American prairies, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. My wife had a teaching exchange that very generously came with an open work permit for me. I worked as a GIS Analyst on contract, updating the Provincial Infrastructure Mapping from satellite images.

Back in Adelaide, the Arid Land Information System (ALIS) was being developed. On returning to Adelaide in 2008, I worked as a GIS Analyst maintaining and updating the spatial layers in ALIS. In 2009 I took on the role of ALIS Administrator. Since then I have had the privilege of working with some very knowledgeable and proficient developers, database adminstrators and others in SA’s Department for Water where we made enhancements to the ALIS system and added a field data capture application.

Working on ALIS exposed me to the realities and potential of integrating GIS with other information systems. The ALIS application features tight integration between ArcGIS Server and SQL Server.

While I find the technical side of GIS and Remote Sensing, data capture, management and analysis very interesting and important, what really lights my fire is getting together with a group of people from different disciplines and working together to find solutions to problems. Being able to contribute from a GIS perspective is rewarding. Seeing the view of a problem from a Project Manager’s or Developers perspective is very enlightening.

My career seems to be moving me from projection, transformation and classifications towards communication, consultation and negotiations. That’s OK, it gets the job done and it puts bread and butter on the table. But I still like to get my hands dirty from time to time! I have recently become something of a Python enthusiast, automating geoprocessing tasks for other users.

I am currently looking for work where I can continue to base myself in Adelaide. This could be local or FIFO. I am keen to get into the mining, oil and gas sectors

Mike Fleming

mikefleming@chariot.net.au