Environmental management and sustainability

Summary of expertise:

Over 20 years of experience in environmental management and sustainability including catchment/watershed planning and management, landscape sustainability, river restoration and management, biodiversity conservation, and urban sustainability.

Completed a Master of Environmental Management with Distinction at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Degree was awarded with Distinction due to a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 6.75 out of a possible maximum score of 7.

Developed the Land Use Planning Handbook for the Lockyer Catchment which details land use principles and land management guidelines for the six land systems identified in the catchment. Handbook was officially launched by the Minister for Local Government and Planning for the State of Queensland.

Prepared the comprehensive Living in the Lockyer Property Management Planning Kit and conducting workshops to train community group representatives and landholders in the use of the kit.

Coordinated the Sustainable Management of the Helidon Hills Project, which carried out sustainable management planning for the complex land use and management issues faced by one of the largest remaining areas of mostly continuous bushland in South East Queensland.

Managed the award-winning Holistic Natural Resource Management of Crow’s Nest Shire Project, Queensland (‘Project Green Nest’) which implemented an incentive-based natural resource management (NRM) program that included an environmental levy and rate rebates for native vegetation conservation agreements, a university study to determine the most effective community engagement approaches, and shire-wide pest animal and plant management activities.

As overall Program Manager, led the award-winning Australian Government funded $77.4 million Hawkesbury-Nepean River Recovery Program where I oversaw six different state/provincial-level government agencies implementing seven substantial projects that carried out works on more than 1,000 properties.

Carried out research and planning to support the application of resilience thinking to complex adaptive socio-ecological systems in the Shoalhaven River Water Supply Transfers and Environmental Flows Project.

Prepared the Gatton Shire Biodiversity Strategy, which advanced innovative win-win solutions to benefit both biodiversity and the landholders and community of Gatton Shire.

Pioneered new landscape-scale approaches to threatened species and ecosystem conservation in the Lockyer Catchment Biodiversity Recovery Project. This included preparing the Biodiversity Recovery Plan for Gatton and Laidley Shires and establishing linkages between the recovery plan and the Gatton Shire Planning Scheme.

Established and coordinated a number of on-ground landholder biodiversity conservation projects and initiatives. For example, the Upper Ma Ma Creek Rainforest Restoration Project, which included facilitating the development of weed management strategies and control trials and convening a field day at the end of the project to educate the wider catchment community about rainforest conservation and the project outcomes.

Organised and convened a series of biodiversity conferences including the 1998 WWF South-East Queensland Rainforest Recovery Conference and the 2000, 2001 and 2002 Southern Queensland Biodiversity Conferences. These conferences stimulated significant conservation activity, for example the 1998 WWF South-East Queensland Rainforest Recovery Conference led to the establishment of one of Australia’s first multi-species recovery planning projects, the South-East Queensland Rainforest Recovery Project.

Convened a Biodiversity Investment Forum involving 40 participants to explore the introduction of ‘markets for ecosystem services’ in the Lockyer Catchment.

Initiated the Urban Environment News service in 2004, and then coordinated it for more than 10 years, researching and writing more than 1,500 blog posts in that time.