Speaker biographies
Mike Archer, AM
Mike Archer was born in Sydney but lived in the USA until 1967 when he moved back to Australia. By age 11 he was addicted to fossil and living animals. Degrees: Princeton University BA, University of Western Australia PhD. Key positions: Professor, University of New South Wales (1989-present); Director of the Australian Museum (1999-2003), Sydney; Dean of Science, University of New South Wales (2004-2009). Current research foci on which I have published (~16 books & 317 refereed journal articles, ‘H index’ 46): evolution of mammals, in particular monotremes and marsupials; evolution of Australia’s terrestrial environments over the last 100 million years; biocorrelation of Australia’s Cenozoic vertebrates; impacts of palaeoclimate change; use of palaeontological datasets to optimise conservation of living species; innovative biofuel company; conservation through sustainable use of native resources; native animals as pets; battling Creationists; dental function and ontogeny; megafaunal extinctions; biogeographic history of New Zealand; early Cenozoic biotas of Argentina; megatsunamis; science communication; lacustrine and karst geology and petrogenesis; etcetera. I started the Thylacine & Lazarus Projects to see how far we could get in efforts to recover, revitalize and enable ancient DNA to construct functional organisms. For more info: http://www.pangea.unsw.edu.au/people/academic-research/michael-arche
Christine Adams
Christine was born, educated and employed in Broken Hill in the ‘good times’. She resided in Adelaide and Tweed Heads for twenty-three years before returning to western New South Wales – specifically Fowlers Gap. The author of six titles, including From Pub to Pulpit & All Stops In Between and Way Out West: Pastoral Stories of Western New South Wales, Christine is the curator of the Sulphide Street Railway & Historical Museum Trust, secretary for NSW HACC Transport & Home Modifications Inc, and secretary treasurer for the University of the Third Age. In 2013, Christine was awarded the Broken Hill Citizenship Award, and is currently a Broken Hill City Councillor.
Emily Berry
Emily is in the final stage of her Master of Philosophy (Environmental Management) at the UNSW School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences. Her research, supervised by Prof Graciela Metternicht of the Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies group, focuses on perceptions of land degradation globally through the United Nations and locally in the Far West region of NSW. She has a graduate diploma in Environmental Management (UNSW, 2014) and previous qualification and experience in communication. She is interested in conservation, community collaboration and spending time in the bush.
Greg Curran
Greg Curran is a public veterinarian and epidemiologist, based in Broken Hill. He has worked in arid areas throughout his professional life, first in northern South Australia and since in western NSW. On Fowlers Gap, Greg investigated its high flock reproductive rate, as well as certain diseases in macropods: viral chorio-retinitis and later epidemic die-off of macropods, a disease whose cause is still unknown. The central determining role of the extreme and variable nature of climate in diseases of both livestock and wildlife led Greg to study the patterns in rainfall and temperature, and more recently, the effects of heat stress on animal reproduction and disease.
Greg has worked for the South Australian Department of Agriculture, in the Bovine Brucellosis and Tuberculosis Eradication Campaign, and for NSW Department of Agriculture, now Department of Primary Industries. Currently he has established a private practice: “Animal and Climate Investigations”, focussing on livestock reproductive shortfalls and diseases, continuing to determine the causes of certain diseases of unknown aetiology (such as Paroo Staggers and Humpyback in sheep, 3D in cattle, and epidemic die-off of macropods), and understanding the nature and patterning of climate in arid area and their effects.
Greg has worked for the South Australian Department of Agriculture, in the Bovine Brucellosis and Tuberculosis Eradication Campaign, and for NSW Department of Agriculture, now Department of Primary Industries. Currently he has established a private practice: “Animal and Climate Investigations”, focussing on livestock reproductive shortfalls and diseases, continuing to determine the causes of certain diseases of unknown aetiology (such as Paroo Staggers and Humpyback in sheep, 3D in cattle, and epidemic die-off of macropods), and understanding the nature and patterning of climate in arid area and their effects.
Terry Dawson
Terry Dawson has been associated with Fowlers Gap Station for 60 years. "Initially I came in 1957 on a fascinating field trip during my studies in Rural Sciences at UNE, Armidale. The excursion was run by Prof Noel Beadle, the author of the seminal studies into the degradation of the vegetation, pastures and soils of Western NSW following the exploitation of the region for pastoralism from the late 1800s. I returned in 1966 as a lecturer in Zoology at UNSW. In the interim I had finished a PhD in sheep biology at UNE and then spent three years of postdoctoral work at Duke and Yale Universities, mainly working on desert mammals with the renowned comparative physiologist Knut Schmidt-Nielsen. My return to Australia was due to Prof Geoff Sharman, the recently appointed Inaugural Professor of Zoology at UNSW. His inducement was studying kangaroos at Fowlers Gap. The field station had just been transferred to UNSW. I followed Prof Sharman as Head of Zoology in 1971. There has been 50 years of fruitful research and teaching. Colleagues (including local pastoralists) and students were many and interactions were fun (mostly). My own tally has been 160+ research papers and reviews; it is still going. Added to this list are three books, the last in 2014 ‘Kangaroos’ I regard as my best. We have really managed to open deep insights into how the rangelands function. It is a fascinating story but not necessarily happy one."
Jason Evans
Jason received a bachelor of mathematics and bachelor of science from Newcastle University before completing a PhD at ANU in regional climate and hydrology. He spent 6 years as a research scientist at Yale University in the USA, before returning to Australia to take up a position at UNSW, where he is currently an Associate Professor in the Climate Change Research Centre. He is co-Chair of the GEWEX Hydroclimate Panel and AustralAsia coordinator for the Coordinated Regional climate Downscaling Experiment, both elements of the World Climate Research Programme. He is an expert in the science of the climate system particularly in regards to land-atmosphere interactions, the water cycle and regional climate change. His research involves general issues of water cycle processes over land, and how we can change them, largely through changes in land use and changes in climate. He focuses at the regional (or watershed) scale and studies processes including river flow, evaporation/transpiration, water vapour transport and precipitation.
Lachlan Gall
Lachlan is a third generation grazier from Langawirra Station, 110kms north east of Broken Hill. In addition to dealing with the challenges of managing a pastoral business in a land of droughts and flooding rains, Lachlan is the Secretary of the Topar Area Rangecare Group and President of the Pastoralists’ Association of West Darling, an agri-political lobby organization looking after the interests of graziers in far west NSW. Lachlan also represents the Association on matters pertaining to the management of Kangaroos in NSW.
Steve McLeod
Steve McLeod is a Senior Research Scientist working for NSW Department of Primary Industries. He has conducted ecological research on mixed-grazing systems in rangelands, the impacts of grazing on biodiversity and productivity and the sustainable use of wildlife. He has a specific interest in the ecology of kangaroos and their management in the rangelands.
Ross Mitchell
Ross Mitchell obtained a PhD in Astrophysics before joining the CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research to work on a variety of projects related to the quantification of satellite measurements of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. More recently, he established the aerosol network known as AeroSpan (Aerosol characterisation via Sun Photometry: Australian Network), that makes up part of NASA’s AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network). Ross currently resides in Canberra.
Anika Molesworth
Anika Molesworth is the Australian Young Farmer of the Year and represented young farmers at the COP21 United Nations Climate Conference. She helps manage her family’s sheep station near Broken Hill and is a strong advocate for greater adoption of renewable energies in agriculture. She runs Climate Wise Agriculture to promote climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. Her PhD research is helping to optimise soil fertility in water constrained environments to enhance food production whilst reducing the environmental footprint, with trials being conducted in Laos, Cambodia and Australia. She is also keenly interested in the conservation of natural and cultural heritage in farming communities and manages the International National Trusts Organisation’s Sustainable Farms program.
Simon Molesworth, AO QC
Recognized internationally as a leading environmental lawyer, Simon was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1995. A Vice Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow at Monash University since 2013, he was previously an Adjunct Professor with La Trobe University’s La Trobe Institute for Social & Environmental Sustainability. He was a founder & president for a decade of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand, the peak institute of practitioners whose core professional discipline is environmental management. He was foundation chairman of the International National Trusts Organisation (“INTO”) for a decade to September 2015. INTO is the co-ordinated voice for National Trusts and like heritage organisations with some six million members and tens of millions supporters worldwide. He’s led INTO’s work on climate change, and been INTO’s Head of Delegation to successive UNFCCC COP conferences. He was awarded the Australian Environmental Law Award for being a person who has "made an outstanding contribution to the development and understanding of environmental law in Australia". Appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his “services to the community in the field of conservation and the environment in particular through the National Trust” and awarded the Victorian State Environment Award in recognition of his “significant contribution to environment protection in Victoria”. Awarded the Centenary Medal “For service to the community through heritage and the environment”. In 2012 he became an Officer of the Order of Australia for “distinguished service to conservation and the environment, to heritage preservation at national and international levels, to the professions and natural resource sectors, and to community health organisations”.
Gresley Wakelin-King
Gresley’s love affair with the Australian desert began with her first sight of ghost gum in red sand, as a slightly bewildered 12-year-old. Many years later she returned to Central Australia as a graduate geologist doing regional mapping. The old rocks were awesome, but she found the landscape’s evolution and behaviour was the most interesting thing of all, especially the ways in which drylands rivers differ from “normal” rivers. This is geomorphology: the geology of landscape, that underpins all habitats. When she decided to dive into research, good fortune led her to Fowlers Creek and the lively community of Fowlers Gap Research Station. After many happy stays at Cottage 4, she submitted her doctoral thesis in 2005. She is now a consultant geomorphologist documenting landscape processes and their management implications, for clients in the natural resource management field. Her research interests include the floodouts of the Western Catchment, the rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin, and rangeland management applications for geomorphological research. At “Environment of Change”, Gresley hopes hear from landholders and residents about the interesting and under-researched countryside of the Western Catchment.