WA Feral Cat Symposium
Speakers
Atticus Fleming
CEO Australian Wildlife Conservancy
Atticus Fleming is the inaugural Chief Executive of the non-profit Australian Wildlife Conservancy, which manages 4.65 million hectares across iconic regions such as the Kimberley, the Top End and the central Australian outback. AWC protects some of the largest remaining populations of many of Australia’s most threatened species.
Prior to AWC, Atticus worked as an advisor to Australia’s longest serving Federal Environment Minister, the Hon Robert Hill, and as a constitutional lawyer (Federal Attorney-General’s Department) and a corporate lawyer and commercial lawyer (Mallesons).
Dr Sally Box
Threatened Species Commissioner
Atticus Fleming is the inaugural Chief Executive of the non-profit Australian Wildlife Conservancy, which manages 4.65 million hectares across iconic regions such as the Kimberley, the Top End and the central Australian outback. AWC protects some of the largest remaining populations of many of Australia’s most threatened species.
Prior to AWC, Atticus worked as an advisor to Australia’s longest serving Federal Environment Minister, the Hon Robert Hill, and as a constitutional lawyer (Federal Attorney-General’s Department) and a corporate lawyer and commercial lawyer (Mallesons).
John Woinarski
Charles Darwin University and Threatened Species Recovery Hub of NESP
Atticus Fleming is the inaugural Chief Executive of the non-profit Australian Wildlife Conservancy, which manages 4.65 million hectares across iconic regions such as the Kimberley, the Top End and the central Australian outback. AWC protects some of the largest remaining populations of many of Australia’s most threatened species.
Prior to AWC, Atticus worked as an advisor to Australia’s longest serving Federal Environment Minister, the Hon Robert Hill, and as a constitutional lawyer (Federal Attorney-General’s Department) and a corporate lawyer and commercial lawyer (Mallesons).
Paul Thomas
University of Adelaide
Atticus Fleming is the inaugural Chief Executive of the non-profit Australian Wildlife Conservancy, which manages 4.65 million hectares across iconic regions such as the Kimberley, the Top End and the central Australian outback. AWC protects some of the largest remaining populations of many of Australia’s most threatened species.
Prior to AWC, Atticus worked as an advisor to Australia’s longest serving Federal Environment Minister, the Hon Robert Hill, and as a constitutional lawyer (Federal Attorney-General’s Department) and a corporate lawyer and commercial lawyer (Mallesons).
Andrew Reeves
Development Officer – Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development
Andrew grew up on Oudabunna Station at Paynes Find where he completed secondary schooling by correspondence before completing a Degree in Biological Science at Murdoch University then completing an Honours in Environmental Science where his thesis was on the regeneration of a native species (Verticordia eriocephala) following seed collecting.
In 1996 I was employed by the Agriculture Protection Board and then by Department of Agriculture as a Technical Officer and later as a Research Officer working on dGPS and mapping skeleton weed (Chondrillia juncea) and herbicide trials on declared weeds.
Scott Thompson
Principal Zoologist – Terrestrial Ecosystems
Scott is an award winning environmental professional, business owner, husband and father.
Scott is a Principal Zoologist and Partner at Terrestrial Ecosystems. Terrestrial Ecosystems is an environmental consultancy and wildlife research company that specialises in working with terrestrial vertebrate fauna. Scott has specialist knowledge in assessing and managing impacts on terrestrial vertebrate fauna, including threatened and feral species. He has been associated with fauna surveys for 20 years, including more than 15 years of industry experience, 13 of those as an environmental consultant.
Di Evans
Senior Scientific Officer RSPCA Australia
Di graduated from the Murdoch University vet school and has worked in agriculture in various government roles for over 20 years as well as small animal practice, private consultancy & tertiary education.
She was the inaugural Animal Ethics Officer at Murdoch University, has been on numerous Animal Ethics Committees and was the WA Department of Agriculture & Food Animal Welfare Officer for 3 years until 2013 at which time became the inaugural Animal Welfare Advocate for RSPCA South Australia.
Peter Lacey
Nature Conservation Program Leader: DBCA
Peter has spent much of his career working in the WA Wheatbelt including 11 years with the Department of Agriculture on improving livestock management systems and Natural Resource Management, and 4 years as an Aquaculture Development Officer with the Department of Fisheries WA (the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Fisheries WA are now the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development), and the last 14 years working for the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions (and its predecessors), managing the Toolibin Lake recovery Project and leading the Nature Conservation Program for the southern section of the Wheatbelt Region.
Dr Margaret Byrne
Executive Director – Biodiversity and Conservation Science; Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
Dr Margaret Byrne is Executive Director, Science and Conservation Division in the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions where she is responsible for the integration of science, policy and on-ground management for biodiversity conservation.
Margaret has a strong interest in effective leadership and management and sees effective partnerships across organisations as critical to the achievement of conservation goals. She is also recognised as a leading biological scientist in Australia with over 200 refereed publications, and uses this to affect a strong evidence based approach to biodiversity conservation in Western Australia.
Dr Gaye MacKenzie
Director – Collective IQ Consulting
A sociological background and experience across a wide range of organisations and areas has led Gaye to be passionate about inspiring people to see other’s perspectives, to appreciate the complexity of problems that involve humans and to have conversations that enable change. She has found a number of places to work on this endeavour – currently as the Director of Collective IQ Consulting, as part time Associate Professor at UWA (lecturing in Public Policy and Evaluation), as the Conservation/NRM representative on the Pastoral Lands Board and previously as the CEO of Rangelands NRM.
Dr Rachel Partridge and Christine Ellis
Rachel is a Wildlife Consultant – Desert Wildlife Services. Christine is an Indigenous Ranger from the Nyirripi Community.
Dr Rachel Paltridge has spent the past 25 years based in Alice Springs researching the ecology of feral cats and collaborating with Indigenous land management groups on threatened species projects. Rachel is the Principal Consultant of Desert Wildlife Services and is passionate about integrating Traditional Knowledge and tracking skills with scientific research and new technologies to develop novel approaches to wildlife management.
Richard McLellan
CEO of the Northern Agricultural Catchments Council (NACC)
Richard is the CEO of the Northern Agricultural Catchments Council (NACC) – based at Geraldton in mid-west Australia. Specifically, with regards to feral cats, he is also a member of the Threatened Species Commissioner’s national Feral Cats Taskforce – representing Australia’s 56 regional NRM organisations.
An experienced senior-level ecologist, conservationist, and sustainable development program manager, Richard did his original training in environmental science, and has enjoyed a varied working career to now be primarily focused on issues relating to community-based natural resource management, private land conservation, and sustainable development.
Bruce Webber
Program Director, Ecosystem Processes & Threat Mitigation; WABSI
Bruce Webber leads the Ecosystem Change Ecology team at CSIRO and is the program director of Ecosystem Processes and Threat Mitigation at WABSI. He has over 15 years’ experience as a research scientist focusing on the impacts of global environmental change on plant-ecosystem interactions. Bruce’s current work translates novel research findings into improved management solutions to address the biggest challenges at the nexus of global environmental change, species invasions and native species resilience.
Vandana Subroy
Vandana obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry from St. Francis College in Hyderabad, India, followed by a Master’s in Applied Mathematics from the University of Hyderabad, India.
She completed a second Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences from Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA that included a thesis on the “Hydraulic properties of recycled wood material”, which was carried out in collaboration with the NJ Department of Environmental Protection.
Dave Algar
Principal Research Scientist; Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions
Dave is a Principal Research Scientist with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions and has extensive experience and expertise in the fields of feral cat ecology and control strategies. The research conducted has led to the design and development of the recently registered feral cat bait Eradicat®, establishment of baiting strategies over broad-scale areas to provide effective and cost-efficient control and implementation of a number of successful feral cat eradication campaigns on islands.
Owain Edwards
Group Leader, Environmental & Synthetic Genomics; CSIRO
Building on his expertise in invertebrate genomics Dr Edwards leads a CSIRO research group in Environmental & Synthetic Genomics, which includes a research team focused on genetic pest control technologies. Most recently, Dr Edwards was given a leadership role in the development of CSIRO’s new Future Science Platform in Synthetic Biology. Within this platform, Dr Edwards oversees projects delivering environmental outcomes including gene drives for biological control, and engineering resistance/resilience into threatened ecosystems.
Rowan Hegglun
Program Manager Biodiversity: Wheatbelt NRM
Originally from New Zealand Rowan previously worked for the Department of Conservation before moving to the central Wheatbelt of Western Australia in 2012 to take up a role in the biodiversity team at Wheatbelt Natural Resource Management.
Natarsha Woods
Chief Executive Officer; Wheatbelt NRM
Natarsha has a diverse work history including the Government, Private and NFP sectors. The common thread has been engaging the community in environment action. She has been the CEO at Wheatbelt NRM for 6 years where her leadership has focused them on “getting the community active in managing the environment”.
Dr Vanessa Westcott
Ecologist, West Region; Bush Heritage Australia
Vanessa is employed as Ecologist – West Region at Bush Heritage Australia. Her role is to oversee the ecological monitoring and research programs for Bush Heritage in Western Australia. At three conservation reserves in the mid-west Vanessa has worked with other Bush Heritage staff and volunteers to understand and manage the threat of feral cats and foxes over a number of years. Vanessa has also led the development of the Birriliburu Aboriginal Partnership which is based on two-way science support of the growing ranger program within the Birriliburu Indigenous Protected Area in the Little Sandy Desert.
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