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Menu
  • About Us
    • Purpose
    • Who we are
    • Meeting Summaries
  • Get Involved
    • Information
    • Management
    • Research
  • Events
    • 2023 Feral Cat Symposium
    • 2020 Launch of Working Group
    • 2018 Feral Cat Symposium
    • Calendar
  • Resources
    • Media
    • Bibliography
  • Contact Us

Who we are

Chair

Susan Hunt

PSM, BA (HONS), MA, FIPAA

Susan has 17 years of experience as a Chief Executive Officer, leading the Lotteries Commission of Western Australia, the Health Promotion Foundation and the Zoological Parks Authority (Perth Zoo). During her 13 years as Perth Zoo CEO Susan was elected President of the Australasian Zoo Association and President of the World Zoo Association and co-authored the first World Zoo Animal Welfare Strategy. Susan is currently independent chair of the Gorgon Project Marine Turtle Expert Panel. She has been awarded an Australian Public Service Medal for her contribution to conservation and public service. 

Executive Officer

Dr Judy Dunlop

Dr Judy Dunlop has extensive experience working with some of Australia’s most iconic threatened mammals and their ecology. She has been involved in large landscape-scale fauna restoration, reintroduction and monitoring projects in WA’s arid zones. She has worked in the Pilbara, rangelands, on islands, and throughout the south-west. Judy is passionate about the environment and loves working with Traditional Owners and landholders to get great outcomes for nature.

Executive

Dr Bruce Webber

Program Director, Ecosystem Processes and Threat Mitigation, WA Biodiversity Science Institute (WABSI)

Bruce Webber is the Program Director for Ecosystem Processes and Threat Mitigation at the Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute (WABSI). With a background in global change ecology, Bruce works with end users and the research community to identify, prioritise and enable research that addresses the most important knowledge gaps to improve biodiversity conservation, and together with land managers translates this insight into on-ground outcomes.

Jane O'Malley

CEO of Peel Harvey Catchment Council, NRM Regions

Jane O’Malley is CEO of the Peel-Harvey Catchment Council and represents the 7 NRM Regional Groups that cover WA. Jane commenced her NRM life as an Environmental Planner and has a long held dream of our native animals coming out from behind feral proof enclosures and ruling the roost across Australia, without fear of being eaten by feral cats or foxes. With this in mind Jane drove the establishment of the WA Feral Cat Working Group, with strong support from like-minded colleagues. Jane is a WA Parks Ambassador, Mum to two fabulous boys and has a travel disorder that COVID is seriously testing.

Dr Dave Algar

WA Representative, National Feral Cat Taskforce

Dr Dave Algar 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.

Elisabeth McLellan

Western Rangelands Healthy Landscapes Manager, Bush Heritage Australia

Elisabeth McLellan holds a senior Conservation Programme management role at Bush Heritage Australia, working to ensure that their reserves and partnerships are part of a larger landscape-scale approach to nature conservation. This includes tackling threats such as feral cats in a collaborative, effective and multi-faceted approach across tenures. The WA Feral Cat Working Group is a critical part of that collaborative approach.

Working Group

Dr Rachel Paltridge

Ron - close up

Ron Shepherd

Tim Allard

Ecologist, Indigenous Desert Alliance

Director of Invasive Species, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD)

CEO, Australian Wildlife Conservancy

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. 

Ron Shepherd brings to the WAFCWG his expertise from leading policy, technical, research, and operational pest issues as Director of the Invasive Species and Environment Biosecurity program at DPIRD.

Tim Allard joined Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) in 2011 as the National Operations Manager and was appointed as AWC’s CEO in 2018.

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After completing her PhD on predator–prey interactions in spinifex grasslands, Rachel spent 20 years as an ecologist in central Australia, working primarily with Indigenous ranger groups on projects at the interface between research and management. Projects included documenting the effectiveness of Indigenous tracking techniques to reduce cat impacts on threatened species and collaborating with the li-Anthawirriyarra Sea Rangers to conduct an annual cat-baiting program to restore island mammal populations.

Rachel is passionate about integrating traditional Indigenous knowledge and skills with the latest technologies and scientific methods to come up with innovative methods to manage and monitor biodiversity.

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Ron brings a breadth of experience in natural resource management and biodiversity conservation through 35 years in the WA public sector.  His current role involves leading DPIRD’s strategies and responses to the breadth of terrestrial and aquatic pests and weeds that are established in WA, or are new incursions into the State.  Having always lived in rural WA and as a zoogeographer, Ron has a broad passion for the landscapes of WA, their biodiversity assemblages, and the threats to their sustainability.  In respect to feral cats, Ron has experienced first hand the challenges through initiating and leading the implementation of Project Eden on Peron Peninsula in Shark Bay in the 1990’s.

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AWC is one of the largest non-government conservation organisations in Australia, owning or working in partnership across more than 6.5 million hectares, in regions such as the Kimberley, Cape York, Central Australia and south-west Western Australia. AWC works in partnership with Indigenous corporations and communities, Government agencies and Pastoralists to deliver science informed land management programs for effective conservation.

AWC employs more than 200 staff, including more than 50 ecologists, who undertake research and monitoring programs to understand the threats to Australia’s native wildlife. This research and information informs land management programs such as fire management, weed control and feral animal control (predator and herbivore).

AWC has undertaken research into the populations and ecology of feral cats in Northern Australia, particularly investigating how feral cats use fire scars to assist with hunting. AWC is currently implementing research in the ecology of feral cats and foxes across southern Australia to help understand the ecology, density and identify when to reintroduce native animals into the landscape.

Dr Fran Stanley

Executive Director, Conservation and Ecosystem Management, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA)

Dr Fran Stanley has worked for the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) and its predecessor agencies since 1994, in a range of different roles. 

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She was involved in planning and implementing the Montebello Renewal project in the 1990s, which removed black rats and feral cats from the Montebello Islands off the Pilbara coast to allow the reintroduction of locally extinct threatened species. Fran was integrally involved in negotiating offsets for the Gorgon Gas Project on Barrow Island Nature Reserve, one of which was to translocate a number of threatened species from the island, to allow vegetation to be cleared to build the gas plant, to other locations including Matuwa in the Goldfields. Another project is supporting the ecological reconstruction of Dirk Hartog Island National Park. Both projects included components to control or remove feral cats. Over the last 15 years, Fran has held policy, management and leadership roles in the department and in the Minister for Environment’s office. Together with her earlier operational roles, this experience has given her a broad understanding of the policy and operational contexts in which DBCA undertakes pest animal management, including feral cat control. In her current role, as Executive Director Conservation and Ecosystem Management, Fran oversees DBCA’s Western Shield program, which aims to recover threatened species populations through reducing the threat of predation by foxes and feral cats.

Research Committee

Name Affiliation Position
Dr Owain Edwards CSIRO Group Leader, Environmental & Synthetic Genomics
Prof Trish Fleming Murdoch University Professor
Prof Stephen van Leeuwen Curtin University Chair, Biodiversity and Environmental Science
Di Evans RSPCA Senior Scientific Officer
Dr Judy Dunlop WAFCWG Executive Officer
Dr Bruce Webber WA Biodiversity Science Institute (WABSI) Program Director, Ecosystem Processes and Threat Mitigation
Dr Dave Algar National Feral Cat Taskforce WA Representative
Elisabeth McLellan Bush Heritage Australia Western Rangelands Healthy Landscapes Manager
Tim Allard Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) CEO

Advisory Group

Name Affiliation Position
Rebecca Brown WA Local Government Association (WALGA) Manager, Waste, Recycling and Environment
Mick Davis Western Australia Landcare Network Chairperson
Todd Edwards Chamber of Minerals and Energy, Environment Committee Representative
Jenni Loveland Oyster Harbour Catchment Group Coordinator, Albany and Surrounds Feral Cat Working Group
Nolia and Jodie Ward Kiwirrkurra Indigenous Ranger Group Feral Cat Experts
Kerrie Bennison Australian Veterinary Association Regional Manager, Western Regions (WA, SA and NT Divisions)
Lisa Adams Environmental Consultants Association WA WA Chapter President
John Kargotich WA Farmers Federation Representative
Dr Owain Edwards CSIRO Group Leader, Environmental & Synthetic Genomics
Prof Trish Fleming Murdoch University Professor, Wildlife Ecology
Prof Stephen van Leeuwen Curtin University Chair, Biodiversity and Environmental Science
Di Evans RSPCA Senior Scientific Officer
Prof Simon McKirdy WA Biosecurity Council/Harry Butler Institute Chair

The Group will make information on feral cat management easily available to end users, enable the translation of research findings into effective on-ground outcomes and will help guide the implementation of a new research program, led by The Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute.

 

Framework of the WA Feral Cat Working Group
(Webber, 2020: Increasing knowledge to mitigate cat impacts on biodiversity )

Membership comprises suitably skilled and experienced representatives from community, government, industry and the research community involved in feral cat management in Western Australia. For efficiency, membership will remain at less than 10 representatives, including the Chair.

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