Department of Regional Australia, Regional Development, Local Government, Arts and Sport
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Robyn Fleming is the First Assistant Secretary, North West and Local Government Division in the Department of Regional Australia, Regional Development, Local Government, Arts and Sport. Robyn has responsibility for the Office of Northern Australia and the Northern Australia Sustainable Futures Program, regional funding for communities which includes programs such as the Regional Development Australia Fund (RDAF) as well as Local Government policy and funding including the Financial Assistance Grants.
Robyn previously managed the Office of Northern Australia. Prior to joining Regional Australia, Robyn has worked across a number of portfolios including FaHCSIA, NOIE, Finance, Innovation and Trade. Robyn has worked on food processing, regional and urban planning, innovation, community and communications policy and program development.
Robyn has a Bachelor of Arts, Post Graduate Diploma in Communications and Information Technology and a Masters in Public Policy and Management all from Monash University.
Department of Planning and Infrastructure, NSW
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Richard Pearson is Deputy Director General, Development Assessment & Systems Performance in the NSW Department of Planning & Infrastructure.
Richard is responsible for overseeing the assessment of major development and infrastructure projects, including critical infrastructure, transport, energy and water, mining, extractive industry, manufacturing, waste and remediation and major urban renewal precincts such as Barangaroo.
Richard is also responsible for implementation of the NSW Housing Code, NSW Commercial and Industrial Code, and Joint Regional Planning Panels.
Richard is also overseeing the preparation of strategic regional land use plans across NSW. Initial priorities are regional plans for the Upper Hunter and New England North West. These plans have a primary focus on resolving land use conflict between coal mining, coal seam gas and agriculture.
Richard was previously the Executive Director of the Department’s Rural and Regional Planning Division from March 2006 to May 2009 where he managed the production, delivery and implementation of regional strategies for high growth regional areas, major Local Environmental Plans and other land-use and coastal planning work throughout rural and regional NSW.
John joined the Natural Resources Commission as Commissioner in December 2011. He was awarded an Order of Australia in 2005 and a Centenary Medal in 2003. He also chairs the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, the Cooperative Research Centres for the Pork and Sheep industries and the Australian Wool Exchange. He is a member of the NSW Environment Protection Authority Board. John is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is the past Chairman of Ridley Corporation Ltd, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Livestock Export Review, the National Registration Authority for Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals, and Unisearch Ltd. John also owns a wool and lamb enterprise in central west NSW.
Carolyn has been with the Central West CMA from its inception in 2004. She possesses extensive experience and specialist expertise in the management of natural resources, strengthened through various positions in the public and educational sectors and local government over the past 20 years.
Carolyn has provided valuable leadership and direction in natural resource management strategic development and planning, including the development of the Central West Catchment Action Plan using resilience thinking and evidence based practice.
Qualifications include Bachelor of Science (Hons) from Monash University and a Master of Environmental Management from the University of New England.
Mark Stafford Smith is currently Science Director of CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation Flagship where his role includes oversighting the science synergies emerging from the Flagship’s 300 staff. Now based in Canberra, he previously spent 20 years in Alice Springs working on rangelands ecology and management, during which he established and initially led the Desert Knowledge CRC.
Bronwyn Ray has spent the past twelve years in water management, and the last six years in water reform at a state and federal level. As General Manager of the National Water Commission’s Assessments and Policy Coordination Group, she is responsible for the Commission’s cross-organisational policy development and delivery, indigenous and international engagement, and assessments in relation to the National Water Initiative and National Partnerships Payments, as well as the Commission’s future audit role for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and water resource plans. Bronwyn recently led the 2011 Biennial Assessment, the Commission’s two yearly report to COAG on progress in national water reform. She has a degree in environmental science, and has recently completed a Masters in Public Administration.
Department of Planning and Community Development, VIC
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Damien Kennedy is Manager, Regional Urban Settlement within the Planning Policy & Reform branch of the Victorian Department of Planning and Community Development. He is part of a statewide team responsible for delivery of 8 Regional Growth Plans.
Damien has qualifications in planning, and has gained a broad range of experience in urban and regional planning, land administration and management, and transport planning, through present and past roles with the Queensland and Victorian governments, local government and the private sector. Prior to joining DPCD, Damien worked in regional and metropolitan planning roles for the Qld Department of Environment and Resource Management and the Qld Department of Transport and Main Roads.
John is a founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. He is one of Australia’s most respected scientists, and has extensive experience in providing national and international thought leadership in natural-resource management, particularly in agricultural production and its environmental impact.
John retired recently after nearly six years as Commissioner of the NSW Natural Resources Commission (NRC). He was former Chief Scientist, NSW Department of Natural Resources following his retirement from CSIRO as Chief of Land and Water in 2004. In 2005, he was awarded the prestigious Farrer Memorial Medal for achievement and excellence in agricultural science. John is currently Adjunct Professor in Public Policy and Environmental Management at the Crawford School of the Australian National University and Adjunct Professor, Agriculture and Natural Resource Management, Institute Water, Land and Society, Charles Sturt University. He is also Director of John Williams Scientific Services Pty Ltd, which provides strategic advice and analysis in Agriculture and the Natural Resource Sciences.
Dr. Allan Dale is the Chief Executive Officer of Terrain NRM, the Regional Natural Resource Management (NRM) Body for Queensland’s Wet Tropics. He previously led the establishment of regional arrangements for NRM in Queensland, and led a number of strategic policy initiatives within the Department of Natural Resources and Mines. Allan is an agriculturalist scientist with a long research background in natural resources planning (including CSIRO and Griffith University) and he has global experience in managing social aspects of natural resource management.
Geoff Park works as a Knowledge Broker with the North Central Catchment Management Authority. In this role he is responsible for the development of collaborative partnerships between researchers, policy makers, extension staff and landholders that lead to improved knowledge exchange and on-ground biodiversity outcomes.
His key role is with the Future Farm Industries CRC working with a small research team exploring the development and application of INFFER (Investment Framework for Environmental Resources www.inffer.org), a new investment framework for NRM. This work involves a number of CMA’s from Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. The INFFER team was awarded the Australian Research Council 2009 Eureka Prize for excellence in interdisciplinary research. Between 2006 and 2011 he was theme leader (knowledge broking) for the CERF Landscape Logic program www.landscapelogic.org.au a collaboration between six NRM regions across Victoria and Tasmania and seven research organisations.
His background is in landscape ecology, teaching and community education and he was involved in the establishment of the Victorian Landcare Centre at Creswick (from 1992 – 1998) and in various roles with the North Central CMA since then. He has a long standing interest and involvement with communities working to improve biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes. Geoff is a trustee with the Norman Wettenhall Foundation http://www.nwf.org.au a philanthropic organisation that supports projects that aim to enhance the vitality and diversity of the Australian natural living environment. In 2009 he received the prestigious Dr. Sidney Plowman Travel and Study Award as part of the Victorian Landcare Awards.
Professor Darryl LOW CHOY is Professor of Environmental and Landscape Planning in the Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University. His current research is focussed on values led planning and indigenous landscape values; resilience and peri-urbanisation of the landscape; and human settlements and climate change adaptation. He serves on a number of state and national government boards in the environmental planning and NRM areas.
Dr Walker is a Research Fellow with CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems and is also Program Director and Chair of the Board of the Resilience Alliance, an international research group working on sustainability of social-ecological systems.
A key focus of his work is the significance of resilience (the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and to undergo change while still retaining essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks) in the sustainability of ecosystems and social-ecological systems.
Dr Walker co-authored the 2006 book Resilience thinking: Sustaining ecosystems and people in a changing world.
Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
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Dr Sarah Ryan is Chair of the ACT Natural Resource Management Council and was the 2010 Chair of the National Working Group of all Australian Regional NRM organisations. She also holds a position as Honorary Fellow at CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems where her research activities are focussed on natural resource management issues, especially the governance arrangements that impact on the health of Australia’s lands, waters and seas. She earned her first degree and PhD in agriculture at the University of Western Australian and has since worked across diverse research fields from agriculture to ecology, biodiversity and the water issues of the Murray-Darling Basin.
For fourteen years she served on advisory committees at Canberra Institute of Technology, including six years as chair of the CIT Advisory Council. Currently she is a member of the University of Canberra Council where she also chairs the Environment and Works Committee and is working on the development of a Sustainability Strategy for the University.
Paul is a highly experienced planner and environmental scientist. He has broad international experience in sustainable development, has undertaken numerous assessments of major development projects and prepared strategic plans for many growing regions. He is a very experienced expert witness. Paul is a member of the Joint Regional Planning Panel for Western Sydney and of the World bank’s Extractive Industries Advisory Committee and the EITI Board
Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA)
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