Threatened Species Scientific Committee members
Professor Helene Marsh (Qld) (Chair)
Professor Helene Marsh
Professor Helene Marsh was appointed to the Committee in August 2011. She is a conservation biologist with some 30 years experience in research into species conservation, management and policy with particular reference to tropical marine and terrestrial wildlife of conservation concern. The policy outcomes of her research include significant contributions to the science base of dugong conservation in Australia and internationally. Her research also provided the conceptual basis for the 'Back on Track' Program conducted by the Queensland government. Helene is committed to informing interdisciplinary solutions to conservation problems and has collaborated widely with colleagues in other disciplines.
Helene is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and has received international awards for her research and conservation from the Pew Charitable Trust, the Society of Conservation Biology and the American Society of Mammalogists. She is President –Elect of the Society of Marine Mammalogy and Co–chair of the IUCN Sirenia Specialist Group. She is on the editorial boards of Conservation Biology, Endangered Species Research and Oecologia.
Helene is Dean of Graduate Research Studies and Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science at James Cook University. Her publications include two books, 130+ papers in professional journals, ~30 chapters in refereed monographs/conference proceedings, more than 30 papers in conference/workshop proceedings, plus numerous technical reports and popular articles. Helene has been on the supervisory committees of more than 80 honours students, research higher degree candidates and postdoctoral fellows. She is anticipating her 50th PhD student to graduate in 2012.
Dr Guy Fitzhardinge (NSW)
Dr Guy Fitzhardinge
Dr Guy Fitzhardinge was appointed to the Committee in September 2003. Since 1976, Dr Fitzhardinge has been the Managing Director of the Thring Pastoral Company. He is currently Chairman of the Cooperative Research Centre for Beef Genetics and Chairman of the Karrkand Kandji Trust, a charitable Trust funding environmental work in two Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) in Arnhem Land. He is also a Governor of World Wildlife Fund Australia (WWF-Australia) and a member of the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) Advisory Committee.
Dr Fitzhardinge was previously a Director of the Australian Bush Heritage Trust and has served as a member of the National Assessment Committee for the Endangered Species program. He is an ex Vice President of the Australian Rangeland Society and previous Director of the Meat Research Cooperation and Meat and Livestock Australia. He was the recipient of a Churchill Fellowship in 1992 and was awarded the Cowra and Region Landcare Prize in 1994. In 2008 he was awarded a PhD for his research into the ethnographic relationship between the social system and the ecosystem in the Rangelands of Australia.
Dr Gordon Guymer (Qld)
Dr Gordon Guymer was appointed to the Committee in May 2008. He is a botanist with 30 years experience in biodiversity research, management and policy. He has a comprehensive knowledge of Queensland's plant biodiversity, vegetation and factors affecting management and maintenance of biodiversity and environmental values, and has extensive management experience of biodiversity programs and projects. He has published 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers, including contributions to Flora of Australia and has described two new plant genera and over 100 plant species new to science.
Dr Guymer is currently the Director of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sciences, Queensland Department of Environment and Natural Resources. He is a member of the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (1990-present), the Australian Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment working group of the National Land and Water Audit, Queensland's Vegetation Management Consultative Committee, the Executive Steering Committee Australian Vegetation Information, and a board member of the Australian Tropical Herbarium and the Centre for Native Floriculture. He was previously a member of the Flora of Australia Editorial Committee (1989 to 1994) and the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) Advisory Committee (1994 to 1999).
Professor Peter Harrison (NSW)
Professor Peter Harrison
Professor Peter Harrison was appointed to the Committee in September 2005. He is a marine ecologist with 30 years experience in marine research, teaching, postgraduate supervision and consultancy work. He has been awarded more than $4.5 million in research and consultancy grants, the majority from the Australian Research Council and other national and international competitive grants. He has published more than 100 scientific papers, books, review chapters and technical reports, which have been cited more than 2,200 times. He has successfully supervised 35 PhD, Master of Science and Honours students including multiple University and Chancellor's PhD medallists.
Professor Harrison is currently the Director of Marine Studies at Southern Cross University (SCU) and the Director of the Coral Reef Research Centre and the Whale Research Centre at SCU. His main areas of research expertise and supervision are marine biology and ecology including global patterns of coral reproduction, impacts of pollutants and stress, long-term monitoring of reef communities, whale and dolphin ecology and conservation, dispersal and biogeography of reef corals and implications for connectivity among marine protected areas. He also has substantial research and teaching experience with estuarine, freshwater and terrestrial ecology topics. He has been awarded multiple prizes for research and university teaching, including a joint Eureka Prize for Environmental Research for the discovery of the mass coral spawning phenomenon on the Great Barrier Reef.
Throughout 1995, Professor Harrison was the Project Leader for a United Nations –funded mission to assess the impacts of the first Gulf War on the coral reefs of Kuwait, and has also worked in many areas of the Great Barrier Reef, Japan, Palau, Arabian Gulf, Bahamas, French Polynesia, Maldives, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia. Professor Harrison is a member of the National Marine Science Centre Board, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) (Oceania).
Dr Rosemary Purdie (ACT)
Dr Rosemary Purdie
Dr Rosemary Purdie was appointed to the Committee in September 2003. She has a background in botany, ecology, natural and cultural heritage conservation and currently works as a private consultant. She has written over 70 published and unpublished reports/articles across broad environmental topics including: fire ecology; plant taxonomy; botanical and ecological resource analysis and description; nature conservation reserve selection; natural heritage assessment methodologies; State of the Environment (SoE) reporting; and natural resource management in the Murray-Darling Basin.
Dr Purdie is currently an Associate at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)/Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, is a member of the ACT Natural Resource Management Advisory Committee. She was ACT Commissioner for the Environment from June 2004 to December 2006. She has also held positions for the Murray-Darling Basin Commission as Director of Natural Resource Evaluation and Communication and Director Integrated Catchment Management Business and Knowledge Management. She was previously Deputy Executive Director of the Australian Heritage Commission and Assistant Secretary of the Australian and World Heritage Group, Department of the Environment and Heritage (formerly Environment Australia). She was a member of the ACT Flora and Fauna Advisory Committee from 1999 to 2004 and chaired the committee from 2001. She also served as a member of the ACT Environment Advisory Committee. She has acted as science adviser to the Earthwatch Institute, been a Vice President of the Ecological Society of Australia and an Associate Editor for the Australasian Journal of Environmental Management. She is currently a member of the Advisory Board for the latter.
Dr Keith Walker (SA)
Dr Keith Walker
Dr Keith Walker was appointed to the Committee in 2008. He is a river ecologist with 35 years experience, mainly at the University of Adelaide. Originally a zoologist, he has engaged with colleagues in botany, hydrology, geomorphology and engineering to develop ecological perspectives of the effects of flow regulation on the River Murray and its floodplain. He has published 140 peer-reviewed book chapters and journal articles and about 100 non-refereed articles, mainly on the fauna, flora and ecology of the Murray. He has supervised 120 Honours and postgraduate students in research on the Murray, and continues in that role.
Dr Walker left the University in 2007 to write about natural history, and to work as an environmental consultant, and is now an Adjunct Member of the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide. He was Editor of the international journal River Research and Applications from 1986 to 2006, and of the Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia from 2001 to 2002. He received the Australian Society for Limnology Medal for Research in 1993, the University's Stephen Cole Prize for Teaching in 1992 and the Unsung Hero of South Australian Science Award from Australian Science Communicators in 2000. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Australia.
Past appointments of Dr Walker include the South Australian Water Resources Council (1980-1986), Environment Protection Council (SA) (1989-1993), Natural Areas Evaluation Panel (SA) (1994-97) and other committees concerned with environmental issues. He has worked on the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations (UN) and AusAID projects in China and Thailand. Until 2009, he was a member of the Independent Sustainable Rivers Audit Group, advising the Murray-Darling Basin Commission on river-health issues. In 2009 he completed a review of EPBC-listed species implicated in a proposal to dam the Mary River in Queensland. He now has several roles in regard to the water crisis in the Lower Lakes and Coorong in South Australia, and is a member of the Environmental Water Scientific Advisory Committee, advising DEWHA on flow management in the Murray-Darling Basin.
Dr John Woinarski (NT)
Dr John Woinarski
Dr Woinarski was appointed to the Committee in September 2003. He is an authority on the fauna of northern Australia. He is currently Director of the Biodiversity Conservation Division with the Northern Territory Department of Natural Resources, Environment, the Arts and Sport, and an Adjunct Professorial Fellow with the School for Environmental Research, Charles Darwin University (CDU). He has published over 180 scientific papers and book chapters mostly on the ecology, biogeography and management of mammals and birds and also a broad range of other subjects including invertebrates, reptiles, plants, reserve design, fragmentation, forestry, biodiversity monitoring and island biogeography. He leads an active biodiversity research and management unit that examines options for biodiversity conservation on Aboriginal lands and on pastoral lands, sustainable use of wildlife, biodiversity monitoring and bioregional survey and conservation planning.
In 2001, Dr Woinarski's work was recognised with the Australian Museum's Eureka Prize for biodiversity research and in the same year he was awarded the Birds Australia Serventy Medal for life-time contribution to Australian ornithology. In 2008, he was awarded the Northern Territory Chief Minister's Award for Research and Innovation.
Dr Andrea Taylor (Vic)
Dr Andrea Taylor
Dr Andrea Taylor was appointed to the Committee in September 2005. She is a wildlife population geneticist and molecular ecologist with long experience in the use of genetic markers to distinguish and characterise taxa, particularly marsupials. Her 80 primary research publications and reviews relate to use of genetic analysis to resolve issues ranging from species relationships, dispersal, mating systems and population size (via DNA profiling of remotely collected field samples) to impacts of habitat fragmentation and other landscape changes on population dynamics and viability. She is currently a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University where she leads an active research group examining these questions.
Dr Taylor has associations with and advises several State wildlife management agencies including in the capacity of Recovery Team member. She is currently Editor of the journal Wildlife Research, which publishes management-oriented scientific research.
Dr William Humphreys (WA)
Dr William Humphreys
Dr William Humphreys was appointed to the Committee in November 2006. He is currently Adjunct Professor at the School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia (UWA) and Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide. He has experience of marine, freshwater and terrestrial fauna, both as a researcher and teacher, and has published widely on both invertebrate and vertebrate taxa. He has edited 5 books, and authored 22 chapters, 130 peer-reviewed papers, 36 consultancy reports and in excess of 40 other publications.
Dr Humphreys serves on the Editorial Board of the Records of the Western Australian Museum and the international journal Subterranean Biology. He is currently a member of the Western Australian Scientific Advisory Committee for Threatened Ecological Communities and also serves on a number of other Western Australian-based advisory groups and recovery teams.
Dr Humphreys has worked in a range of environments including tropical (Africa, Seychelles, Papua New Guinea and Australia), temperate (Europe and Australia), arid (Western Australia and Northern Territory), mediterranean (Greece and Western Australia) and humid (Papua New Guinea, Kimberley and New South Wales) climates.
Dr Michelle Heupel (Qld)
Dr Michelle Heupel
Dr Michelle Heupel was appointed to the committee in November 2011. She is a current ARC Future Fellow through the Australian Institute of Marine Science and James Cook University. She is a marine ecologist focusing her research on the biology and ecology of marine predators, primarily sharks and rays. Her research has produced five book chapters, nine technical reports and over 60 journal publications.
Dr Heupel has previously served as Research Director for the AIMS@JCU joint venture and Manager of the Elasmobranch Behavioral Ecology Program at Mote Marine Laboratory, Florida, USA. She has served on numerous committees and societies and has been an active member of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group since 2001. She has served as an international expert on several research and conservation panels. Dr Heupel is also a Subject Editor for 'Marine and Coastal Fisheries', and a Review Editor for 'Aquatic Biology'.
EPBC Act lists
- About the EPBC Act
- Critical habitat
- Key threatening processes
- Migratory species
- Recovery plans
- Species and communities under the EPBC Act
- Threat abatement plans
- Threatened ecological communities
- Threatened fauna
- Threatened flora
- Listings since commencement of the EPBC Act