Speakers
Rob Gell (MC) | Daniel Connell | Matt Darcey | Adam Drucker | Stephen Garnett | Paul Heaton | Donna Jackson | Ian Lancaster | Felicity Robson | Anne Shepherd | Will Steffen | Merrilyn Wasson | Robert Wasson
Rob Gell - Master of Ceremonies
Bio:
Rob Gell is a coastal geomorphologist who has taught environmental science and physical geography at Melbourne State College and Melbourne University. He also has presented television weather for 28 years. Rob works as an environmental and communications consultant. He is executive chair of Access Environmental Pty Ltd and a principal of Blue Marble Media. He is also a company director, and a published author and photographer.
He is president of Greening Australia Victoria and national vice-president, chair of the Mornington Peninsula and Westernport Biosphere Reserve Foundation Ltd, a member of the Victorian Coastal Council, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, an Inaugural Fellow of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand, the savewater ambassador and was environment ambassador to the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. He is also the Patron of the Geography Teachers' Association of Victoria, Wildlife Victoria, Life Education Victoria, a mentor of the Environmental Jobs Network and is a Life Ambassador for Australia Day.
Rob also has been a local government councillor and was a councillor of the ACF. He has a rare combination of skills and has the respect of government, business, environmental groups and the community for his approach to sustainable development.
Daniel Connell
Bio:
Dr Daniel Connell holds a joint appointment at the Australian National University in the Crawford School of Economics and Government and the ANU Water Initiative. He is developing courses that focus on water governance in large hydrological systems and public participation in environmental policy. He is also conducting a comparative study of institutional responses to drought and the predicted impacts of climate change in the world's northern and southern temperate zones (southern Australia, southern Africa, south-west USA, Mediterranean rim and northern China).
In 2007 he completed a project funded by Land and Water Australia that assessed water planning in Victoria, South Australia and the Daly River catchment in the Northern Territory against the criteria set out in the National Water Initiative (NWI). The project concluded that none of these jurisdictions yet had the institutional arrangements that make possible the whole-of-system planning and management required by the NWI.
Previously he worked as a journalist in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. His recent book, Water politics in the Murray-Darling Basin, was based on his PhD thesis and examined the NWI and the institutional arrangements in place in the Murray-Darling Basin.
Matt Darcey
Bio:
Matt Darcey is the Director Crops, Forestry and Horticulture Division, Department of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines. Matt has worked in plant based industries in Australia for the last 15 years, including industry development roles in National horticulture and Western Australia.
Matt's present role encompasses directing research, development and extension programs to support the sustainable development of the horticulture, agriculture and forestry industries in the Northern Territory.
Abstract: Futures for Territory water
The northern landscape has been on the brink of transformation for more than a century.
Every generation has brought new promise of a major step-up in development, of a society brimming with economic energy and enterprise. And, once again, the call is out to move the farmers north to turn the Australian tropics into a land of silk and money.
Professor Stephen Garnett, of Charles Darwin University, and Matt Darcey, of the Northern Territory Department of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines will explore the drivers of this latest wave of developmental enthusiasm, the decisions that need to be made, the thresholds we should look for.
They will consider potential opportunities, and their limitations and trade-offs. In addition, they will compare the rhetoric with the nature of investment into research and development. They will not make predictions but will paint possible futures for the Top End, its society, its environment and its water.
Adam Drucker
Bio:
Dr Adam G. Drucker is an environmental/ecological economist and a senior research fellow in Charles Darwin University’s School for Environmental Research. He has been involved in a wide range of natural resource management issues, including sustainable agriculture and rural development, deforestation, biodiversity conservation, water contamination, climate change, environmental policy development and the use of market-based instruments.
Prior to commencing at CDU, Adam held a number of positions in Latin America and Africa with the United Nations, national governments, international NGOs, the University of London and DFID, and the International Livestock Research Institute (CGIAR).
Abstract: An economist’s take on agriculture in the Top End
Adam's presentation will provide an overview of the history and characteristics of agricultural development in the Top End, and consider factors that affect the profitability and long-term environmental sustainability of Top End agricultural practices.
Adam will discuss potential agricultural developments in the context of calls for Australian agriculture to move north, globalisation and climate change. He will also address the degree to which these agricultural development models might be followed, particularly given the rise of the “carbon economy”.
Stephen Garnett
Bio:
Professor Stephen Garnett is Director of the School for Environmental Research at Charles Darwin University. He is an environmental scientist with an interest in the knowledge needed to live sustainably in the tropics. Educated at the Australian National University and James Cook University, he has spent most of the last 25 years in the Australian tropics, primarily in private enterprise and government.
Stephen is recognised nationally and internationally for research on conservation management, particularly of threatened species. He has more recently become involved in a range of research related to the knowledge economy in tropical Australia, including how to increase Indigenous involvement in the economy, how to attract and retain knowledge workers in the tropics and how to pool knowledge resources to increase economic productivity. Stephen is interested in the application of tropical knowledge for the purpose of improving livelihoods and conservation outcomes.
Abstract: Futures for Territory water
The northern landscape has been on the brink of transformation for well over a century. Every generation has brought new promise of a major step up in development, of a society brimming with economic energy and enterprise. And once again the call is out to move the farmers north to turn the Australian tropics into a land of silk and money.
Stephen will be joined Matt Darcey of the Northern Territory Department of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines, to explore the drivers of this latest wave of developmental enthusiasm, the decisions that need to be made, the thresholds we should look for.
Stephen and Matt will consider potential opportunities, and their limitations and trade-offs. And they will compare the rhetoric with the nature of investment into research and development. They will not make predictions but will paint possible futures for the Top End, its society, its environment and its water.
Paul Heaton
Bio:
Paul Heaton has over twenty years experience in water supply and sewerage services, irrigation and catchment management around Australia and overseas.
A civil engineer by training, Paul has a Masters in Catchment Management and Natural Resource Management. He is a Churchill Fellow.
Paul is the General Manager Water Services for the Northern Territory Power and Water Corporation, and is currently the Regional and Rural Water Supplies Program Leader for the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Quality and Treatment.
Donna Jackson
Bio:
Donna Jackson is a woman of Larrakia/Wulna descent. She worked with NT Parks and Wildlife for nine years as technician and ethno-ecological researcher. She has also worked for WWF, Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation, the Northern Land Council (consultant), and lectured in NCRM at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education and Charles Darwin University.
She is co-author on a number of published botanical bulletins and other ethno-biological books dealing with Indigenous ecological knowledge (IEK).
Donna is an elected representative on the Larrakia Nation AC Governing Committee. She holds the Natural and Cultural Resource Management portfolio. She currently coordinates an independent NGO called the Top End Aboriginal Conservation Alliance (TEACA), with the support of ACF, the Poola Foundation, and the two Northern Territory environment centres.
Abstract: Equitable access and rights to water in the NT
Northern Territorians are in a unique position to ensure that there is equitable and sensible water allocation for all users. Aboriginal people have managed Australia’s environment and water over countless millennia and continue to denote sacredness and importance to waterholes, springs and rivers.
However, today in the NT and indeed in Australia, there appears to be inequitable arrangements for the allocation of this precious and sacred resource. With the Top End now perceived as the emerging “food bowl of Australia” there are genuine concerns for the possible impacts on our freshwater ecosystems.
Donna believes we must reconsider the totally unstainable practices that are still being put forward by industry and government and challenge their assumptions about methodologies.
Ian Lancaster
Bio:
Ian Lancaster is the Director Water Management, Natural Resource Management Division, Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts. Ian also holds the statutory position of Controller of Water Resources under the Northern Territory Water Act. The position is responsible for the implementation of the Act which provides for the investigation, allocation, use, control, protection, management and administration of water resources in the Northern Territory.
Abstract: Resource realities and climate variability
Although there are opportunities in Northern Australia for water dependant development there are also significant constraints. There is a perception in some quarters that there are unlimited water resources in the north, unfortunately this perception is exactly that; perception not reality. Careful management of the available water resources is required to ensure our environmental and cultural heritage is maintained in their relatively pristine condition.
However, the increasing demand to provide food and fibre, and possibly energy to the world’s population, and the demand for those precious water resources themselves, may mean some sacrifices will need to be made by those of us who enjoy that relatively pristine environment and an apparent abundance of fresh clean and reliable water resources. Choices may be constrained by needs!
Ian's presentation will look at both the intra and inter annual variability of rainfall in the wet dry tropics and discuss some of the opportunities and constraints to water dependant development in Northern Australia, with an emphasis on the water resources of the Northern Territory.
Felicity Robson
Bio:
Felicity Robson is the General Manager of Sustainability and Corporate Affairs for the OneHarvest group of companies, a 100 per cent family owned and operated horticultural enterprise. She has responsibility for leading the organisation in the journey of sustainability, with particular focus on establishing the Oolloo farming operation in the Northern Territory and north Queensland as an organisation that enriches the local communities and the environment through its daily operations.
A graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership Program and the Australian Institute of Company Directors’, Felicity has participated at state and federal levels in an advisory capacity to the Federal Government’s Food and Agriculture Policy Advisory Committee and DAFF’s EMS Advisory Committee. She sits on the Australian Food and Grocery Council’s Sustainability Committee and participates in the Woolworths Carbon Labelling project.
Abstract: 1,000 ML and 1,728 kms from the closest market
What really happens when a business is allocated 1000 ML of water in the middle of the desert? How can the ‘triple bottom line’ be balanced in a farming operation? Can consumer expectations of taste, convenience and value for money be met by produce from NT? How can government, NGO’s and private enterprise work together to achieve common goals?
Felicity will offer an insight into the commercial reality of operating a multi-site horticultural organisation in the NT, highlighting the opportunity that exists for sustainable, efficient growers of high quality, safe products.
Anne Shepherd (Her Worship the Mayor of Katherine)
Bio:
Anne Shepherd has been a resident in Katherine since 1967, where she raised three children, contributed to public life and ran a business.
She has served on a range of boards, including Katherine Hospital Advisory Board, NT Chamber of Commerce, Nitmiluk Board, Katherine Regional Harmony Group, the Environment and Heritage Committee and Communities for Children.
In 2001 she was awarded the Citizen of the Year Award for her dedication to Katherine and its community.
She was elected to the Katherine Town Council in 2001, and became Deputy Mayor and elected Mayor in 2004.
Abstract: Social and cultural dimensions
While there may be opportunities in northern Australia to address the water crisis in the south, the Top End should not open itself to the shortcomings of the Murray-Darling Basin and other southern catchments.
The community at large has an enormous spread of views including:
- Damming the Katherine River;
- Giving unrestricted access to our underground water supplies to whoever wants it;
- To dramatically reducing current water allocations and increasing our environmental flows.
A suitable balance of water utilisation by agriculture, industry and the environment is by no means an exact science, but is essential to ensure the longevity of water in the Top End.
Will Steffen
Bio:
Professor Will Steffen is Director of the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University, Canberra, and is also science adviser, Australian Greenhouse Office, Australian Government.
From July 2004 through October 2005, Professor Steffen was Visiting Fellow, Bureau of Rural Sciences, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. From 1998 to mid-2004, he served as executive director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, based in Stockholm, Sweden.
His research interests span a broad range within the field of earth system science, with a special emphasis on terrestrial ecosystem interactions with global change, the global carbon cycle, incorporation of human processes in Earth System modelling and analysis, and sustainability and the Earth System.
Abstract: Climate change in the Top End
Will's presentation will focus on the latest understanding of climate change in the context of the Top End.
Drawing primarily from the results of the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he will describe observed trends and projected changes in key climate parameters such as temperature, precipitation and sea level. In particular, post-AR4 research on the risks of higher-than-expected sea-level rises will be discussed.
Finally, a comment or two will be made on the implications for the Top End of climate change elsewhere on the continent and in the region.
Merrilyn Wasson
Bio:
Dr Merrilyn Wasson has been a senior Commonwealth civil servant, a consultant for the World Bank and the UNDP on climate change impacts, and a lecturer in sustainable development and resource management at the ANU.
Prior to joining CDU's School for Environmental Research as a policy analyst, Merrilyn was the regional coordinator of the Arafura and Timor Seas Forum (ATSEF), the first regional forum in which the governments of Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Australia collaborated.
She is currently facilitating the establishment of C-ACCT, the Consortium for Adaptation to Climate Change in the Tropics.
Abstract: Outcomes of the North Australian Water Use Summit: Or why the north cannot water the south!
In December, 2006, seventy water experts from the northern jurisdictions of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland met in Parliament House, Darwin, to discuss priority issues for water use and allocation in the wet and dry tropics of northern Australia.
The priority water use issues in the north were identified as:
- Addressing southern Australian perspectives that northern rivers are a solution to southern water resource scarcity;
- Indigenous rights to and management of water sources and sites for culture and for livelihoods;
- Sustaining freshwater ecosystems, including aquifers, under conditions of climate change in northern Australia;
- Balancing environmental, community, agricultural, industry and mining requirements for water in northern Australia;
- Protecting freshwater ecosystems in northern Australia.
Merrilyn will outline the outcomes and the policy impact of the North Australian Water Use Summit in her presentation, with the emphasis on the debate over the use of northern water resources to address southern water resource scarcity and on Indigenous rights to water sources and sites.
Robert Wasson
Bio:
Professor Robert Wasson is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research at Charles Darwin University.
He is a geomorphologist who has specialised in palaeo-environmental reconstruction in the deserts of Australia and South Asia, the impact of land use on soils and river catchment processes in Australia, New Zealand, India, Indonesia and East Timor, and the development of trans-disciplinary research methods.
His river catchment work has been based on a historically-resolved material budget framework in which the major sources, storages and yields of sediment and nutrients are quantified. The results of this approach have been used as the basis for catchment management in many locations in Australia, producing a defensible underpinning for decision makers.
Prior to his appointment at Charles Darwin University, Robert was the Director of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at the Australian National University.
Abstract: Climate change and water
The best current climate change projections for the Top End suggest little change in total rainfall, but an increase in intensity of rainfall, increased temperature, and possible increased frequency of high magnitude cyclones.
These projections suggest much flashier runoff and stream flows, higher soil erosion rates (by both sheet and gully processes) and so the possibility of more sediment in rivers. Also, faster rates of sand transport in rivers. But rainfall has been steadily rising since the 1970’s, possibly as a result of aerosols from Asia and/or increased heating of southern Australia that is driving a stronger monsoon.
Increasing rainfall may continue, with increased intensity for some decades, with rivers responding by widening and shallowing.