CDU Researcher Profile

• Research interests
• Publications
• Current projects
• Recent completions supervised

Research Interests

Professor Stephen Garnett (Professor of Tropical Knowledge, Charles Darwin University) is interested in the application of knowledge needed to live sustainably in the tropics.

His research interests include:

• Development of the knowledge economy in northern Australia.
• Knowledge-based adaptations to the tropical environment.
• Facilitation of Indigenous businesses, particularly where they draw on Indigenous knowledge.
• Development of business clusters and the opportunities they provide to expand the tropical knowledge economy.
• Use of insurance in management of environmental and social risk.
• Biodiversity conservation, particularly threatened tropical granivorous birds.
  
  

Recent Publications

Books

1. Garnett, S. T. (1992). The Action Plan for Australian Birds. Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service, Canberra.
2. Garnett, S. T. and Crowley, G. M. (2000). The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2000. Environment Australia, Canberra.
   

Refereed papers

1. Garnett, S. T. submitted. Economics of lure cropping to reduce crop damage by cockatoos. Wildlife Society Bulletin.
2. Garnett, S.T., Harrington, G.N., Freeman, A.N.D. and Holmes, G. (2004) The Yellow White-eye Zosterops lutea on eastern Cape York Peninsula.  Australian Field Ornithology, 21 (3), pp118-120
3. Garnett, S. T. , Clarkson, J. R., Felton, A., Harrington, G.N. and Freeman, A.N.D. submitted. The feeding ecology of the Star Finch Neochmia ruficauda clarescens at Princess Charlotte Bay, Cape York Peninsula in the early wet season. Emu.
4. Legge, S., Heinsohn, R., Garnett, S. T. (2004). Nest hollow availability and breeding population size of eclectus parrots, Eclectus roratus, on Cape York Peninsula, Australia. Wildlife Research, 31, pp 149-161.
5. Smith, K. and Garnett, S. T. (2003). Animal-plant interaction: a rainforest conservation manager’s perspective. Pp 17-19. In: Kanowski, J., Catterall, C. P., Dennis, A. J. and Westcott, D. A. (eds). Animal-Plant Interaction in Rainforest Conservation and Restoration. Workshop Proceddings 11 November 2003. Rainforest CRC, Cairns.
6. Dennis, A. J., Garnett, S. T. and Moran, C. (2003). Seed dispersal in rainforest conservation and restoration. In: Kanowski, J., Catterall, C. P., Dennis, A. J. and Westcott, D. A. (eds). Animal-Plant Interaction in Rainforest Conservation and Restoration. Workshop Proceddings 11 November 2003. Rainforest CRC, Cairns.
7. Todd., M. K., Felton, A. and Garnett, S. T. (2003). Morphological and dietary differences between common and uncommon subspecies of Crimson Finch Neochmia phaeton and Star Finch Neochmia ruficauda in Northern Australia. Emu, 102, pp 141-148.
8. Bennett, P., Owens, I., Nussey, D., Garnett, S. T. and Crowley, G. M. (2003). Mechanisms of extinction in birds: phylogeny, ecology and threats. Chapter 7. In: Phylogeny and Conservation. Zoological Society of London, London.
9. Garnett, S. T., Crowley, G. M. and Balmford, A. (2003). The Costs and Effectiveness of Funding the Conservation of Australian Threatened Birds. BioScience, 53, pp 658-665.
10. Garnett, S. T., Crowley, G. M. and Stattersfield, A. J. (2003). Changes in the conservation status of Australian birds resulting from differences in taxonomy, knowledge and the definitions of threat. Biological Conservation, 113, pp 269-276.
11. Garnett, S. T., Crowley, G. M. and Barrett, G. (2003). ‘Birds’ in National Land and Water Resources Audit. Department of Primary Industries and Energy, Canberra.
12. Garnett, S. T. (2003). Rearing conservation projects to maturity – changing the metaphor for conservation success. Oryx, 37, pp 1-2.
13. Garnett, S. T. (2001). Third Line Insurance – reducing the risk to natural capital. Australian Journal of Environmental Management, 8, pp 233-238.
14. Crowley, G. M. and Garnett, S. T. (2001). Food value and tree selection in Glossy Black-Cockatoos Calyptorhynchus lathami. Austral Ecology, 26, pp 116-126.
15. Garnett, S. T., Britton, P. and Crowley, G. M. (2000). A northward extension of range of the Glossy Black-Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus lathami. Sunbird, 30, pp 18-22.
16. Garnett, S. T. (2000). Australia, New Zealand and the south-west Pacific. Overview. pp 34-35. In: Snyder, N., McGowan, P., Gilardi, J. and Grajal, A. (eds). Parrots. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan 2000-2004. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
17. Garnett, S. T. (1999). Still many miles to Babylon: a response to Harry Recher. Australian Zoologist, 31, pp 28-29.
18. Crowley, G. M. and Garnett, S. T. (2000). Changing fire management in the pastoral lands of Cape York Peninsula of northeast Australia, 1623-1996. Australian Geographical Studies, 38, pp 10-26.
19. Garnett, S. T., Whybird, O. and Spencer, H. (1999). The conservation status of the Spectacled Flying-fox in Australia. Australian Zoologist, 31, pp 38-54.
20. Garnett, S. T., Pedler, L. P. and Crowley, G. M. (1999). Breeding biology of the Glossy Black-Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus on Kangaroo Island. Emu, 99, pp 262-279.
21. Crowley, G. M. and Garnett, S. T. (1999). Seeds of the annual grasses Schizachyrium spp. as a food resource for tropical granivorous birds. Australian Journal of Ecology, 24, pp 208-220.
22. Garnett, S. T. and Crowley, G. M. (1999). The Golden-shouldered Parrot. In: Higgins, P.J.(ed). Handbook of Birds of Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. Vol.1. Edited by Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
23. Garnett, S. T., Crowley, G. M., Delaney, M. and Shephard, P. (1998). Fluctuations in the population of Squatter Pigeon Geophaps scripta at Coen, Cape York Peninsula. Sunbird, 28, pp 53-54.
24. Garnett, S. T. (1998). Clarification of the type locality of the Golden-shouldered Parrot. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists Club, 118, pp 196-200.
25. Crowley, G. M. and Garnett, S. T. (1999). Vegetation change in the grasslands and grassy woodlands of central Cape York Peninsula. Pacific Conservation Biology, 4, pp 132-148.
26. Crowley, G. M., Garnett, S. T. and Pedler, L. P. (1999). Assessment of the role of captive breeding and translocation in the recovery of the Glossy Black-Cockatoo in South Australia. Birds Australia Report series 5.
    
    

Current Projects

Mobility in dental professionals in the Northern Territory
Project Team: Debbie Hall, Stephen Garnett, Steve Guthridge, Tony Barnes
Partner: Australian Dental Association (Northern Territory), Australian Dental Therapists Association (Northern Territory)
Funding: CDU Internal Grant, ARC Linkage
There is a general shortage of skilled and professional workers in the NT. In the case of dental professionals, this reduces accessibility to oral health services, particularly in rural and remote areas. Although the recruitment and retention of a skilled workforce is a government priority, there is currently insufficient empirical evidence to develop effective policies to support government workforce strategies. This study, by identifying and ranking factors which influence recruitment, retention and loss from the NT has the potential to influence workforce policy, to enhance dental professional recruitment strategies and to reduce the rates of staff turnover. Ultimately this should improve the delivery of oral health services with associated improvement in the well being of communities.

Development of business clusters and the opportunities they provide to expand the tropical knowledge economy
Project Team: Stephen Garnett, Debbie Hall, Larry Bannister, Janice Warren
Partner: NT Department of Business Economic and Regional Development
Funding: NT Department of Business Economic and Regional Development

Business Partnering across northern Australia is considered a priority by the NT Government which is seeking greater engagement by the NT's private R&D sector in the development and marketing of tropical "know-how" (expertise, products and services), and a business partnering/business matching exercise across the tropical north would benefit tropical businesses and industries (especially those with R&D programs) in all three jurisdictions: the NT, Qld and WA. It is hoped that business matching or business partnering between the three jurisdictions can establish “critical mass” in tropical knowledge by the private sector across northern Australia, with potential to export to our nearest overseas neighbours. The aim of this project is to document this process as it occurs across different sectors of the economy to understand why some clustering succeeds and some fails.

Use of insurance in management of environmental and social risk
Project Team: Stephen Garnett
This project will develop the proposal that values should be insured before activities that might diminish them are permitted and that the risks assessment required for insurance be transferred to institutions that have an economic incentive to estimate risks correctly. This ‘third line insurance’ will contribute to making the environmental bottom line both objective and auditable, strengthening triple bottom line reporting. Research will focus on the development of appropriate insurance governance regimes and, in collaboration with the insurance industry, refinement of existing models in a series of case studies.

Charles Darwin University Public Lecture Series
Project Team: Stephen Garnett, Debbie Hall, Jennifer Cahill
Funding: CDU Corporate Communications
A continuing dialogue between researchers, academics and the community is essential if the knowledge economy is to thrive. In 2005 and again in 2006 a public lecture series has been organized that provides a venue for leading thinkers from the university to disseminate their latest ideas to community opinion leaders and the general public.

Recent Completions Supervised