Anthony holds a professorship in the Centre for Environmental Management at the University of Free State, and he is active in the commercial world within the real estate development, financial services and water treatment technology sectors.

He is an editor of the journal Water Policy responsible for all of the African papers.

Other research interests include examining past sea-level change on the east coast of Australia over the last 20,000 years, fringing reef development and growth in the GBR and the sources, transport and fate of fine sediments in the GBR lagoon.

Gary is currently the Manager for Water Management and Use in the Department of Natural Resources and Mines, based in the Townsville office.

Since graduating from James Cook University with a Batchelor of Science, Anthony has undertaken both field and office roles across planning, assessment and compliance. This experience gained across a range of industries has helped in the shaping and delivery the current compliance effort.

Adam joined the Queensland Public Sector in 1995, as a Technical Officer with the then Department of Primary Industries (DPI). Since that time Adam has held a number of positions within government leading and co-ordinating a diverse array of natural resource management, sustainable farming system and agricultural industry development initiatives.

Adam currently holds the position of Regional Director – North, with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF). His geographic area of responsibility encompasses the mighty Burdekin River catchment out to the border with the Northern Territory and north to the Torres Straits.

With over 20 years of professional experience, Adam has developed a solid understanding of northern production systems and allied supply and value chains. He maintains a genuine passion for and commitment to enabling appropriate and sustainable agricultural industry development, particularly as it relates to the Northern Australia and the broader Asia Pacific Region.

In 1993, he completed a PhD studying the behaviour and ecology of coral reef triggerfish in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Although his career has concentrated on coral reef management he has also worked in reef tourism and science.

As Technical Manager Ecology for the National Land and Water Resources Audit, Jim managed the first national assessments of water quality, catchment, river and estuary condition and terrestrial biodiversity. Through 2005-2007 he helped deliver the GBR Coastal Wetland Protection Program. Engagements for GBRMPA have included health assessments for the Pioneer, O’Connell and Haughton Rivers, a management case study on the Lower Burdekin floodplain and vulnerability assessments for freshwater and estuarine wetlands across the GBR catchment.

Jim’s client base includes three levels of government, mining, energy and primary industry sectors, research, legal, international aid and community based organisations.

Alice focuses on precision agriculture and how it can be further used by growers in the Burdekin.  Alice is also involved in projects looking at the use of Proximal sensors and how this can relate to nitrogen levels in biomass.

Alice also has a heavy role in producing whole farm nutrient plans as part of the RP161 program that is helping growers apply their nutrients in a way that specifically relate to their farms nutritional requirements.

Billie enjoys her position with Farmacist as it involves helping growers improve their productivity and economic returns whilst reducing their impact on the environment.

Billie has been in the Burdekin for nearly three years.  Prior to this she was living near Bundaberg, and before that she grew up on cattle stations in the Northern Territory.

Rabobank’s RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness team is charged with analysing developments in food and agricultural markets and industries, and advising the bank and its clients on strategic implications for their business.

Georgia has a degree in Economics (Social Science) from the University of Sydney and was previously with the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore as business programme manager, providing significant exposure to Australian business and government engagement in the Asian region.

Georgia’s knowledge of agricultural production, processing and marketing has developed through marketing and supply chain management roles held within the Lempriere Group and as a consultant working on projects for local and federal Government and rural industry groups with natural resources and agricultural specialists Arche Consulting.

Matt has an Environmental Science background and a broad base of experience within the biotechnology, environmental, agricultural and communications sectors. Matt’s early years were spent on water quality and vegetation management in Western Australia. He moved to Queensland in 2004 and has been working within the biotech and agricultural industries on challenging projects that included the registration of new products with the APVMA, the commercialisation of natural insecticides, and the complexities of biofuels, GM crops, and infrastructure within the Australian grains industry.

Matt’s role at CANEGROWERS allows him to deal with a broad range of topics is environment and agriculture. This often means he is in the middle of some pretty challenging problems and complex issues. A lot of them relate to the health of the Great Barrier Reef. Most of them involve change of some kind. All of them have strong views and opinions which need to be considered and brought together to find an answer. Matt likes to work at the point where farm productivity, grower viability and environmental stewardship meet. He believes this is the definition of agricultural sustainability.

“It’s easy to find the problems – it takes hard work to find the answers and sheer determination to make them work!”

David completed his degree in mechanical engineering at the Queensland University of Technology and has held positions in project management, asset and reliability engineering as well as contract and risk management.  Born and bred in the Burdekin, David grew up on sugar cane farms and is now the third generation involved with the farms.

In 2013, Steve formed a consultancy, AgriTech Solutions, that has worked on several water and irrigation related areas including automation of surface irrigation, improving energy efficiency and reducing energy costs of irrigation, irrigation system design, and building smarter irrigation systems.

Working for Growcom since mid 2003 Scott is the principle designer of the Growcom Hort360 and brings a wealth of experience in developing and delivering Hort360 for productivity, business and stewardship outcomes.

In delivery of the key water use efficiency projects Scott is a key driver in the development of a series of information databases enabling industries and individual irrigators to better position themselves to address the changing needs of the market place, climate variation and government legislation.

Through the Rural Water Use Efficiency Initiative Scott has provided growers with numerous workshops and field days during the past 15 years. During this time he has mentored a number of Water for Profit and Land and Water staff in dealing with irrigation related matters and provided support in their professional development.

Scott also has oversight of Growcom’s water policy and sits on Queensland Farmers Federations’ Water & Energy Policy Committee and Qld DAF Regional Economic Development Programme steering committee assisting growers to diversify.

Through these mechanisms Scott is looking to influence decision making to ensure the sustainability of the horticulture industry and to ensure that producers have easy access to tools / systems / processes to assist with adaptation of an ever changing climate both economically and meteorologically.

For more information on his research group, projects and collaborations see the JCU eResearch Centre web site: http://eresearch.jcu.edu.au.  He is currently working with CSIRO and other partners to introduce new technologies into the beef supply chain.

Scott returned to Townsville in 2006, as Operations Manager at NQ Dry Tropics, a not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation that supports the Burdekin Dry Tropics community to sustainably manage its land and water.  He has been CEO since 2010.

He is passionate about working collaboratively with land managers to deliver smarter, more profitable and more environmentally sustainable solutions to the way in which we use our natural resources.

He holds an NRM Australia Day Medallion that was awarded by the Australia Day Council for his contribution to regional water resource planning in Queensland.  Tom was an inaugural Director of Irrigation Australia Limited, a founding member of the Australian Water Accounting Standards Board and is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia.

Lawrence has been involved with the Australian Sugarcane industry for over 25 years. During his employment he has worked in the fields of plant breeding, agronomy, natural resource management and extension. He has also travelled extensively during his working career to PNG, South Africa, Swaziland, Argentina, Brazil, USA, Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Lawrence also applies his knowledge to his own cane farm outside of Ingham; in his spare time.

Frank has farmed previously in the BRIA regions in both Clare and Dalbeg until 2011 and began farming in the Delta in 2013.

Frank was a previous director of Invicta Canegrowers, BRIA committee and represented Sugar industry in Young Rural Leaders Program in Canberra in 2005.  Frank is presently involved in Project Catalyst, Systems Repairs, a member of AWA and community groups.