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Leadership

The Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens Incorporated (CHABG) is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting the protection, conservation and enhancement of Australian plants and their ecosystems. It works with Australian botanic gardens and other institutions to support and carry out research, collaborate with integrated conservation management, promote knowledge sharing and education about plants and plant communities and provide a forum to promote the diversity of work undertaken by botanic gardens. The Australian Seed Bank Partnership is the principal conservation program of CHABG Inc. CHABG’s management committee draws on the expertise of senior executives from Australia’s capital city botanic gardens who guide the strategic direction of the Partnership’s work to ensure it addresses national plant conservation priorities and contributes to international conservation targets.

 

 

Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens Incorporated
 

Dr Judy West
 

Dr Judy West
Executive Director
Australian National Botanic Gardens
Canberra

 

Prof Timothy Entwisle
Director and Chief Executive
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
Melbourne

Mr Ross McKinnon
 

Mr Ross McKinnon
Curator
Brisbane Botanic Gardens
Brisbane

Mr Mark Fountain
Director
Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens
Hobart

Mr Mark Webb
 

Mr Mark Webb
Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority (Kings Park)
Perth

Mr Stephen Forbes

Mr Stephen Forbes
Director
Botanic Gardens of Adelaide
Adelaide

Prof David Mabberley

Prof David Mabberley
Executive Director
Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust
Sydney

Ms Susan Wills

Ms Susan Wills
Director
George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens
Darwin

 

Secretariat
 

Dr Lucy Sutherland

Dr Lucy A. Sutherland
National Coordinator
Australian Seed Bank Partnership

Lucy is the National Coordinator of the Australian Seed Bank Partnership and a visiting lecturer at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina in Peru.  She holds a research Masters and PhD in botanic gardens management and has integrated her academic studies in ecology and the social sciences with her practical experience in botanic gardens and protected area management, policy and practice.  Lucy has published and presented papers on botanic gardens focusing on such topics as collections management, biodiversity and plant conservation, nature-based tourism, education and interpretation policy and practice.

 

 

National Steering Committee

The national steering committee for the Australian Seed Bank Partnership brings together a team of leading experts from the members of the Partnership who help deliver real plant conservation outcomes. These experts range from seed scientists, botanists, taxonomists and ecologists to horticulturalists and plant conservation ambassadors.

Commonwealth and Australian Capital Territory

Tom North – Australian National Botanic Gardens and Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (SEWPAC)

Tom is Seed Bank Manager at the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

Tom has been involved in seed banking with both the horticultural and native revegetation industries for the past 15 years. His particular interests include the use of seed banks as a tool for better ex situ conservation of native species and to facilitate restoration and recovery programs across broad landscapes.

 

Tom NorthTom North

New South Wales

Dr Peter Cuneo The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan

Peter Cuneo is Manager – Natural Heritage at The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan, where he is responsible for conservation planning and natural area management. He is also the project leader of the NSW Seedbank program, including the partnership with Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank.

Peter has been closely involved in the horticultural development of The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan (formerly known as Mount Annan Botanic Garden) since it opened in 1988. His research interest is the weed ecology of invasive African olive, which is a problem weed at the Garden. He has written several research papers on this species as part of his PhD (by publication) with Macquarie University.

 

Peter Cuneo is researching African olive, a problem weed at The Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan. Photo: Simone Cotterell
Peter Cuneo
Photo: Simone Cotterell

Northern Territory

Coordinator To be advised – Northern Territory Seed Bank

 

 

Queensland

Philip Cameron – Brisbane Botanic Gardens

Philip Cameron is the Senior Botanic Officer and Seed Bank Manager at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mt Coot-tha.

His background is in botany and plant biology, and he has been involved in seed banking and genebank management for almost 30 years.  In 1983 he established the seed bank at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens in conjunction with the Botanic Gardens International Seed Exchange Program.  In 1998 he was appointed an Honorary Research Associate with the Queensland Herbarium.

Since 2004, under the auspices, and with the financial support of the Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, he has established the conservation seed bank at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens within the Queensland Seeds for Life partnership.

 

Philip Cameron
Philip Cameron

South Australia

Dr Phil Ainsley – South Australian Seed Conservation Centre, Adelaide Botanic Gardens

Phil is Manager at the South Australian Seed Conservation Centre, and has been at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since 2002.

Phil also lectures at the University of Adelaide, where he supervises research officers and postgraduate students. His primary research interest is in seed ecology, and he has a strong background in plant tissue culture.

Phil has researched and developed germination procedures for a wide range of nationally threatened native plant species, including:

  • Monarto mintbush (Prostanthera eurybioides)
  • slender bell fruit (Codonocarpus pyramidalis)
  • Rutaceae species.
Dr Phil Ainsley’s research includes the impact of fire and climate change on seed ecology.
Phil Ainsley

Tasmania

James Wood – Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens

James Wood is the seed bank manager of the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens and has worked in and around seed banking for over 20 years. He took on his current post in December 2005 after working at RBG, Kew's Seed Conservation Department for 7 years. Prior to that, he held a horticultural support post for the Kew seed bank for 6 years. His first experience of seed science was as a student when he spent his industrial placement year working in research at the Kew seed bank.

Running and overseeing seed bank germination tests for over 14 years, James has a broad background and interest in the difficulties of wild species germination. He also has an interest in the effective recording and analysis of this data.

 

James Wood

Victoria

Neville Walsh – Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

Neville is the Senior Conservation Botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, and manages the Victorian Conservation Seedbank program.

Neville’s background is in botanical survey, particularly of alpine and subalpine vegetation. He surveys and develops recovery strategies for threatened Victorian plants and conducts taxonomic research in several plant groups, including:

  • the genus Pomaderris in the family Rhamnaceae
  • Melicytus (Violaceae)
  • genera of Australian Asteraceae, Poaceae and Lobeliaceae (Campanulaceae subfamily Lobeloideae).

Neville is a member of the Australian Plant Census working group, the Mountain Invasions Research Network (MIREN), and recovery teams for threatened plants and animals in Victoria. He is co-editor of Flora of Victoria, and has submitted accounts of various plant groups for publication in the Flora of Australia.

 

Neville Walsh in the field at Brumby Point, Nunniong Plateau, Victoria. Photo: J. Walsh
Neville Walsh

Western Australia

Dr David Merritt – Kings Park and Botanic Garden

David Merritt is a research scientist at the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority. He manages the Authority’s seed science programs, which focus on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of native seed use in conservation and restoration.

David’s research interests include seed cryostorage, seed storage physiology and behaviour, seed germination biology and ecology, and seed longevity for improving conservation seed banking of Australian species. He also researches seedling establishment in restoration programs, such as studying the action of karrikinolide – the major germination-active chemical in smoke – in seed germination and its application as a restoration tool.

 

Dr David Merritt
David Merritt

United Kingdom

Dr Paul P. Smith Kew Millennium Seed Bank

Paul is head of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, and the leader of the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership.

Paul is a specialist in ecology and plant diversity in southern, central and eastern Africa. He has extensive experience in seed conservation, ecological survey, botanical inventory, vegetation mapping, and environmental monitoring. He has also worked in land planning and ecotourism in Zambia’s Luangwa Valley.

Paul has published numerous papers in the field of ecology and plant diversity, and is the author of two field guides to the plants of south-central Africa. He edited the Ecological Survey of Zambia (2001) and the Vegetation Atlas of Madagascar (2007), both published by Kew.

 

Dr Paul Smith is head of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, a network of more than 120 plant science institutions in 54 countries.
Paul Smith

Non-Government Organisations (NGO's)

Anne Cochrane – Australian Network for Plant Conservation

Anne is a Committee Member of the Australian Network for Plant Conservation (ANPC). The ANPC's activities are overseen by this committee which represents a range of stakeholders in plant conservation. Anne has been a long term member of the ANPC and she has contributed over many years through publications in the ANPC quarterly bulletin, participation in  national conferences and writing a chapter for ANPC's book entitled Plant Germplasm Conservation in Australia: strategies and guidelines for developing, managing and utilising ex situ collections

Anne is a senior research scientist with the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation, where she manages the WA government’s seed bank for conservation-significant flora. Anne collects and conserves seeds from a large range of native species. She also screens seeds for their response to temperature thresholds. Anne is currently undertaking PhD research into the impact of climatic factors on seed germination and early seedling growth. She has published several scientific papers in the areas of off-site plant conservation, seed conservation for threatened plant reintroduction, and seed-based approaches for identifying flora at risk from climate change.

 

Anne Cochrane
 

Greening Australia

Representative to be advised