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Our People

Flow-MER is a collaboration of people representing several fields of research and many partner organisations.

Image: Alana from the CEWO takes notes during a fish survey in the Lower Lakes and Coorong.
Photo credit: SARDI, 2019

Partner Organisations

Meet the Teams

Basin Themes

Basin Theme: Biodiversity

Dr Heather McGinness

Heather is a CSIRO Senior Research Scientist specialising in river floodplain and wetland ecology, with a particular interest in the links and interactions between water, vegetation and fauna such as birds. Heather is the Theme Leader for the CEWO Flow-MER Diversity Theme and is also the Project Leader for a research project satellite-tracking the movements of waterbirds.

Skye Wassens

Skye is the Principal Scientist and an internationally recognised ecologist at Charles Sturt University specialising in aquatic ecology and the conservation of wetland dependant amphibians.

Luke Lloyd-Jones

Luke is a CSIRO Research Scientist with DATA61. Luke is an applied statistician with experience in applications in ecology, fisheries, and human genetics, including very large and complex datasets. He focuses on the development and implementation of novel statistical and machine learning methods and provides high-level analytical and statistical modelling expertise for the vast amounts of interesting data being generated by the CEWO waterbird movement tracking project and also contributes to reporting and manuscript preparation.

Shane Brooks

Shane is an aquatic ecologist with over 30 years of experience, and a passion for robust science, sustainable management and restoration. He seeks to ensure environmental water management is underpinned by the best available science, while simultaneously creating new knowledge.

Art Langston

Art is a CSIRO GIS and spatial ecology specialist with a background in landscape and conservation ecology. Art created the GIS code that runs once a week to analyse and classify the satellite-tracking data for the CEWO waterbird movements research and creates the maps that show where the birds have moved. Art now provides ongoing maintenance and improvements for the waterbird movement GIS processing, data generation, classification and mapping.

Freya Robinson

Freya is a CSIRO Research Technician working with the CEWO waterbird satellite tracking project. Freya leads many of the project’s fieldwork activities (including planning, logistics, bird survey, bird capture and satellite tagging, bird measurements and sampling, and monitoring camera deployment). Freya also facilitates the project’s lab and office work, including equipment and sample preparation and processing, data management, data analysis, communications (in particular running the project’s website and social media), literature review, reporting and manuscript preparation.

Jessica Hodgson

Jessica is a CSIRO Research Technician working with the CEWO waterbird satellite tracking project. Jessica is part of the project’s fieldwork team, leading the team’s UAV drone surveys while also contributing to planning, logistics, bird survey, bird capture and satellite tagging, bird measurements and sampling, and monitoring camera deployment. Jessica also facilitates the project’s lab and office work, including equipment and sample preparation and processing, data management, data analysis, reporting and manuscript preparation.

Dr Joanne Bennett

Joanne is a community ecologist. Her primary research goal is to discover the general principles that are essential to effectively manage biodiversity under global changes particularly land-use and climate change. She has worked on a wide range of taxa including mammals, reptiles, invertebrates, birds and vegetation in a wide of ecosystems.

Basin Theme: Ecosystem Diversity

Dr Shane Brooks

Shane is an aquatic ecologist with over 30 years of experience, and a passion for robust science, sustainable management and restoration. He seeks to ensure environmental water management is underpinned by the best available science, while simultaneously creating new knowledge.

Dr Joanne Bennett

Joanne is a community ecologist. Her primary research goal is to discover the general principles that are essential to effectively manage biodiversity under global changes particularly land-use and climate change. She has worked on a wide range of taxa including mammals, reptiles, invertebrates, birds and vegetation in a wide of ecosystems.

Basin Theme: Fish

Dr Ivor Stuart

Ivor is the Theme Leader for the CEWO FLow-MER Fish Theme, and a freshwater fisheries biologist – with over 25 years industry experience in environmental flow planning, river management, fish passage and fish ecology. Ivor has worked in the tropical north, the semi-arid western rivers of NSW/Qld and in the temperate rivers of Victoria.

Dr Zeb Tonkin

Zeb is the Co-Project Leader for Flow-MER Fish population abundance and diversity project, and a senior scientist at the Arthur Rylah Institute. He currently manages a wide variety of projects relating to recruitment dynamics and migratory behaviour of freshwater fish, environmental flows, floodplain fish assemblages and habitat restoration.

Dr Charles Todd

Charles is the Project Leader for FLOW-MER Population models project. He develops software to assist with managing native freshwater fish and created the Murray Cod management model, as well as undertaking a comprehensive scoping study for applying the template of the Murray Cod management model to other fish species in the MDB.

Dr Jarod Lyon

Jarod is the Principal Scientist and Section Leader of the Applied Aquatic Ecology Section at the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research. Jarod is particularly interested in undertaking research which has direct applicability to management, and as such has strong links with organisations such as the MDBA, Catchment Management Authorities, Fisheries Victoria and Government agencies.

Dr Wayne Koster

Wayne Koster is a fish ecologist at the Arthur Rylah Institute and the focus of much of his work is assessing the responses of native fish to environmental flows. Wayne is leading the native fish component of the Goulburn Selected Area Intervention Monitoring 5-year program to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental water use in the Murray-Darling.

Dr Chris Bice

Chris is the Fish and Integrated Research Task Leader, and his research focuses on the fish movement, fish passage, threatened species ecology and the response of fishes to changing in flow regimes.

Dr Brenton Zampatti

Brenton is the co-Project Leader for the Flows, Movement and Fish Population Dynamics research project, and a Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO. He has worked for 25 years on the ecology of freshwater and estuarine fish across south-eastern Australia, including flow-related ecology and population dynamics, habitat requirements, and fish movement and passage. He works closely with managers and the community to transfer knowledge and research outcomes to the conservation of freshwater ecosystems.

Dr Jason Thiem

Jason is a Fisheries Scientist with the NSW Department of Primary Industries and co-Project Leader for the Flows, Movement and Fish Population Dynamics research project. Jason’s current research program is focussed on the abiotic drivers of fish movement, spawning and recruitment within the Murray-Darling Basin, with a strong focus on riverine connectivity.

Dr Gavin Butler

Fisheries leader. I oversee and direct the fish sampling, analysis and reporting for the project. I even get my feet wet sampling from time to time.

Professor Lee Baumgartner

Lee is a Freshwater Fish Ecologist who designs, supervises and undertakes into various aspects of the biology and ecology of freshwater fish. His research has been in several broad areas, including fish passage and fish migration, dietary interactions among native fish species, the impact of human disturbance on aquatic ecosystems and, more recently, the effectiveness of native fish stocking.

Assoc Professor Qifeng Ye

Qifeng is a fish ecologist with special interest in environmental water requirements of native fish and ecological impacts of river regulation.

Sally Hladyz

Sally is a community and ecosystem freshwater ecologist based at the Arthur Rylah Institute. Her research focus is on linking biodiversity, ecosystem function and Food webs in an applied context to help improve the management of freshwater ecosystems. She has expertise in determining environmental flow benefits for rivers and wetlands in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Basin Theme: Food webs and water quality

Dr Paul McInerney

Paul’s research focus areas include Food webs, how energy flow in ecosystems may be changed by both biotic and abiotic disturbance, or by man-made intervention, and how invasive species alter the structure and function within freshwater ecosystems. He is also interested in the responses of Basal resources to altered ecosystem conditions, and how this influences Food webs.

Gavin Rees

Gavin trained as a microbiologist and has worked on projects as diverse as waste water treatment and using microbes to clean up hydrocarbon-contaminated soils.  He focuses on understanding the many roles microbes play in rivers and wetlands including how organisms respond to a variety of environmental conditions, whether natural or man-made, and the consequences of those responses.

Dr Joanne Bennett

Joanne is a community and spatial ecologist. Her primary research goal is to discover the general principles that are essential to effectively manage biodiversity under global changes particularly land-use and climate change. She has worked on a wide range of taxa including mammals, reptiles, invertebrates, birds and vegetation in a wide of ecosystems.

James Hitchcock

James is an aquatic ecologist and post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Canberra. His research focuses on Food webs, water quality, and ecosystem productivity. He is interested in understanding how human activity is disrupting aquatic Food webs and assessing potential management interventions.

Basin Theme: Hydrology

Dr. Ashmita Sengupta

Dr. Ashmita Sengupta is a Senior Research Scientist at Land and Water CSIRO and ecohydrologist with expertise in optimization, adaptive management of water resources geared to protect ecosystem health, sustainable low impact development design, and system vulnerabilities under climate change and other pressures.

Basin Theme: Vegetation

Tanya Doody

Dr Tanya Doody is a CSIRO Principal Research Scientist specialising in ecohydrology with a focus on field measurement of tree water use to understand vegetation water requirements and the links between water availability and vegetation condition. Tanya leads the Flow MER vegetation Theme as well as a research project that will enable scaling of floodplain tree water use and hence condition, across the Murray-Darling Basin using remote sensing.

Cherie Campbell

Cherie Campbell is a vegetation ecologist interested in the maintenance and recovery of wetland and floodplain vegetation in river-floodplain ecosystems. Cherie leads a research project that will develop a framework of condition benchmarks and a process for evaluating outcomes for non-woody wetland and floodplain vegetation at a Basin-scale.

Fiona Dyer

Fiona Dyer is a freshwater scientist interested in understanding the way freshwater systems respond to natural and man-made variations in flow so that she can inform decision making in water resource management. Fiona leads the evaluation of the outcomes from using environmental water to support the diversity and condition of non-woody vegetation.

Selected Areas

Selected Area: Edward/Kolety-Wakool

Professor Robyn Watts

Robyn is an aquatic ecologist and ecohydrologist at Charles Sturt University and leads the Edward/Kolety-Wakool team. She undertakes interdisciplinary research in partnership with biophysical scientists, social scientists and community organisations to help inform the adaptive management and restoration of river ecosystems.

Dr Nicole McCasker

Nicole is a freshwater ecologist at Charles Sturt University and researches the ecology of freshwater fish during their early life stages, as well as the functional and conservation ecology of freshwater mussels in altered rivers. She has a soft spot for data wrangling and data visualisation.

Dr Xiaoying (Sha sha) Liu

Sha sha is a Research Fellow and environmental scientist at Charles Sturt University. She has a research background in environmental chemistry and management responses to water pollution, land use change and climate change, with a focus on cycling of nutrients and carbon in freshwater environments.

John Trethewie

John is a Senior Technical Officer at Charles Sturt University with expertise in freshwater fish ecology and aquatic fauna survey techniques. He is currently involved in monitoring early life history and recruitment of native fish.

Associate Professor Catherine Allan

Catherine, an Associate Professor at Charles Sturt University, undertakes social and institutional research in natural resource and environmental management contexts. She has especial interest in adaptive and collaborative management of surface and ground water, soil and vegetation.

Dr Jason Thiem

Jason is a Fisheries Scientist with the NSW Department of Primary Industries. Jason’s current research program is focussed on the abiotic drivers of fish movement, spawning and recruitment within the Murray-Darling Basin, with a strong focus on riverine connectivity

Dr Meaghan Duncan

Meaghan is a Freshwater Fish Ecologist with the NSW Department of Primary Industries with expertise in molecular ecology and freshwater fish ecology. Her current research focuses on using genetic techniques to provide essential information to enable effective management of a wide range of fish species.

Dr Daniel Wright

Daniel is a Fisheries Scientist at the NSW Department of Primary Industries. He currently investigates fish community responses to environmental flows in the Murray-Darling Basin and is broadly interested in applied ecological research that facilitates fisheries management decisions.

Dr Geoff Vietz

Geoff is the Principal Scientist and Director of the consulting company Streamology, as well as being a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He has extensive experience on geomorphology, environmental flows, ecohydraulics, physical form monitoring and waterway management.

Neil Sutton

Neil is an Environmental Scientist at the consultancy Streamology. He has extensive experience in monitoring river channel morphology, riparian vegetation and coastal/foreshore change. His passion lies in using data to tell rich, evocative stories.

Professor Nick Bond

Nick is Director of the Centre for Freshwater Ecosystems at La Trobe University. His research focuses on patterns and processes in aquatic ecosystems, with a strong focus on the effects of hydrology, climate and catchment influences.

Dr James Van Dyke

James is a Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences at La Trobe University. His research focuses on the physiological links between environmental change and wildlife declines, and he has a broad background in conservation physiology of vertebrates.

Sascha Healy

Sascha is an Environmental Water Manager based in the Lower Murray-Darling with the Biodiversity and Conservation Division of the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. She has expertise in project management, ecological monitoring and aquatic and floodplain plant identification. Sascha monitors aquatic vegetation response to flows to help inform and prioritise where environmental water should be delivered.

Julia Howitt

Julia was an environmental chemist and member of the Edward/Kolety-Wakool research team from 2010 to 2020. Sadly, Julia passed away in April 2020. The legacy of her contribution to our understanding of carbon dynamics and water quality (especially Hypoxic blackwater) in the Murray-Darling Basin is ongoing. We will continue to use long-term datasets that Julia helped establish, to predict outcomes of environmental watering actions and assist the management of river ecosystems.

Selected Area: Gwydir

Dr Paul Frazier

I am one of the Project Directors for the MER Program. I also organise and implement the communication strategies for the MER Program in the Gwydir Selected Area. My role involves liaising with all stakeholders and analysing, writing up and communicating our findings with CEWO through our annual reports.

Dr Mark Southwell

I am one of the Project Managers for the Gwydir Selected Area. I organise and undertake field trips, liaise with stakeholders in both areas and carry out technical work associated with hydrology and vegetation indicators. My role also includes writing up the project findings in our annual reports.

Dr Sarah Mika

I am one of the Project and Research Managers for the Gwydir Selected Area. I sample and analyse the water quality, microinvertebrate and macroinvertebrate indicators. I am also responsible for the overall reporting of project findings.

Dr Gavin Butler

Gavin is the fisheries leader, and oversees and directs the fish sampling, analysis and reporting for the project. He even gets his feet wet sampling from time to time.

Dr Deborah Bower

I work for the University of New England and I am responsible for research and monitoring of biodiversity including frogs and turtles. This involves organising and undertaking field work, liaising with landholders and recording our findings so they can be written up in our annual reports for the Program.

Ben Vincent

I’m the vegetation ecologist for the Aquatic Ecology and Restoration Research Group at the University of New England. My role in Flow-MER is to continue to build upon the good ecological work done before me. I collect data on the different wetland and floodplain plant species that come and go as a result of water availability.

Dr Ivor Growns

I am responsible for sample processing, data collation and reporting our findings for invertebrates. I coordinate the upload of all indicator data to the Monitoring Data Management System for the CEWO. I am also passionate about communicating our findings to the broader scientific community.

Dr Steve Debus

My role is to conduct the biannual waterbird surveys in the Gwydir Selected Area. This involves going out in the field and identifying birds by sight and sound.

Shjarn Winkle

I work in stakeholder engagement and reporting. I help to compile and share our stories, write our reports and spend time in the field undertaking surveys.

Dr Leo Cameron

I am a Fisheries Project Manager/Fisheries Scientist. I frequently assist with the field work, data analysis and reporting. I also enjoy being a voice in the project design.

John St Vincent Welch

I schedule and run the Fisheries field surveys and handle data entry and data Quality Assurance and Control. I get in the boat and in the waders sampling fish in the most unlikely places.

Chris Bowen

I  undertake fisheries field survey, data entry and data Quality Assurance and Control, including ensuring sampling equipment is in good order.

Sam Lewis

I am an aquatic ecologist working with the Aquatic Ecology and Restoration Research Group at the University of New England. My role with Flow-MER involves conducting field surveys for a variety of aquatic indicators and providing support through laboratory and statistical analysis.

Ellen Ryan

I am involved with stakeholder engagement. I contribute to compiling and sharing of our stories as well as assisting with field surveys.

Selected Area: Lachlan

A/Professor Fiona Dyer

Selected Area lead

Fiona is interested in understanding how freshwater systems respond to natural and anthropogenic variations in flow with a view to informing decision making in water and land management.

Ben Broadhurst

Larval fish theme lead

Ben is a fish ecologist with a background in population monitoring and spatial ecology of freshwater fishes. Ben has a strong interest in conservation and management of native fish and mitigating threatening processes.

Dr Jason Thiem

Adult fish lead

Jason is a Fisheries Scientist with the NSW Department of Primary Industries. Jason’s current research program is focussed on the abiotic drivers of fish movement, spawning and recruitment within the Murray-Darling Basin, with a strong focus on riverine connectivity.

Dr Will Higgisson

Vegetation theme lead and research lead

Will is a plant ecologist, with a background in the conservation and management of aquatic and wetland environments. Will is interested in understanding how floodplain and riparian plants respond to changes in river flow patterns related to water resource development, climate change and environmental water.

Professor Ross Thompson

Stream Metabolism theme lead

Ross is a freshwater ecologist, interested in the study of aquatic biodiversity, ecosystem function and food web ecology. Ross is the director of the Centre for Applied Water Science, University of Canberra.

Dr Joanne Lenehan

Communication and engagement lead

Jo is the Senior Environmental Water Management Officer for the Lachlan River system. She is interested in how good science, local and traditional knowledge, and communication enables adaptive management of water-dependent ecosystems and community values.

Dr Kate Brandis

Waterbird theme lead

Kate is from the Centre for Ecosystem Science, UNSW. She is a wetland ecologist who specialises in waterbirds, waterbird breeding and maximizing environmental flows for positive waterbird outcomes.

Alica Tschierschke

Alica is an ecologist with an interest in conservation land management, spatial data analysis using ArcGIS and data management.  She is a licensed drone pilot and is developing approaches to analysing drone data.

Dr Adam Kerezsy

Adam is an aquatic ecologist  and author of many scientific papers and the natural history book Desert Fishing Lessons: Adventures in Australia’s Rivers. Adam’s primary interest is the ecology of rivers and springs in inland and central Australia.

Rhian Clear

Rhian is a Research Assistant with a background in conservation, ecology and movement of freshwater native fish. Rhian has a strong interest in the management and protection of threatened native fish.

Ugyen Lhendup

Ugyen is a Research Technician involved in monitoring native fish population, collecting water quality data, monitoring vegetation, bioassessment and analysing water quality and macroinvertebrate data. He has an interest in conservation and land management.

Hugh Allan

Hugh is a fish ecologist with interests in threatened species conservation and spatial ecology.

Selected Area: Lower Goulburn/Kaiela River

Assoc Prof Angus Webb

Angus is an ecologist in the Water, Environment and Agriculture Program at the University of Melbourne. He has almost 20 years working in the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin attempting to apply complex statistical methods to make better use of existing knowledge from experts, the literature and from environmental monitoring data sets, to better understand these environments.

Ms Xue Hou

Xue Hou is a research fellow in Environmental Flows at the University of Melbourne. She graduated with a Master of Engineering (Environmental) with Honours from the University of Melbourne in December 2018. She completed a project “The Effects of Environmental Flow Delivery in the Murray-Darling Basin on Gross Primary Production and Respiration in Streams”, based on the Long-Term Intervention Monitoring Project.

Dr Simon Treadwell

Simon is a Principal River and Wetland Ecologist at Jacobs. He has over twenty years of experience specialising in environmental flow and wetland water regime assessments and habitat rehabilitation. He provides advice to catchment management authorities and government agencies on waterway management across south eastern Australia.

Mr Ben Baker

Ben has twelve years of experience in hydrology and water resources modelling, providing data and modelling analysis for water authorities and CMAs. Ben has been involved in projects related to water resources and flood management for catchments across rural and urban Victoria.

Dr. Geoff Vietz

Geoff is a fluvial geomorphologist (water and sediments) and the Director of the consulting company Streamology Pty Ltd. Streamology is focused on ensuring good science informs the management of rivers for ecological and social benefit. In addition to consulting Geoff is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne where he runs a waterway physical form program. He has more than 20 years’ experience working on rivers, including a large proportion of this focusing on the Goulburn River.

Assoc Prof Mike Grace

Mike is an Associate Professor in the School of Chemistry at Monash University, with teaching and research strengths in aquatic, analytical and environmental chemistry and in freshwater ecology (especially Stream Metabolism, carbon cycling and impacts of drugs).

Prof Vincent Pettigrove

Vin is the Chief Investigator for the Aquatic Environmental Stress (AQUEST) research group, RMIT University. He has over 30 years’ experience in the design and conduct of a broad range of biological and water quality research and monitoring programs that help catchment management authorities, water authorities and environmental regulators identify and address the priority issues impacting aquatic ecosystems. He has produced over 100 published journal articles and peer-reviewed conference papers.

Dr Kay Morris

Kay works at the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research (Department of Environment Land Water and Planning). She undertakes research on wetland and riparian vegetation to support evidence-based management and policy. Her research spans four broad areas: (i) understanding vegetation responses to threatening process including altered water regimes, salinization and nutrient enrichment, (ii) developing monitoring and evaluation programs to assess the effectiveness of management actions, (iii) understanding temporal and spatial patterns of plant dispersal by wind, water and waterbirds, (iv) modelling landscape patterns of biotic wetland connectivity.

Dr Wayne Koster

Wayne works at the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning). Wayne has undertaken research extensively across Victoria, and more broadly in south-eastern Australia, including in the Goulburn River since 2003. The focus of much of Wayne’s recent work relates to the environmental water requirements of native fish and movements and migrations of freshwater fish species. Current projects include the Victorian Environmental Flows Monitoring and Assessment Program, diadromous fish migrations and links to flows using passive integrated transponder technology, and oceanic migrations of anguillid eels using satellite tracking. Wayne also regularly provides specialist advice to waterway managers on the environmental flow requirements for fish.

Simon Casanelia

Simon is the Environmental Water and Wetland Manager at the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority. He has over 18 years of experience in natural resource management including environmental water planning, delivery and associated ecological monitoring.

Mr Daniel Lovell

Daniel has extensive experience developed over nearly 20 years managing water resources thorough in Northern Victoria. Daniel is employed at the Goulburn-Broken CMA as an environmental water co-ordinator has been involved in river and wetland management including the planning, delivery, monitoring and reporting of environmental water. As a result his experience Daniel has developed a strong understanding of the values, threats, hydrology, stakeholders, flow management and environmental water requirements of the streams of the Goulburn and Broken Catchment as well as water resource management tin the broader Murray Darling Basin.

Fiona Lloyd

Fiona is the the Communications Manager at the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority. She has more than 20 years’ experience working as a journalist for regional and metropolitan daily newspapers and in communications for the private sector and local and state governments.

Kerry Webber

Kerry is the Goulburn MER Project Manager at the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office. She has around 35 years’ experience developing policy and coordinating major programs across multiple disciplines including in health, education and the environment. Her focus has been on the communications and engagement aspects of the work, and in particular interacting with stakeholders to ensure that products and messages are suitable for their professions and useable by community interest groups.

Selected Area: Lower Murray

Assoc Professor Qifeng Ye

Project Leader

Qifeng is a principal fish ecologist with extensive research experience in environmental water requirements of native fish and ecological impacts of river regulation.

Dr Matt Gibbs

Task Leader

Matt is an expert in hydrological/ hydraulic models, river restoration, uncertainty analysis, forecasting and salinity modelling.

Dr Rod Oliver

Task Leader

Rod’s work focus on population dynamics and composition of Phytoplankton; and how these influence water quality, aquatic Food webs and ecosystem function.

Professor Justin Brookes

Task Leader

Justin is an expert limnologist with considerable experience in developing tools to assist determining flow requirements in the MDB.

Dr Jason Nicol

Task Leader

Jason is an experienced plant ecologist with excellent knowledge of aquatic and riparian vegetation of the south-eastern Australia particularly of the MDB.

Dr Deborah Furst

Task Leader

Deborah’s work focuses on the impact of environmental water on zooplankton community dynamics and the ecology of the Murray River system.

Chris Bice

Task Leader

Chris’s research focuses on the fish movement, fish passage, threatened species ecology and the response of fishes to changing in flow regimes.

George Giatas

Flow-MER Project Officer

George is a fish ecologist with interests in ecological indicators of environmental flows, Trophic dynamics and Food webs.

Luciana Bucater

Engagement and Communication Coordinator

Luciana is a fish ecologist with interest in engaging with fishing and first nations communities, communicating research findings and knowledge exchanging

Anthony Moore

CEWO Manager

Anthony has worked on environmental water delivery and aquatic ecosystems policy and programs in the MDB since 2013,  He has a background in environmental science, education and natural history, and feels a strong drive to help restore the living rivers and waterways of southern Australia.  He is a CEWO Environmental Water and Lower Murray Manager.

Assoc Professor Matt Hipsey

Key Researcher

Matt is an expert in hydrodynamic-biogeochemical modelling, using models to quantify the relationships between hydrology, water quality and habitat.

Dr Russ Shiel

Key Researcher

Russ specialises in taxonomy and ecology of zooplankton and littoral microfauna, particularly responses to perturbation, and food web interactions.

Dr Brenton Zampatti

Key Researcher

Brenton is a fish ecologist with an interest in the life histories of fish and the dynamics of populations. His research in the Murray-Darling Basin concerns the impact of river flow on fish spawning, recruitment and movement, and ultimately the health of fish populations.

Selected Area: Murrumbidgee

Associate Professor Skye Wassens

Skye is the Principal Scientist and an internationally recognised ecologist at Charles Sturt University specialising in aquatic ecology and the conservation of wetland dependant amphibians.

Associate Professor Andrew Hall

Andrew is an earth system scientist at Charles Sturt University with specialist knowledge in climatology and vegetation remote sensing, with his work being reliant on expert application of geographic information science and remote sensing image analysis.

Dr Damian Michael

Damian is a Senior Research Fellow and landscape ecologist at Charles Sturt University with expertise in wildlife conservation and management, and reptile and amphibian ecology. He has a broad background in developing community engagement programs and science communications products.

Gaye Bourke

Gaye is a Senior Technical Officer at Charles Sturt University with expertise in project management, aquatic and terrestrial field surveys, data management and curation, and community engagement. (Gaye’s pic provided separately)

Dr Gilad Bino

Gilad is a Research Fellow at the University of NSW with experience in statistical modelling. His research focuses on understanding the underlying processes shaping biodiversity at multiple spatial and temporal scales.

Dr Jennifer Spencer

Jennifer is a Senior Scientist with the Water and Wetlands Science Division of the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. She has extensive expertise in waterbird breeding ecology and ecological monitoring.

Dr Kate Brandis

Kate is a Research Fellow and freshwater ecologist at the University of NSW with specialist expertise in wetland ecology and waterbird breeding ecology.

Dr Yoshi Kobayashi

Yoshi is a Senior Research Scientist and freshwater ecologist with the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. His research focuses on planktonic microbial communities and their utility in understanding the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems.

Dr Rachael Thomas

Rachael is a freshwater ecologist with the Water and Wetlands Science Division of the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.

Dr Jason Thiem

Jason is a Research Scientist and fish ecologist with the Division of Freshwater Ecosystems at the Department of Primary Industries. His research focuses on assessing native fish responses such as movement, spawning and recruitment to environmental water delivery.

Selected Area: Warrego-Darling

Dr Paul Frazier

I am one of the Project Directors for the MER Program. I also organise and implement the communication strategies for the MER Program in the Warrego-Darling Selected Area. My role involves liaising with all stakeholders and analysing, writing up and communicating our findings with CEWO through our annual reports.

Dr Mark Southwell

I am one of the Project Managers for the Warrego-Darling Selected Area. I organise and undertake field trips, liaise with stakeholders and carry out technical work associated with hydrology and vegetation indicators. My role also includes writing up the project findings in our annual reports.

Dr Sarah Mika

I am one of the Project and Research Managers for the Warrego-Darling Selected Area. I sample and analyse the water quality, microinvertebrate and macroinvertebrate indicators. I am also responsible for the overall reporting of project findings.

Dr Gavin Butler

Gavin is the fisheries leader, and oversees and directs the fish sampling, analysis and reporting for the project. He even gets his feet wet sampling from time to time.

Dr Deborah Bower

I work for the University of New England and I am responsible for research and monitoring of biodiversity, including frogs and turtles. This involves organising and undertaking field work, liaising with landholders, and recording our findings so they can be written up in our annual reports for the Program.

Ben Vincent

I’m the vegetation ecologist for the Aquatic Ecology and Restoration Research Group at the University of New England. My role is to continue build on work already undertaken and collect data on the different wetland and floodplain plant species that come and go as a result of water availability.

Dr Ivor Growns

I am responsible for sample processing, data collation and reporting our findings for invertebrates. I coordinate the upload of all indicator data to the Monitoring Data Management System for the CEWO. I am also passionate about communicating our findings to the broader scientific community.

Dr Steve Debus

My role is to conduct the biannual waterbird surveys in the Warrego Selected Area. This involves going out in the field and identifying birds by sight and sound.

Shjarn Winkle

I work in stakeholder engagement and reporting. I help to compile and share our stories, write our reports and spend time in the field undertaking surveys.

Dr Leo Cameron

I am a Fisheries Project Manager/Fisheries Scientist. I frequently assist with the field work, data analysis and reporting. I also enjoy being a voice in the project design.

John St Vincent Welch

I schedule and run the Fisheries field surveys and handle data entry and data Quality Assurance and Control. I get in the boat and in the waders sampling fish in the most unlikely places.

Chris Bowen

I  undertake fisheries field survey, data entry and data Quality Assurance and Control, including ensuring sampling equipment is in good order.

Sam Lewis

I am an aquatic ecologist working with the Aquatic Ecology and Restoration Research Group at the University of New England. My role with Flow-MER involves conducting field surveys for a variety of aquatic indicators and providing support through laboratory and statistical analysis.

Ellen Ryan

I am involved with stakeholder engagement. I contribute to compiling and sharing of our stories as well as assisting with field surveys.

Cross-Cutting Themes

Cross-Cutting Theme: Data Visualisation

Martin Nolan

Martin is a CSIRO Land and Water Senior Experimental Scientist with expertise in spatial data analysis, modelling and data visualisation. Martin’s passion is for transforming data into information that can be used to improve our understanding of the complex world we live in, aid decision making and help navigate a sustainable pathway to the future.

Susan Cuddy

Susan is a researcher at CSIRO Land and Water. She has worked extensively in resource management projects in Australia (focussed on water & ecological condition) and internationally (focussed on water & livelihoods). She brings expertise and years of experience in project governance, including management of knowledge products, and design and implementation of reporting and data management workflows.

Cross-Cutting Theme: Governance and Reporting

Dr. Emily Barbour

Emily is a Senior Research Scientist in hydrology at CSIRO and the Co-Leader of the Flow-MER Basin project. Emily works on a diverse range of water issues within Australia and internationally, focusing on collaboratively generating knowledge and tools to support decision making for complex environmental challenges.

Prof. Ross Thompson

Ross is a freshwater ecologist, interested in the study of aquatic biodiversity, ecosystem function and food web ecology. Ross is the director of the Centre for Applied Water Science, University of Canberra.

Dianne Flett

Dianne is the Project Coordinator for the Flow MER Basin Project. Dianne has experience in the water and natural resource management sectors and has coordinated large projects including the Sustainable Rivers Audit and the Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Yields Project. Dianne works as a consultant providing services in communication, program planning and project management.

Dr. Carmel Pollino

Carmel is a Principal Research Scientist at Land and Water at CSIRO. She has 20 years of experience working on water issues in Australia and throughout Asia. Carmel has worked extensively in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, developing risk assessment methods, quantifying the benefits of environmental water and developing methods for evaluation. Carmel is the Project Director and co-Project Leader in the Flow MER Basin project.

Amy Warnick

Amy is a Project Delivery Coordinator in the Ecosystem Dynamics Team at CSIRO. Amy has a background in natural resource management and ecology, and provides technical and research delivery support and coordination to a range of multidisciplinary research projects.

Paul

Paul manages the Science Team in CEWO responsible for the delivery of the MER Program. His background is in water and biodiversity management with a focus on the Murray Darling Basin. He has a strong interest in the exchange and uptake of science and knowledge between scientists, water managers and the community.

Ethan

Ethan is a CEWO Project Officer for the Flow-MER Program with a focus on Selected Area monitoring and evaluation. His background is in natural resource management, ecology and conservation. He has a strong interest in water governance and technologies in water management and monitoring.

Mitch

Mitch is a CEWO Project Officer for the Flow-MER Program with a focus on Selected Area monitoring and evaluation. His background is in environmental/physical geography and climate resilience. He has strong interests in the use of First Nations knowledge and new technologies in water management.

Cross-Cutting Theme: Modelling

Dr Danial Stratford

Danial is an aquatic ecologist and ecological modeller with CSIRO Land and Water in the Modelling Water Ecosystems team with a background in modelling the environmental outcomes resulting from changes in flow regimes. He has a broad range of experience from within the Murray-Darling Basin, northern Australia and internationally, and has delivered to a range of stakeholders and clients. Danial uses a range of approaches and draws upon skills in statistical analysis, statistical modelling and mechanistic modelling to understand, quantify and predict the environmental outcomes of flow events, flow sequences and flow regimes. He specialises in understanding temporal dynamics and scenario analysis, linking hydrological data to quantify environmental outcomes under uncertainty. The core of Danial’s work is to deliver products and knowledge to improve the environmental outcomes associated with water management at a range of spatial and temporal scales.

Associate Professor Rebecca Lester

Rebecca is an ecologist with experience in freshwater, estuarine and marine systems.  She has wide-ranging research interests, but is primarily focused on the management of aquatic ecosystems and in achieving good ecological outcomes in systems that involve multiple uses and commercial industries.  She combines her expertise in ecology with a solid background in hydrology and erosional processes and actively collaborates across biological and other disciplines. She has a broad range of analytical and modelling skills and specialises in combining data about a range of physical and biological processes into a broader understanding at an ecosystem scale, giving her the requisite skills to participate in this project. For more information, visit qael.org.

Dr Galen Holt

Galen is an ecologist and postdoctoral research fellow at Deakin University. He is interested in the large-scale responses of species and communities to environmental conditions at large spatial and temporal scales. Of particular interest is how rigorous, process-based understanding of large-scale ecological outcomes can inform management decisions. His background is primarily in aquatic community ecology, where he studies how species and communities respond to varying environmental conditions in space and time. His research encompasses empirical studies of aquatic insects, statistical analyses, theory, and development of large simulation models. He takes a varied modelling approach, ranging from quite generic models to understand fundamental ecological processes, to the development of models incorporating empirical data to capture dynamics of specific communities with targeted management goals. For more detail, visit qael.org.

Dr Luke Lloyd-Jones

Luke is a CSIRO Research Scientist with DATA61. Luke is an applied statistician with experience in applications in ecology, fisheries, and human genetics, including very large and complex datasets. He focuses on the development and implementation of novel statistical and machine learning methods and provides high-level analytical and statistical modelling expertise for the vast amounts of interesting data being generated by the CEWO waterbird movement tracking project and also contributes to reporting and manuscript preparation.

Dr Ashmita Sengupta

Ashmita is a Senior Research Scientist at Land and Water CSIRO and ecohydrologist with expertise in optimization, adaptive management of water resources geared to protect ecosystem health, sustainable low impact development design, and system vulnerabilities under climate change and other pressures.

Ashley Macqueen

Ashley is an aquatic ecologist and a postdoctoral research fellow at Deakin University. His work focusses on drawing together diverse datasets and models in novel ways to create tools that are underpinned by core ecological principles and inform the management of aquatic systems in Australia and abroad. For more detail, visit qael.org.

Cross-Cutting Theme: Stakeholder engagement and communications

Dr. Siwan Lovett

Inspiring, skilled and effective, Siwan is a familiar face in the Australian river restoration community, with her work in communications, public speaking, leadership and on-ground riparian rehabilitation well-known and respected. She enjoys facilitating and empowering others to value themselves and their knowledge so that rivers and waterways can be managed confidently, in partnership with nature.

Andy Lowes

Andy is passionate about improving river health through improved flow regimes. With over a decade of experience working with water for the environment in the Murray-Darling Basin, his focus is on the collaboration and communication required between First Nations, communities, scientists, industries and government agencies, to improve our waterways.

Pat Gudhka

Pat carries a strong understanding of the digital landscape, enabling him to plan and produce web and social media content that engages the intended target audiences.

Bradley Moggridge

Bradley is from the Kamilaroi Nation (N-W NSW) and grew up in western Sydney and now lives in Canberra. He has qualifications in hydrogeology and environmental science, and is currently completing his PhD at UC. Brad has an ambition of leading in his area of expertise and also promoting Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge and finding commonalities between Traditional Science and Western Science so this can influence policy and the way we manage the Australian landscape.

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