Dr Jane Roberts (Chair)
Dr Jane Roberts is an ecological consultant with twenty-five years experience of flow management and restoration of rivers, floodplains and wetlands. Her special interests are ecology-flow relationships particularly for plants, and she has been part of environmental flows for many of the rivers and floodplains in the southern Murray-Darling Basin. Currently she sits on the Lake Victoria Scientific Reference Panel. In 2001 she was a Harold White Fellow at the National Library of Australia, working on the roll charts used on paddle-steamers. Her involvement with the Snowy River began in 2001 with the Technical Steering Committee for the Snowy River Benchmarking Project (NSW) and as co-ordinator of the Scientific Reference Panel for the Lower Snowy River (Vic).
Dr Mike Curll
Dr Curll has in excess of forty years of public service supporting the natural sectors and primary industries in NSW , Australia and overseas. Previous roles include membership of the NSW Scientific Committee, chair of the NSW Natural Resources Science Advisory Council, chair of the NSW Salinity R&D Coordinating Committee, Director of Greening Australia NSW, and membership of the MDBC Sustainability Committee and NSW Water Reform Management Committee. Dr Curll brings to the SSC extensive experience in leading, analysing and advising on science, research, policy and regulation to manage natural resources.
Professor Wayne Erskine
Professor Erskine was appointed to the chair in Natural Resource Management in the School of Environmental and Life Sciences at the Ourimbah Campus of the University of Newcastle in 2004. Wayne is a fluvial geomorphologist who has extensively researched channel adjustment to flow regulation in Australia, including the Snowy River. He served as a member of the Scientific Reference Panel for the Snowy Water Inquiry (1998) and was a member of all Expert Panels for the determination of environmental flows for all rivers affected by the Snowy Mountains Scheme (1995-1998).
Mr. Noel Kesby
Noel Kesby is the General Manager of the Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority. Noel has over 35 years of experience in natural resource management. He has held the positions of Regional Manager, Resource Planning and Assessment, and Manager Regional Landscapes with the Department of Land and Water Conservation. Noel has been leading the Snowy River Rehabilitation Team for the NSW Government for 14 years. He was instrumental in establishing and heading up the Snowy Water Resource Management Unit of DLWC and the DLWC Corporate Water Licence Management Unit, and managed the NSW Water Reform Implementation Program for the NSW South Coast and Snowy Catchments.
Dr Arlene Buchan
Dr Arlene Buchan is the Healthy Rivers Campaigner with the Australian Conservation Foundation. She leads ACF’s work on the Living Murray, the National Water Initiative and all other issues related to rivers, water and freshwater assets.
Arlene’s professional background is in science (biochemistry) and law. She sits on a number of reference and advisory committees including the Inland Rivers Network of NSW, Stakeholder Reference Group of the National Water Commission; Community Reference Group of the Murray Darling Basin Commission; and the Australian Landcare Council (Deputy). In 2006, Arlene was awarded the Melbourne University Christine Forster Award for Excellence
Professor Sam Lake
Dr. P. Sam Lake is a Professor in Ecology at the School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, where he has been since 1976. For many years he has investigated the ecology of freshwater ecosystems. His main research interests lie in the structure and functioning of freshwater communities, in the role of disturbance (both natural and human-generated) and in the ecology of restoration as applied to degraded streams and their riparian zones. He has co-authored 5 books and published 180 scientific papers on freshwater ecology, biological invasions and neurobiology, and he serves on the editorial committees of three international scientific journals. In 2000 he received the Award of Excellence from the North American Benthological Society and in 2006 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Ecological Society of Australia. His association with the Snowy River stretches back to his youthful days in Canberra. He served on the 1995 Expert Panel on Environmental Flows for the Snowy River, and has been an active member of the Scientific Review Panel for the restoration of the lower Snowy (Victoria) and the Technical Steering Committee to the Benchmarking Project (NSW) for environmental flows in the Snowy River.
Mr. Brett Miners (alternate to Noel Kesby)
Brett Miners is Landscape Manager (South Coast/Snowy) with Southern Rivers CMA. He has lived and worked in the Snowy catchment for the past 18 years. In this time he has been Co-ordinator for Snowy River Interstate Landcare and Snowy Genoa CMC, the Snowy Genoa Water Resource Manager. He has been deeply involved with various community and government processes to return environmental flows to the Snowy River, facilitated Expert Panel Assessments of the environmental flow requirements of the Snowy, Murrumbidgee and Montane Rivers, and lead the development of the Snowy River Flow Response Monitoring Program. He currently manages a broad range of Snowy River and catchment rehabilitation projects for the Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority. He is a keen bass fisherman who considers the recent stocking of 200,000 Australian Bass to the Snowy River as one of his career highlights.
