Council

John Taylor          President

John is Professor of Rangeland Management and Director of Rangelands Australia at the University of Queensland’s Gatton Campus.  John  has worked in the rangelands of New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory.  He was recently on the Board of the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre, is on the Ministerial Advisory Board for the Remote Enterprise Centre, and is a member of the Range Science Education Council (USA).  

Peter Marin          Finance & Audit Officer 
 

Peter is a graduate of Roseworthy Agricultural College, and worked in Meekatharra with Agriculture Western Australia on a Better Business program for pastoralists. He then joined the Indigenous Land Corporation in Perth and worked with Indigenous land managers on a number of environmental, cultural and economic programs. Peter now works for MLCS Corporate, a small Adelaide based firm specialising in business and economic development with Indigenous groups across Australia. He regularly travels throughout the rangelands.

Carolyn Ireland   Secretary
 

Carolyn is a consultant botanist and rangeland ecologist in natural resource management. Carolyn is a member of the South Australian (SA) Arid Lands NRM Board, a member of the SA Dog Fence Board and a Sessional Commissioner for the Environment, Resources and Development Court. She was for 10 years on the SA Pastoral Board. Her passion is integrated natural resource management, particularly in arid areas. She has prepared mining project EIS’s, consulted with communities and advised on  water management.

Ben Forsyth

Ben manages his family’s Three Rivers Station north of Meekatharra in Western Australia. He has been involved in youth-based initiatives, including five years as WA Director of the Future Farmers Network. In 2008, Ben was a Australian Nuffield Farming Scholar; he investigated strategies for controlling overland water flow and other regeneration strategies in Namibia, South Africa, Southern USA and Argentina. He has commenced post graduate studies with Rangelands Australia. Ben is keen to develop greater involvement of graziers in the Society.
 

Larissa Lauder 

Larissa is studying rangeland management externally through the University of Queensland.  She previously worked on cattle properties in the mid-west of Western Australia where she developed a passion for incorporating conservation goals into pastoral production systems.  Larissa is especially interested now in fostering the retention and promotion of  young people in the rangelands, and in the management of vertebrate pests.  

Kate Masters 

Kate is the Program Manager for Southern Gulf Catchments, a regional NRM group in north-western Queensland. The group facilitate projects to control weeds, map property infrastructures, assist with property management planning, record traditional ecological knowledge and assist schools with students' environment activity programs.

Graeme Tupper    Membership Officer

Graeme is semi-retired. He began in CSIRO's Rangelands Research Unit at Deniliquin, moved to PNG and worked in agricultural education, pasture research and integrated rural development and returned to NSW Department of Agriculture to work on  spatial information for rangeland, salinity and precision agriculture management. He co-authored a textbook on agricultural meteorology.  He held short-term faculty appointments at Colorado State University and Fort Hare University.

Annabel Walsh