Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act - The Scientific Advisory Committee
The Scientific Advisory Committee is established under section 8 of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. The functions of the Committee are (a) to advise the Minister on the listing of taxa or communities of flora and fauna and potentially threatening processes; and (b) to advise the Minister on any other flora and fauna conservation matters.
The members of the Committee are (a) three senior government scientific officers appointed by the Minister; (b) two scientists on the staff of any of the Victorian education institutions, appointed by the Minister; and (c) two scientists appointed by the Minister who are not employed by the Government.
All members of the Committee must be knowledgeable and experienced in the sciences of flora or fauna conservation or ecology.
Each member of the Committee must have expertise in one or more of the following categories and between them the members of the Committee must have expertise in all the following categories:
- vertebrate fauna
- invertebrate fauna
- vascular flora
- non-vascular flora
- communities of flora or fauna
- aquatic taxa or communities of flora or fauna in marine environments
- aquatic taxa or communities of flora or fauna in inland aquatic environments
- taxa or communities of flora or fauna in terrestrial environments
- potentially threatening processes.
The following scientists are currenty appointed to the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Scientific Advisory Committee:
Professor Timothy New (Convenor)
Tim New is Professor and Reader in Zoology at La Trobe University. He has an extensive research record in insect ecology (especially butterflies, including threatened species). He is an invertebrate ecologist providing advice relating to threatened invertebrates and their management to government and non-government agencies and the community as well as conducting and managing research programs on threatened invertebrates. Professor New is appointed as Convenor and as a member with expertise in the areas of invertebrate fauna, communities of flora and fauna, and potentially threatening processes.
Leigh Ahern
Mr Ahern and his wife Charmian died in the February 2009 bushfires. Leigh was a former DSE staff member at the Arthur Rylah Institute in Heidelberg. Leigh held a B.Sc.(Hons.) degree, majoring in zoology, from La Trobe University and had more than 30 years' experience in fauna survey, biodiversity planning and habitat conservation. Much of this work was carried out as a government scientist. However, for the past ten years, Leigh had operated as a private biodiversity consultant, specialising in biodiversity planning at the landscape level, while still maintaining involvement in projects on threatened fauna taxa. Mr Ahern was appointed as a member with expertise in the areas of vertebrate and invertebrate fauna, communities of flora and fauna, taxa or communities of flora or fauna in terrestrial environments, and potentially threatening processes. Leigh's skills and experience are a great loss to the conservation effort in Victoria.
David Cantrill
David is a terrestrial botanist whose research interest is in the evolutionary history of the Southern Hemisphere flora. He has extensive field experience in Antarctica, South America, southern Africa, New Zealand and Australia. He has previously been senior research scientist with the British Antarctic Survey (Cambridge, UK) and senior curator in the Department of Palaeobotany Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. Currently he is Chief Botanist and Director of the National Herbarium of Victoria at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne and holds an honorary professorship at the University of Melbourne in the School of Botany. Mr Cantrill is appointed as a member with expertise in the areas of vascular flora or communities of flora in terrestrial environments, and potentially threatening processes.
John Koehn
John is an aquatic biologist specialising in all aspects of the ecology of freshwater fish. He has over 24 years experience in research, assessment, conservation and management of freshwater ecosystems and is the author of over 150 scientific publications. John is a past President of the Australian Society for Fish Biology and is an associate at the University of Melbourne. He has published widely on threatened species including Murray cod and Trout cod and has been convenor recovery teams and author of the National Recovery plans for these and other fish species. He is one of Australia’s leading fish biologists and has published and provided advice on most of Victoria's native freshwater fish species, their biological requirements and threats to them. Mr Koehn is appointed as a member with expertise in the areas of freshwater vertebrate fauna in inland aquatic environments (especially streams and native fish) and communities of freshwater fauna, and potentially threatening processes.
Rhonda Butcher
Rhonda is an aquatic ecologist specialising in wetland ecology and biodiversity assessment. She has over 20 years experience in the field of aquatic science, with extensive experience in wetland and river ecology, biological monitoring, biodiversity assessment, and invertebrate conservation and ecology. Rhonda is the Principal Consultant of her own consulting business, Water’s Edge Consulting, and is a contractor through the School of Biological Sciences, Monash University. Recently she has been involved in describing the ecological character of a number of Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance, and providing wetland ecology and management training across Australia. Ms Butcher is appointed as a member with expertise in the areas of aquatic taxa or communities of fauna in inland aquatic environments.
Josephine Milne
Josephine Milne is the Collections Manager at the National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, where she is responsible for the herbarium specimens in the State Botanical Collection. Josephine’s area of expertise is the reproductive biology and ecology of mosses, with a focus on species growing in rainforests. Her current research interests are the taxonomy and ecology of mosses that are characteristic of harsh environments and the documentation of mosses, liverworts and lichens that comprise biological soil crusts in arid and semi-arid regions. She also has an interest in invertebrates that occur amongst mosses and liverworts. Ms Milne is appointed as a member with expertise in the areas of non vascular flora or communities of flora in terrestrial environments.
Gerald Kraft
Gerry Kraft was for 34 years the macroalgal taxonomist and head of the Marine Laboratory at the School of Botany, University of Melbourne. His work has involved biodiversity surveys in regions as divergent as Greenwich Bay and Williamstown in northern Port Phillip Bay, coastal Victoria, eastern and southern Tasmania, South and Western Australia, and tropical eastern Australia. His research before coming to Melbourne involved the taxonomy and ecology of seaweeds that are now the bases of extensive mariculture operations in the Philippines and Indonesia. He has authored/co-authored over 130 refereed papers and has supervised seven PhD, seven MSc and 36 Honours students. He is currently about to complete the second volume of his monograph series on the marine benthic algae of the southern Great Barrier Reef and Lord Howe Island. Mr Kraft is is appointed as a member with expertise in the areas of aquatic taxa or communities of flora in marine environments.