Prof Caroline Gross – President  Caroline has 38 years’ experience with studying the reproductive ecology of Australian native plants and introduced species. She has a PhD in Plant Ecology from Flinders University (1990). Her research interests include plant reproductive ecology as applied to conservation and restoration covering; ecology, pollination, threatened species ecology and management, endangered ecological communities, systematics, impact assessment, invasive species, plant reproductive ecology, extinction risk, field assessments, genetic assessments, seed bank ecology, habitat condition and ecosystem restoration. In Australia she has conducted research in arid, semi-arid, temperate, cool temperate, sub-tropical and tropical ecosystems with further research being undertaken in Bhutan, Borneo, Tanzania and Hawaii. Caroline is a Professor Emerita in Ecosystem Management at the University of New England, currently Deputy Chair of the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee and a long-term Associate Editor for Austral Ecology
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Dr Melissa Millar– Vice President
Melissa is a Research Scientist with the Plant Science and Herbarium Program of the WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, where her chief responsibilities are to conduct research that contributes to the circumscription, conservation and management of Western Australian flora. Melissa’s research utilises a range of molecular genetic techniques to examine the evolutionary processes that maintain genetic diversity and shape patterns of genetic structure in native taxa. Her work contributes to understanding long term evolutionary influences of the persistence and phylogeographic structure of native taxa as well as the effects of current anthropogenic disturbances such as fragmentation and the requirements for successful long term restoration. |
Robert Hawes – SecretaryRobert moved to Canberra at the start of 1986 to bec ome a computer programmer, first at ComSuper, then in 1994, he transferred to the ATO. In 2009 he retired and quickly found two volunteer jobs via Volunteer ACT. One was at RSI & Overuse Injury Association doing clerical work. He soon joined their committee, first as secretary, later as treasurer. The other was at 2xxfm 98.3 finding community announcements. In November 2012 he became their bookkeeper. He also had a one-year term as secretary on their management board. In March 2020 he resigned from the organisation. In November 2013 he became a volunteer with the Conservation Council ACT doing clerical work. In July 2018 he became a volunteer with the ANPC as their bookkeeper. |
Daniel Mckinnon – TreasurerDaniel has a background in commercial management of knowledge-economy businesses. He is the Principal and Managing Director of Great South Coast Migration. Daniel is a Fellow of CPA Australia (FCPA) and has undergraduate degrees from Monash University and the University of Melbourne, and post-graduate qualifications in business from RMIT and in migration law from Victoria University. Daniel has a strong amateur interest in the conservation and recovery of ecosystems. Daniel lives in Timboon, Victoria. |
Dr Tony Auld – Committee member Tony has recently served as ANPC President for a 4 year period. He is a Senior Principal Research Scientist within the NSW government and has worked in conservation for over 30 years. His research focus has been to examine how a range of threats (including for example changed fire regimes, grazing and exotic species) are impacting on the conservation of plant species and their habitats across a range of ecosystems from arid to coastal to offshore islands. He has been involved in developing policy and on-ground management for how to best mitigate threats to biodiversity. He has a keen interest in soil seed banks and the role they play in allowing or promoting plant persistence along with ecosystem restoration. Recently, he has had a focus on extinction risk assessment and the conservation of threatened plants and ecological communities, along with the development and implementation of measures to protect areas that have a very high value for biodiversity conservation (such as refugia, best remaining examples of an ecosystem, key sites for conservation of multiple threatened species and endemic species). He is a Professorial Fellow at University of NSW and University of Wollongong.
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Dr Linda Broadhurst – Committee member Linda retired as Director of the Australian National Herbarium in Canberra, one of CSIRO’s six major research collections in 2022. She is now an Honorary Research Fellow at CSIRO where her interests improving genetic quality of plant populations and the seed that these produce as well as understanding invasive species pathways. Linda was ANPC Presidentbetween 2016 and 2019 and continues as a Committee Member.
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Dr David Coates – Committee member
David is a Research Associate in plant conservation in the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions Western Australia. He has broad interests that cover conservation biology, conservation genetics, ecological restoration, recovery of rare and threatened species and managing threatening processes such as Phytophthora dieback and habitat fragmentation. He currently leads a project on threatened plant translocations in the National Environmental Science Program’s Threatened Species Recovery Hub and hold positions of adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia and Murdoch University. He was ANPC President from 2012 to 2015 and Vice President from 2020 to 2023. |
Dr John Hodgon – Committee member
John has been involved in conservation and natural resource management for the last 41 years in various roles within the Queensland Government. His interests are broad and include plant systematics and genomics, taxonomy of the families Cyperaceae and Juncaceae, plant conservation, terrestrial orchids, combining traditional knowledge with western science, ethnobotany, travel and bird watching. He has worked across a broad range of wildlife and ecosystems types across Queensland and has practical experience of natural resource management operations at the technical and operational level including threatened species, fire, pest, indigenous and historic cultural management, and the development of policy, technical systems and frameworks. |
 Andrew Fairney
Andrew is the founder and CEO of Seeding Natives Incorporated. This environmental charity specialises in ecological restoration of native grasslands and associated ecosystems from the ground up. Seeding Natives aims to save threatened flora and fauna from extinction, particularly in Adelaide and the Mounty Lofty Ranges. Andrew was previously a landscape gardener specialising in native gardens. He then studied environmental science and management at the University of South Australia and has spent the last decade focusing on restoration and rehabilitation of diverse native grasslands. |
Dr Heidi Zimmer – Committee memberHeidi is a past editor of Australasian Plant Conservation and is currently employed as a research scientist working on orchids at the Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research. She completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne on one of Australia’s most iconic threatened plant species, the Wollemi Pine. |
Bradley Desmond – Committee memberBradley has an affinity for the bush, having studied Conservation Biology at UWA, where he grew an interest in plant biology. He has worked with Parks Australia where he worked on reviewing the agency’s performance criteria and produced Corporate Plans, Annual Reports, and Park Management Plans. |
Ignacio Czajkowski – Committee memberIgnacio is currently a Living Collections and Records officer for the Botanic Gardens of Sydney (BGoS). He has been involved in several plant conservation projects across the three different gardens of BGoS: Sydney, Mount Annan and Mount Tomah. |
Dr Kelli Gowland – Committee Member Kelli Gowland is an Assistant Director in environmental regulation at the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Previously, Kelli worked at the Australian National Botanic Gardens as the facilitator of Australia’s contribution to the Global Tree Assessment, an initiative of Botanic Gardens Conservation International to have a conservation assessment for all the world’s tree species available on the IUCN Red List. Academically, Kelli has a background in Evolutionary ecology, including a PhD from the Australian National University that investigated the distribution of epiphytic Aeridinae orchids as a function of their symbiotic partners: their host trees and mycorrhizal fungi. Kelli’s other research interests have included how a warming climate could affect the native alpine bluebell, Wahlenbergia ceracea over multiple generations and how alpine Ranunculus spp. (buttercups) can look so different to each other, despite being able to hybridize and produce fertile hybrid seed. |
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Daniel has a background in commercial management of knowledge-economy businesses. He is the Principal and Managing Director of Great South Coast Migration. Daniel is a Fellow of CPA Australia (FCPA) and has undergraduate degrees from Monash University and the University of Melbourne, and post-graduate qualifications in business from RMIT and in migration law from Victoria University. Daniel has a strong amateur interest in the conservation and recovery of ecosystems.
Tony has recently served as ANPC President for a 4 year period. He is a Senior Principal Research Scientist within the NSW government and has worked in conservation for over 30 years. 
