Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act - The Scientific Advisory Committee


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 currently appointed to the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Scientific Advisory Committee:

Associate Professor David Morgan (Convenor)
David is a Principal Fellow in the Zoology Department at The University of Melbourne, with major research and teaching interests in ecology, environmental conservation and management, the monitoring and modelling of terrestrial mammal and bird populations, and general wildlife biology. He has undertaken field work throughout Victoria, including long-term studies of kangaroo populations in inland areas, and comprehensive fauna survey work in Pakistan. He has also worked extensively in science education and teacher education, including many years with the Australian Academy of Science producing and editing the national secondary curriculum materials published as Biological Science: the Web of Life, for which he was awarded Membership of the Order of Australia (AM). Assoc. Prof Morgan is appointed as a member with expertise in the areas of vertebrate fauna, communities of flora and fauna, taxa or communities of flora or fauna in terrestrial environments, and potentially threatening processes.

Linda Thomson
Linda Thomson held positions at La Trobe University before moving to Zoology at University of Melbourne in 2005, where she is currently a senior research fellow at the Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research (CESAR). She has extensive research experience in biological monitoring, biodiversity assessment, and invertebrate conservation and ecology with particular interest in the role of invertebrates as indicators of environmental sustainability and in the control of pest species in agriculture. Dr Thomson is appointed as a member with expertise in the areas of invertebrate fauna in terrestrial environments and potentially threatening processes.

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 or 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 appointed as a member with expertise in the areas of aquatic taxa or communities of flora in marine environments.