2022 John Paul Memorial Lecture: Healthy Country

Australia has been cared for and shaped by Indigenous peoples over tens of thousands of years, but that was disrupted by colonial systems of oppression and displacement with disastrous changes to the environment. Indigenous peoples’ responsibility to care for Country, has in many ways been denied though contemporary land planning and management. This event asks how do we care for Country in contemporary Australia, and how might western science embrace Indigenous knowledges to achieve healthy Country outcomes?

The John Paul Memorial Lecture series is made possible thanks to the generosity of The Paul Family Foundation.

Featuring

Maddi Miller is a Darug woman whose research looks at ways to bring non-Indigenous and Indigenous sciences together to understand and care for Country.

Dozer Atkinson is a Bpangerang elder who works to bring cultural practice and knowledge to the people of north-east Victoria.

Jack Pascoe is a Yuin man and ecologist in the Otways. He will speak about fire practice, past and present in the Otways forests.

2021 John Paul Memorial Lecture: Fenced reserves – how far can conservation go?

Many of our native Australian species are threatened by cat and fox predation, so a simple solution is to fence the predators out.  Fenced reserves have protected some of our most threatened species, but they also present challenges.  Can we create whole ecosystems inside fenced reserves?  Can we create similar without the fences? Join us for a wonderful look into the world of fenced reserves.

Featuring

Katherine Moseby is a desert ecologist, specialising in threatened species reintroductions.  She has co-founded three fenced reserves including one of Australia’s first. She will discuss the pros and cons of fenced reserves and how we might be able to achieve similar results without fences.

Adrian Manning is an ecologist who helped to establish Mulligan’s Flat Woodland Sanctuary.  He will talk about the science behind our attempts to recreate ecosystems.

Annette Rypalski is an ecologist at Mt Rothwell, near Geelong, which is part of a larger conservation network managed by Odonata (CEO Sam Marwood).  Annette and Sam will share their insights into conserving endangered species in Victoria.