Chris Davey and Richard Thackway, ‘Phillip Island (South Pacific) - Recovery from an ecological disaster’

Richard, a research scientist, will outline land management regimes (past, present and the future) that continue to transform the vegetation condition on the island, whilst Chris will discuss a recent survey by Canberra Ornithologists Group and the response of avifauna to vegetation changes on the island.

Chris Davey (Canberra Ornithologists Group)
Chris, now retired, worked for more than 40 years as a Research Officer with CSIRO on vertebrate pest and conservation issues. He has been a member of the Canberra Ornithologists Group (COG) for many years, including being President for 5 years, as well as leading and being involved in a number of surveys. Chris organised the Gang-gang project run by COG to celebrate 50 years of birding in the ACT and region in 2014. At present he is involved with the reintroduction of the Bush Stone-curlew by the Woodlands and Wetlands Trust at Mulligans Flat and assisting the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society on a project involving the Superb Parrot in the ACT.

Richard Thackway

Richard has had a career as a research scientist working in the Australian Government. He has extensive experience working in, and with, government policy and science agencies. Since 2011 Richard has been appointed an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Queensland.

Richard has led several national projects involving partnerships with state, territory and national land management and research agencies to develop standards for the survey, classification and mapping Australia’s native vegetation and whole of landscape land cover. He was a principle investigator in leading the development of several national datasets including changes in the type and extent of native vegetation and the condition of vegetation types.

Richard’s current research involves assessing ecological change and trend associated with the transformation of native vegetation condition caused by the effects of land management practices. The resulting report card is useful for informing land use scenarios and future land management options including biodiversity conservation and resource management.