
Podcast S6E10. Steve and Richelle Lizzio, Growing Bananas Beside the Reef
Managing the environmental is actually about managing people and understanding more about how they interact with it.
Healthy waterways underpin our lifestyles and livelihoods. When waterways thrive, so do we.
SEASON 6 | EPISODE 5
Until recently it was thought that sawfish only existed in the Gulf of Carpenteria but researchers led zoologist Dr Barbara Wueringer, the Director and Principal Scientist at Sharks & Rays Australia, have found historic evidence that sawfish used to be far more abundant and widely distributed before trophy fishing and gill nets reduced their populations.
Barbara has been studying sawfish for 16 years and in this podcast, she talks about her work to uncover the story of the elusive sawfish and how historic newspapers articles shed new light on the species.
Managing the environmental is actually about managing people and understanding more about how they interact with it.
Managing the environmental is actually about managing people and understanding more about how they interact with it.
It may be a long way off but the Tablelands has 10 river catchments and contributes up to 22% of annual flow to the reef.
Martine joined the Wet Tropics Waterways team as a Science Technical Officer in early 2024. She is an environmental scientist and ecologist and has worked on water quality and aquatic ecology projects as a consultant and in private industry for over 20 years. She is using her experience in statistical programming and database development to develop new systems for the Report Card.
Louise joined Wet Tropics Waterways as Executive Officer in 2025.
Louise Hateley is an environmental scientist with over 20 years of experience in natural resource management, water quality, and catchment modelling across government, research, and community sectors. She has held senior scientific and project coordination roles with the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy and Terrain NRM, leading projects focused on GBR catchment health, waterway management, and sustainable land use. With a record of published research, stakeholder engagement, and project delivery, Louise combines scientific expertise with practical leadership to drive initiatives that protect the Wet Tropics and support community collaboration.
Simon has over 30 years’ experience advocating for waterways across academia, government and the private sector. He started out in marine botany with a fascination for seagrass, mangroves and macroalgae, and has gone on to lead major environmental initiatives both in Australia and overseas. He has established report cards in eight countries.
Richard has been the Science Technical Officer for Wet Tropics Waterways since 2016. His role involves producing the annual results for the waterway health assessment of the wet tropics region using data from a wide range of sources, to present as scores and grades, as well as developing new indicators to address knowledge and monitoring gaps. He works in collaboration with technical staff at other regional report cards.
Richard has a background in freshwater ecology research projects and environmental assessments with CSIRO, University of Queensland, Queensland Government and as a consultant. For a long time he’s been interested in freshwater aquaculture and continues this interest through farming freshwater crayfish, alongside other farming activities.