Healthy waterways underpin our lifestyles and livelihoods. When waterways thrive, so do we.
There’s many people and groups around the region working
to improve reef and waterway health. We think their work
should be celebrated. We’re committed to telling their
stories and hope that it sparks important conversations.
Reef Trust Phase 1 Tenders 2014-2018 Focus: Reduction in dissolved inorganic nitrogen runoff from cane farms. Funding allocated to 14 cane farmers through a market-based competitive tender process who trialled the new nutrient management practices. Catchments: Participants mostly located in Tully, Murray and Herbert Investment: $1.7 million Funder: Australian Government Delivery partners: Terrain NRM
Reef Rescue (Reef Programme) 2008-2016 Focus: Incentive grants, training and extension services to facilitate change in farming practices in cane, bananas, grazing, dairy, pawpaw and multi-crop. Catchments: All Investment: $65 million Funder: Australian Government Delivery partners: Terrain NRM in partnership with agricultural industries
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.
Martine joined the Wet Tropics Waterways team as a Science Technical Officer in early 2024 and is keen to apply her experience in statistical programming and database development for the Report Card.
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.
Martine has many hobbies and is currently dabbling in horticulture.
James joined Wet Tropics Waterways as Executive Officer in 2021 and is passionate about working with stakeholders to communicate the value of our unique waterways. His role involves facilitating and coordinating our partnership program, growing our network and investment into the report card program, and science communication. James oversaw the 2022 Innovations in Waterway Health Forum, and hosted season four of the Reef and Rivers podcast.
James is an ecologist and has previously worked on wetland management in the Murray Darling basin, fish passage in Mackay, and aquatic research in the Wet Tropics.
Outside of work you’ll find him in a local waterway with a mask and snorkel, or hiking or biking around our beautiful region.
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.