Qld Landcare Conference

The full preliminary program for the 2008 Queensland Landcare Conference is now available.  It includes some 45 speakers, 22 concurrent sessions, 7 field trip options and four plenary sessions with a great variety of keynote speakers.

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About the keynote speakers

Fay Jackson | Rural Mental Health
Fay is a multi award winning national motivational speaker, educator, advocate and voice for mental health. She is regularly engaged to advise the NSW and federal governments, and Non Government Organizations (NGOs), on the state and conditions of mental illness and mental health in the community, services, and workplace. Fay also is proud to be a person with mental illness. She has bipolar disorder and refers to herself, with tongue in cheek, as a Psychologically Diverse Citizen. Previous to starting Vision In Mind Fay was the Director of Consumer, Carer and Community Affairs, Mental Health, for a large area health service. In that time she designed and implemented many unique strategies including the creative Communications Strategy which led to her and the Illawarra Area Health Service winning many awards at a state level. Fay is also an accomplished artist and writer. She has had several successful exhibitions and has had both short stories and poetry published. She has worked as a stand up comic and clown and has a background in secondary education and the building industry.

Dr Christine Jones | Soil Carbon
Dr Christine Jones is an internationally renowned and highly respected groundcover and soils ecologist. She has a wealth of experience working with innovative landholders to implement regenerative land management techniques that enhance biodiversity, increase biological activity, sequester carbon, activate soil nutrient cycles, restore water balance, improve productivity and create new topsoil. Christine has organised and participated in workshops, field days, seminars and conferences throughout Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the USA and has a strong publication and presentation record. In March 2007, Christine launched the Australian Soil Carbon Accreditation Scheme, the first in the Southern Hemisphere - placing Australia among world leaders in the recognition of soils as a verifiable carbon sink. The ASCAS project rewards landholders for adopting innovative techniques designed to sequester soil carbon and improve soil water-holding capacity, thus reducing the atmospheric concentration of both carbon dioxide and water vapour, the major greenhouse gases contributing to global warming and climate change.

Stephen Davis | An Inconvenient Truth
Stephen Davis is a life long environmentalist and a 30 year long entertainer. He has been performing as a comedian at events around the world and was chosen to be part of the Al Gore Climate messenger team because of his ability to communicate serious topics with an element of humour. When Al Gore made his Climate Change documentary An Inconvenient Truth he also set about training climate messengers around the world. Stephen Davis was one of the original 170 Australians trained by Mr Gore and has made over 20 presentations around Australia. The An Inconvenient Truth presentation is a multi-media slideshow that investigates at the science behind the predictions of Climate Change, evidence to show the current extent of the problem and how we need a change of mindset to tackle the issue.

Jerry Coleby-Williams | Sustainable living and low carbon gardening
Jerry Coleby-Williams is a Gardening Australia presenter and a passionate organic gardener and plantsman. Jerry has worked with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; studied the flora of Western Australia through a Kew scholarship; managed both public and private sector horticultural enterprises; run a busy garden centre and helped to establish Sydney’s Mt Annan Botanic Garden. And for 11 years Jerry managed the horticultural estate at the Royal Botanic Gardens. Jerry now lives in Bayside Brisbane where he and his partner have created a sustainable home and garden. His house generates solar power, recycles sewage and grey water, harvests rainwater, produces fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices – all grown organically - and even has a sustainable lawn maintained by solar powered equipment. Jerry is also a director of The Seed Savers’ Foundation, which conserves rare and heritage plants; has a position on the Executive of Queensland Conservation Council, and is a member of the Australian Institute of Horticulture.

Donald Coventry | Peak oil and its implications for agriculture
Donald Coventry is CEO of Southern Gulf Catchments and a volunteer convener of the Conservation and Environment Working Group for the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, Australia. He has been studying peak oil for 10 years and is undertaking Masters study into its implications for regional, rural and remote communities. The peaking of world oil supplies will cut across many contemporary issues such as carbon auditing, alternative energy and rural sustainability. Peak oil will represent a change to our social and economic systems on a global scale and is germane to our planning for the future. Donald will argue that peak oil is a more immediate issue than climate change.

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