Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to search

Queensland and NSW floods 2022

Visit recovery.gov.au to see what help is available.

Close
Home

Top navigation main

  • News & media
  • Jobs
  • Ministers
  • Contact us
Main menu

AWE Main

  • Climate change
    Climate change Driving climate action, science and innovation so we are ready for the future.
    • Climate science and adaptation
    • Australia's climate change strategies
    • Emissions reduction
    • Emissions reporting
    • International commitments
    • Climate Active
    • Climate change publications and data
    • Australia’s National Greenhouse Accounts (Emissions Data)
    Stronger action on climate change

    Stronger action on climate change

    See how the Australian Government is committed to taking more ambitious action on climate change.

    Find out more

  • Energy
    Energy Building a secure and sustainable energy system for all Australians.
    • Energy policy in Australia
    • Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council
    • Renewable energy
    • Energy publications
    • energy.gov.au
    • Energy Rating
    • Commercial Building Disclosure Program
    • Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS)
    • Your Home
    Decorative image

    Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme

    Guiding energy-efficient design and construction for a net-zero future

    Find out more about NatHERS

  • Environment
    Environment Improving stewardship and sustainable management of Australia’s environment.
    • Bushfire recovery
    • Climate change and the environment
    • Biodiversity
    • EPBC Act
    • Environmental information and data
    • International activities
    • Invasive species
    • Land
    • Marine
    • Partnerships
    • Protection
    • Report a breach of environment law
    • Threatened species & ecological communities
    • Waste and recycling
    • Wildlife trade
    Decorative image

    Read our Nature Positive Plan

    Our plan sets out the Australian Government’s commitment to environmental law reform

    Find out more

  • Water
    Water Improving the sustainable management of Australia’s water supply for industry, the environment and communities.
    • Coal, Coal seam gas (CSG) and water
    • Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder
    • Water policy and resources
    • Wetlands
    Water matters

    Water Matters

    Keep up with the latest news on the department's work in managing Australia's water resources.

    Read the latest edition here

  • Parks and heritage
    Parks and heritage Managing Australia’s iconic national parks, historic places and living landscapes.
    • Australian Marine Parks
    • Australian National Botanic Gardens
    • Booderee National Park
    • Kakadu National Park
    • Christmas Island National Park
    • National parks
    • Norfolk Island National Park
    • Heritage
    • Pulu Keeling National Park
    • The Great Barrier Reef
    • Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park
    The reef

    Great Barrier Reef

    Australia is protecting and conserving this World Heritage Area.

    Find out more

  • Science and research
    Science and research Undertaking research and collecting data to support informed decisions and policies.
    • Climate change
    • Australia's biological resources
    • National Environmental Science Program (NESP)
    • Office of the Science Convenor
    • Australian Biological Resource Study (ABRS)
    • State of the Environment (SoE) reporting
    • Bird and bat banding
    • Supervising Scientist
    Our climate is changing

    Our climate is changing

    Find out more about how climate science helps Australians with the impacts of climate change.

    Find out more

  • About us
    About us We lead Australia’s response to climate change and sustainable energy use, and protect our environment, heritage and water.
    • Accountability and reporting
    • Assistance, grants and tenders
    • Fees and charges
    • News and media
    • Our commitment to you
    • People and jobs
    • What we do
    • Who we are
    Decorative image

    Juukan Gorge response

    Read the Australian Government's response to the destruction at Juukan Gorge and the recommendations

    Read the response

  • Online services
    Online services We do business with you using online platforms. This makes it easier for you to meet your legal requirements.
Department of Climate Change, Energy, Enviroment and Water

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Environment
  3. Biodiversity
  4. Bushfire recovery for wildlife and their habitat
  5. Bushfire impacts
  6. Wildlife and threatened species bushfire recovery Expert Panel

Sidebar first - EN - Biodiversity

  • Bushfire impacts
    • Expert Panel
    • Priority animals
    • Priority invertebrates
    • Priority Plants
    • Priority threatened ecological communities

Wildlife and threatened species bushfire recovery Expert Panel

Photo of Gang Gang Cockatoo

Gang Gang Cockatoo

In January 2020, the Minister for the Environment asked the Threatened Species Commissioner, Dr Sally Box, to convene an Expert Panel to assist in prioritising recovery actions for native species, ecological communities, natural assets and their cultural values for Indigenous Australians, which have been affected by the 2019-20 extreme fire events.

The Expert Panel completed its remit in accordance with the Terms of Reference at the end of September 2020.

Within those months, the Expert Panel provided advice on critical interventions required to support the immediate survival of priority animals, plants and ecological communities. The Panel helped assess the scale and impact of the bushfires on our environment to assist with the prioritisation of recovery efforts and the development of a strategy for building populations and resilience of native plants and animals.

This advice has informed the Australian Government’s response to the impacts of the 2019-20 bushfires on wildlife and habitat.

The Expert Panel supported and promoted collaboration and coordination across different government agencies, non-government organisations, scientific institutions, the private sector, the National Environmental Science Program and the Threatened Species Scientific Committee.

Terms of Reference (PDF - 227.11 KB)
Terms of Reference (DOCX - 850.17 KB)

Click on a heading below or Show all | Hide all

Communiqués

Final communiqué September 2020 (PDF - 447.59 KB)
Final communiqué September 2020 (DOCX - 1.05 MB)

Communiqué September 2020 (PDF - 260.46 KB)
Communiqué September 2020 (DOCX - 860.97 KB)

Communiqué August-September 2020 (PDF - 252.43 KB)
Communiqué August-September 2020 (DOCX - 867.46 KB)

Communiqué July 2020 (PDF - 231.11 KB)
Communiqué July 2020 (DOCX - 863.28 KB)

Communiqué 17 April 2020 (PDF - 137.43 KB)
Communiqué 17 April 2020 (DOCX - 866.1 KB)

Communiqué 11 March 2020 (PDF - 95.21 KB)
Communiqué 11 March 2020 (DOCX - 859.23 KB)

Communiqué 21 February 2020 (PDF - 150.82 KB)
Communiqué 21 February 2020 (DOCX - 866.02 KB)

Communiqué 10 February 2020 (PDF - 164.17 KB)
Communiqué 10 February 2020 (DOCX - 854.97 KB)

Communiqué 24 January 2020 (PDF - 127.74 KB)
Communiqué 24 January 2020 (DOCX - 853.14 KB)

Communiqué 15 January 2020 (PDF - 133.9 KB)
Communiqué 15 January 2020 (DOCX - 854.07 KB)

Panel members

Members of the expert panel have been selected to provide expertise on key thematic and strategic priorities, including fire ecology, conservation biology and environmental decision-making. Representatives of bushfire-affected state and territory governments are included to provide local knowledge and promote collaboration and coordination of fire recovery activities across the country.

Professor John Woinarski

Professor John Woinarski

John Woinarski is a professor of conservation biology based at Charles Darwin University, and a Deputy Director of the National Environment Science Program’s Threatened Species Recovery Hub. He has been engaged in research, management and policy relating to Australian biodiversity for over 40 years. He is a Board member of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, and co-chair of the IUCN Australasian Marsupials and Monotremes Specialist Group, and was formerly a member of the Threatened Species Scientific Committee.

Most of his research relates to the conservation of threatened species; and he has published extensively on the responses of biodiversity to fire. Recent books include Cats in Australia: companion and killer (co-authored with Sarah Legge and Chris Dickman) [2019], A bat’s end: the Christmas Island pipistrelle and extinction in Australia [2018], Recovering Australian Threatened Species: a book of hope (co-edited with Stephen Garnett, Peter Latch and David Lindenmayer) [2018], and The action plan for Australian mammals 2012 (co-authored with Andrew Burbidge and Peter Harrison) [2014].


Professor Sarah Legge

Professor Sarah Legge

Sarah Legge is a Professor at the Australian National University and a Principal Research Fellow with the University of Queensland. She is a wildlife ecologist with 30 years of research and conservation management experience. She worked originally in behavioural and evolutionary ecology (evolution of sociality, mating systems, sex allocation, siblicide, intra-tropical migration). Over the past 15 or so years, her work has spanned wildlife conservation research and management delivery. She has strong interests in monitoring and adaptive management, with much of that interest directed towards improving our understanding of the impacts of threats (especially fire and feral animals) on threatened and declining species, and finding ways to address those threats at landscape scales. Sarah developed a regional fire management project that won the Western Australia State Environment Award, and she was awarded the Serventy Medal by Birdlife Australia for her contribution to ornithological research. She worked in the non-profit conservation sector for over a decade, with a focus on the on-ground delivery of conservation management.

Sarah is a member of several advisory committees for conservation organisations or projects, including the Christmas Island Cat Eradication Project, Wild Deserts, Birdlife Australia’s Threatened Species Committee, the Purnululu World Heritage Advisory Committee, the National Academy of Science’s Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Committee, and Bush Heritage Australia’s Science and Conservation Committee. She also sits on the Commonwealth Government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee, and its Feral Cat Taskforce.


Dr Stephen van Leeuwen

Dr Stephen van Leeuwen

Dr van Leeuwen is a respected South West Boojarah Noongar leader with a profound respect for Country who embraces innovation and opportunistically engages and builds collaborative relationships with Traditional Owners and other land managers with the intent to co-deliver novel and enduring outcomes for biodiversity conservation, bio-cultural land management, and Country.

Dr van Leeuwen is also a dedicated botanical ecologist with a diverse research pedigree extending from threatened flora survey, fire ecology and threatened flora management through to biological survey, arid zone ecology, plant taxonomy and pollination biology.  He has worked for over 38 years across Western Australia, principally in the rangelands and Kwongan sandplains, during which time he has attained a solid understanding of the patterns, process and threats influencing species/community occurrence and persistence.


Dr Libby Rumpff

Dr Libby Rumpff

Dr Libby Rumpff is a Senior Research Fellow with the School of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne, and a project leader for the NESP Threatened Species Hub. Her research and teaching draws on the practices of structured decision-making, adaptive management, and risk assessment.  She works closely with government agencies to promote and develop tools to assist practitioners improve decision-making under uncertainty.

Libby has facilitated over thirty workshops with government, for various conservation and natural resource management contexts. Her skills include qualitative and quantitative participatory modelling, facilitation, expert elicitation, risk and decision analysis. She and colleagues were recent recipients of the international INFORMS Decisions Analysis Practice Award for their work on fire management planning with the Victorian Government.


Associate Professor Dale Nimmo

Associate Professor Dale Nimmo

Associate Professor Nimmo is a fire and wildlife ecologist with more than 10 years’ experience in researching the effects of fire on Australian ecosystems.

Dale has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles on the impacts of fire on biodiversity, including studies of birds, mammals (native and introduced), reptiles, invertebrates, and plants across a broad range of Australian ecosystems.

He is an experienced field ecologist with expertise in modelling the response of animal species to fire. His work has been recognised by a prestigious fellowship with the Australian Research Council, a Tall Poppy Award from the Australian Institute of Policy and Science and named the Ecological Society of Australia’s ‘Next Generation’ ecologist in 2016. Other areas of research include the ecological impacts of invasive predators and promoting the resilience of biodiversity to climatic extremes.


Dr Jenny Gray

Dr Jenny Gray

Dr Jenny Gray is the Chief Executive Officer of Zoos Victoria, charged with the operation of the Melbourne Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and the Werribee Open Range Zoo in Australia.

Zoos Victoria has pioneered community conservation programs focused on changing behaviours that threaten animals. With over 14 peer-reviewed publications, Zoos Victoria has tested the methodology and impact of zoo-based behaviour change campaigns and can demonstrate bot attitude and behavioural outcomes.

Dr Gray has experience, and access to a team of skilled professional staff, in understanding and acting in emergency situations. The Zoos Victoria team were actively involved in treating animals through the 2009 bushfires and are taking a lead on veterinary support for animals in the current bushfires. The Zoos employ the largest group of wildlife veterinary staff who assist with protocols and procedures for wildlife treatment and have been in active support of wildlife treatment from injured marine mammals to over abundant macropods.


Dr Daniel Metcalfe

Dr Daniel Metcalfe

Dr Dan Metcalfe has broad experience in landscape ecology and management, with a focus on rainforests and allied systems. Dan has worked across the old-world tropics from Africa to the Pacific, but has spent 18 years working on Australian systems, including management of threatened species and ecosystems, and natural system dynamics of Australian plant communities, particularly after natural (bushfire, cyclone, flood) and man-made disturbance.

Dan was lead author of the Land chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment Report and has provided advice to Australian state and commonwealth governments and to the New Zealand Government.


Professor Dick Williams

Professor Dick Williams

Dick Williams is a plant ecologist with the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods at Charles Darwin University, in Darwin. He worked for CSIRO Land and Water in Darwin from 1991-2013 and has held teaching positions at Monash and Melbourne Universities.

Prof. Williams’ research is focused on the ecology and management the savanna ecosystems of Australia’s wet-dry tropics and the ecosystems of Australia’s Alps. His primary research interest is vegetation dynamics in relation to disturbance. In the past 15 years he has focussed on interactions between fire regimes, climate change, biodiversity and carbon, and has published widely on these topics. He is co-editor of the standard text on fire ecology in Australia: Flammable Australia: fire regimes, biodiversity and ecosystems in a changing world (co-edited with Ross Bradstock and Malcolm Gill) [2012]. He is also the Editor in Chief of the Australian Journal of Botany. Prof. Williams has served on several Commonwealth and State Government expert/advisory Committees.

Thanks for your feedback.
Thanks! Your feedback has been submitted.

We aren't able to respond to your individual comments or questions.
To contact us directly phone us or submit an online inquiry

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Please verify that you are not a robot.

Skip

Footer

  • Contact us
  • Accessibility
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy
  • FOI
Last updated: 03 October 2021

© Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.