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Protecting the Wonders of Wetlands – Now and Into the Future

Wetlands are not only the homes to some of the world’s rarest and most extraordinary migratory birds, they are also vital to human health and climate adaptation.

Not only do they store carbon, they protect our shores from wave action, reduce the impacts of floods, absorb pollutants and improve water quality.

Join us for a discussion with experts on telling the stories of the wetlands and how raising awareness is vital to adaptation to an unknown future.

Our panel discussion will be led by Sarah Brooker (Science in Public) and include author of The Eastern Curlew, Harry Sadler, avifauna conservation expert and Hobsons Bay Wetland Centre Deputy Chair, Kevin Wood and Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) Wetlands and Strategic Programs manager, Dr Andrea White.

BOOKINGS

About the panel:

Author Harry Saddler will be joining our ‘Protecting the Wonders of Wetlands – Now and Into the Future’ panel. Harry Saddler is a Melbourne-based nature writer. His work has been published in Meanjin, the Guardian, and elsewhere. His 2018 book The Eastern Curlew was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards. Since then, he has written two books, Questions Raised by Quolls which was published in 2021 and A Clear Flowing Yarra which was published in 2023. Harry will be discussing how he creates awareness and advocates for natural places through his writing.

Kevin Wood is one of Australia’s foremost authorities on avifauna conservation in Port Phillip Bay, and he’s joining our panel ‘Protecting the Wonders of Wetlands – Now and Into the Future’. He is currently serving as Deputy Chair of the Wetlands Centre and has a long professional career in coastal, wetland and waterway management. He has provided many years of voluntary service working with community groups monitoring bird populations in Port Phillip’s coastal wetlands. As a coastal planner Kevin produced the first comprehensive review of bird habitats in and around Port Phillip Bay, a site of international significance for birds. Over the next 20 years he led planning projects to conserve bird habitats undergoing change, including the Williamstown Rifle Range, the Altona coast, the Laverton Saltworks, and Melbourne Water’s Western Treatment Plant. In 1989 he developed the Victorian Government’s strategy for the conservation and sustainable use of Port Phillip Bay."

Dr Andrea White is the Manager of the Victorian Wetland Program in the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Adaptation (DEECA) and she’s joining our panel ‘Protecting the Wonders of Wetlands – Now and Into the Future’. DEECA oversees statewide wetland policy and programs, including the implementation of the Ramsar Convention in Victoria. She has worked in conservation for over 30 years in many different roles, including threatened species management, biomonitoring methods for waterways, modelling impacts of climate change on alpine bogs, and waterway policy and strategy development. She has worked in the Waterway Health team at DEECA for the last 14 years.

Sarah Brooker is the managing director of Science in Public and will be serving as the MC for our panel ‘Protecting the Wonders of Wetlands – Now and Into the Future’. Science in Public is a science communication agency that works with researchers to simplify and amplify their research. Before starting Science in Public, she assisted Biotechnology Australia to establish the Gene Technology Information Service, a national enquiry centre on biotechnology and gene technology. She has also been chief organiser for the 5th World Conference of Science Journalists, party planner for the Academy of Science’s 50th anniversary, coordinator for Science meets Parliament, and had a job extracting DNA from bananas in a shopping centre in China. Her background is biochemistry and genetics until she discovered science communication by running away with the Questacon science circus way back in 1999. Now she has a circus of her own with a business, three boys, one dog, two cats and three chickens.