Key Speakers

Shayleen Thompson - First Assistant Secretary, Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.

Shayleen has extensive experience in international and domestic climate change policy and programs for both state and Commonwealth governments. She has served as a lead negotiator on land issues on the Kyoto Protocol and led work on the Government’s National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme and the Renewable Energy Target legislation.
Shayleen is the head of the Land Division in the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. The Division was established to provide a coherent approach to climate change mitigation on the land in both domestic and international arenas. The Division has responsibility for delivering Australia’s national accounts for carbon emissions, leading on land issues in the international negotiations, implementing the Carbon Farming Initiative and the National Carbon Offsets Standard.

Andrea Koch - Program Leader, Soil Carbon Initiative

Andrea Koch is an experienced marketer and strategist. Her career experience includes twenty years in the telecommunications and media industries, with IBM, Optus, Optus Vision and News Interactive. She spent five years consulting in strategic marketing planning, and product, service and brand development.
 
Andrea has completed a Masters in Sustainable Development and brings together deep experience in building businesses with today’s agenda for a sustainable approach. She now works as a key advisor to business and government to engage in the big issues of sustainable development that face society, and to drive business strategies and policies that lead to sustainable solutions. Her specific area of focus and expertise is in sustainable food and agriculture and she offers a unique perspective of this field across the scale from global to local.
 
Given the “soil in her DNA”, and her deep understanding of the societal transformation required for a sustainable future, Andrea is passionate about bridging the gap between farmers, consumers, business and policy makers and bringing the farming sector into a renewed place of understanding and recognition.
She has recently completed a tour of farms in the US. Read more about the farm tour here.

Courtney White - The Quivira Coalition

In 1997, Courtney White co-founded The Quivira Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to building bridges between ranchers, conservationists, public land managers, scientists and others around the idea of land health. The mission of the Quivira Coalition is to build resilience by fostering ecological, economic and social health on on the working landscapes of the American West through education, collaboration, and progressive public and private land stewardship. He has a ‘special emphasis on carbon ranching and the new agrarian movement. 

His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Farming, Acres Magazine, Rangelands, and the Natural Resources Journal. His essay “The Working Wilderness: a Call for a Land Health Movement” was published by Wendell Berry in 2005 in his collection of essays titled "The Way of Ignorance."  In 2008, Island Press published Courtney’s book Revolution on the Range: the Rise of a New Ranch in the American West. He co-edited, with Dr. Rick Knight, Conservation for a New Generation, also published by Island Press in 2008. Click here to hear Courtney speaking about his work with the Quivera Coalition, while more of Courtney’s work can be found on his web site. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his family and a backyard full of chickens.

Peter Cosier is a Director of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists is an independent group comprising leading Australian scientists, economists and business people with conservation interests. He is a Member of the Terrestrial Carbon Group, an international group of specialists from science, economics, and public policy with expertise in land management, climate change and markets. Its objective is for terrestrial carbon to be effectively included in the international response to climate change. He was Environmental Policy Adviser, Australian Environment Minister, Senator Robert Hill when the Kyoto Agreement was negotiated. He is a former Deputy Director General, Science and Information, NSW Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources.

Click below to download a transcript of Peter's presentation at the 2011 Carbon Farming Conference.

Peter Cosier - The Science of Carbon in the Landscape (865 KB)

Senator Matt Thistlethwaite

Senator Thistlewaite is a Federal Government representative, who will be speaking about the Link between the Price on Carbon and the Carbon Farming Initiative.

He will be delivering information on the Governments Land Package within the Price on Carbon. There is $1.7 billion over 5 years which will benefit the Regional areas. This package was negotiated by all parties - including the Independents -  and reflects the Regional bias of the Independents.

Senator Matt Thistlethwaite is an active community volunteer and passionate advocate for advancing the interests of vulnerable and disadvantaged people. Matt has extensive experience representing workers, in a range of industries including transport, power, manufacturing, agriculture, public sector, health and horse racing.

Matt has been an active surf lifesaver for 26 years and served four years as President of Maroubra Surf Lifesaving Club. He was also the President of Maroubra PCYC from 1999-2004, awarded by PCYC NSW for his dedicated services in 2005.

His tertiary qualifications are: Diploma of Law, graduated 2001; Bachelor of Economics (UNSW). Matt is 39 years old and lives in Sydney, with his wife Rachel and their two daughters Amelie and Scarlett.

Michael Kiely - Chairman, Carbon Farming and Trading Association.

Louisa Kiely - Co-Founder, Carbon Farming and Trading Association

Louisa Kiely co-founded the Carbon Coalition Against Global Warming in February 2006 to lobby for the right of Australian landholders to trade on the emissions offset market the credits they can earn by sequestering carbon in their soils. They have since travelled throughout Australia and the United States meeting scientists and farmers and spreading the word about “Carbon Farming”.

Seeking to build bridges with the scientific community, she organised two Soil C Summits between Scientists and Farmers, in Dubbo  and Orange  NSW.  She organised and ran the world’s first Carbon Farming Expo & Conference in Mudgee in November 2007 and the second and third  in Orange in 2008, 2009 with delegates from every State in Australia and NZ.

In 2008 she was invited to be a delegate at a Climate Change and Conservation Farming Conference in LaFayette, Indiana, organised by the UN Food & Agriculture Organisation. She was also a delegate at the National Carbon Offset Coalition Conference in Boezman, Montana.
 
Louisa has been recognized for her work by being chosen as runner up in the 2008 NSW Rural Woman of the Year.

She has also been appointed to the Regional Development Australia Committee – Orana Region.   This intergovernmental committee has been set up to ensure the future strength and development in Rural and Regional Australia.

In 2011, she has established the Carbon Farming and Trading Association, in order to be able to represent farmers in the new carbon trading environments.

Iain McGregor - Commercial Tenders Manager, Solar Choice, Australia's Solar Energy Brokers Contributing Member, Australian Solar Energy Society, AUSES,  
B.Sc USYD Environmental Geography.

Iain has worked across the environmental industry over the past decade in renewable energy, energy efficiency and recycling.

For the past two years Iain has headed up the Solar Choice commercial team which has developed Megawatts of solar projects across the commercial sphere from the smallest businesses all the way up to ASX 200 listed companies.

Rural NSW presents a great solar opportunity for farmers and businesses alike to avoid the very high cost of traditional electricity procurement compared to the decreased cost of solar installations and ample sunlight hours, make it cheaper to utilise solar electricity than grid electricity during the daytime.

Freddy Sharpe - CEO, Climate Friendly.

Freddy Sharpe is CEO of Climate Friendly, Australia’s leading carbon management business.  Freddy has worked in sustainability and climate change solutions for many years and has grown Climate Friendly into a global business leading the way on climate change, delivering easy and innovative carbon solutions to businesses and individuals.  Before running Climate Friendly, Freddy was Chief Operating Officer of Australia’s largest residential energy efficiency company.
Freddy has hands-on expertise in carbon markets, carbon and energy policies, energy efficiency and clean and conventional energy, developed in Australia and internationally for over 20 years.
Freddy speaks regularly on climate change and related topics and was included in the inaugural ABC Carbon 50, a list of the 50 most influential people in Australia who are committed to the environment, the planet and the future of life on earth.

 

 

Ian Rogan, Board Member, Central West Catchment Management Authority

Ian has called the central west of NSW his home for over 30 years and most recently was the General Manager of the Narromine Shire Council.
He has also previously worked in senior private sector roles for Hassalls & Associates (now GHD) and Australian Wool Innovation (AWI). Prior to moving to the central west, Ian came from a farming background in the Grafton region.  He was a Rural and Natural Resource Management consultant, worked in local government and developed a 10 year Regional Plan for Regional Development Australia-Orana.

 

Jeremy Bradley - 'Extreme Carbon-Farming System' Pioneer

When people ask Jeremy about his stocking rate, he says that he likes to keep it at around 5 to 10 trillion to the gram. This, he says, is the optimum rate for accelerated soil building and biological carbon sequestration.

Jeremy has been passionately involved with the carbon-farming movement since its inception and is building his 'extreme carbon-farming system' based on a blend of techniques such as those promoted by PA Yeomans, William Albrecht, Elaine Ingham and Christine Jones.

He has a fascination with natural farming systems and their ability to regenerate soil fertility. This year he received an award from the Northern Rivers CMA for Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture for his work on increasing microbial biodiversity by introducing biological liquids into equipment used in normal horticulture and pasture systems.

With his trusty microscope and microbe brewer Jeremy is exploring the carbon-farming frontier and discovering how far and how fast it is possible to build carbon in a variety of farming systems. Working with minerals, air, water, biology and management, he is developing methodologies that will rebuild soil without investing in expensive equipment or inputs.

Peter Richardson - Chief Asset Officer of Object Consulting.

Peter Richardson is Chief Asset Officer of Object Consulting, and Executive Director of InfoMedix Pty. Ltd. He has responsibility for product strategy and Intellectual Property across the Object Group. He is also Object's sustainability thought leader and leads their sustainability initiatives and solution offerings, including Our Green Home and the Object Bio-Sequestration Platform.  Previously Object’s Chief Technology Officer, he has over 25 years experience as an IT architect, primarily in the area of large-scale enterprise systems.

In 2000 Peter founded InfoMedix, a subsidiary of Object Consulting delivering electronic medical records products in the healthcare industry. From 1996 to 1999 Peter was the Australian Partner of the Object Management Group. He was also a founding member of the international TINA Consortium, which established the architecture for merging telecommunications and computing. Before joining Object in 1991 to open the Melbourne office, Peter was a Principal Engineer with Telstra Research Labs.

Angus Maurice - Carbon Farmers Spicer’s Creek.

John Friend - Leader, Soil and Salinity, NSW Department of Primary Industry

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Chris Waring - ANSTO Institute for Environmental Research

Dr. Chris  Waring is Principal Research Scientist at the ANSTO Institute for Environmental Research. His research includes Neutron Activation Soil Analysis (NASA) that can be used to economically measure the storage of carbon in soils, carbon breakdown rates and response to climate change variables and rainfall. NASA is able to measure the top 50cm of soil for carbon, moisture, elemental composition (including C, H, Si, Fe, Al, N, S, Cl, etc.), and density. Neutron Activation (NA) soil measurements provide greater ground coverage (2D mapping, thousands to 100s of thousands of measurements) compared with existing point sampling and lab analysis, links between airborne or satellite data scale to ground-point data, and low cost per measurement: traditional soil augering, sample handling, DC Carbon analysis, results reporting approx $100 per spatial sample, vs proposed surface scanning Neutron Activation analysis equipment with rapid (10 sec count time) scanning measurement  approx $1 per spatial sample. (Assuming a one day field sampling or field operation.)

 

Professor John Crawford - University of Sydney

Professor John Crawford, University of Sydney Institute for Sustainable Solutions. Inaugural Chair, Judith and David Coffey Chair in Sustainable Agriculture.
John Crawford was awarded the prestigious Judith and David Coffey Chair in Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Sydney in 2008. He holds a BSc in Physics from the University and Glasgow and a PhD in Theoretical Astrophysics from the University of London. He has published more than 100 papers in international peer-reviewed journal articles with over 1700 citations. Some research highlights include the theoretical prediction and first empirical evidence for self-organisation in the soil-microbe system (Science, Nature Reviews), the development of a general theory of biodiversity (Nature), the first demonstration of regional-scale gene flow in relation to GMOs (Nature) and the development of the first theoretical ecology of indeterminate systems (Proc. Roy. Soc.). Earlier highlights include the demonstration that the standard Big Bang theory was inconsistent with observed local scale structure (Nature) and the discovery of clouds on Venus (Nature) that is the subject of the current Venus Express space mission.

In the UK John Chaired the main funding committee responsible for supporting research in sustainable agriculture, diet and health and he has written several policy documents that have changed the way the UK delivers interdisciplinary science. He has also served on the UK research Council strategy panels for both sustainable agriculture, and research at the interface between physical and life sciences. He has been invited to become a Fellow of the  Institute of Mathematics and its Applications in recognition for services to mathematics in 2003, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2007 in recognition of his contribution to science.

John is an experienced supervisor and has successfully supervised 11 PhD students in the past 8 years. He has active research collaborations in Australia, Europe, China and the US. Grantsmanship exceeds AUD $20M and he currently holds grants exceeding AUD $5M from research councils and industry sponsors.

Terry McCosker - Principal, RCS

Terry is an internationally acclaimed teacher and has worked in research, extension and property management in both government and private sectors for 45 years. In his research era, Terry published over 40 papers and made several world first discoveries in the 1980’s in the fields of bull fertility, ruminant nutrition and pasture ecology. Terry co-founded RCS over 25 years ago which has set the benchmark for capacity building in rural and regional Australia. He is responsible for the introduction of the GrazingforProfit™ School into Australia which now has over 5,000 graduates and has changed grazing, livestock and business management nationally. Terry has chaired the Australian Beef Expo, has sat on numerous advisory committees and has been nominated for many awards.

Terry was described in the Australian Farm Journal editorial in July 2010 as follows: “It is hard to imagine the mental toughness and commitment McCosker and his early farmer adopters had to muster to withstand the flood of criticism from within conventional agricultural science circles. McCoskers ideas took farming out of a war with nature to an association with it. He introduced Australian farmers to the concept of ecosystem health and developed methods of measuring it alongside financial health. Critically he introduced the concept of farm family well-being and welcomed female partners, siblings and parents into courses about decision making.”

Ben Stuart - Director of Carbon Trading, Carbon Trade XChange

Ben comes from a multi generation farming background in both animal husbandry and pastoral development. He has a lifetime passion to implement a modern environmental impact into these sectors, and has now made the connection of how to monetise rural assets into the carbon sector. Ben graduated from the University of Sydney in 2005 before relocating to the UK.

Ben joined Tullet Prebon in March 2008 as a broker in the European carbon market. Specialising in the secondary market, Ben was integral to business development within Europe, USA and Australasia. Since then, Ben has gained extensive knowledge and contacts within the European Emissions Trading Scheme and global carbon trading and renewable energy markets

Ben has extensive knowledge in the Agricultural sector, specialising in Australian based project development, and is a founding Director of Ventura Carbon Limited since 2009.

Stuart MacAlpine - Carbon Farmer

Stuart McApine farms with his wife Leanne at Buntine, Western Australia. The farm “Cooinda” is 270 km north of Perth. The average rainfall is around 340 mm. The property is approximately 5000 Ha with around 4000 Ha able to be cropped.  The main crops grown are wheat, barley, oats, canola and lupins. Stuart started farming in 1981. He was awarded the Western Australia No-Till Farmer of the year award in 1999. Stuart has always been an early adopter of new technologies. In 1997 he co-founded the Liebe Group and was the inaugural President of the group, a position he held for 5 years before moving to chair the R & D committee with in the Liebe Group for another 5 years. The Liebe Group is recognised as one of the premier grower groups in Australia. Through this close involvement in the industry Stuart recognised that the biological health of the soil was not being attended to and there was too much attention to band aid solutions. This has led to the start of a journey of changes to a more natural way of farming.

David Clayfield - Carbon Farmer

David Clayfield farms beef cattle and agists dairy heifers at Clover Estate, Mil Lel, South Australia, having changed from dairy farming 12 years ago. In 1988 David moved away from conventional acid based fertiliser, embarking on a balanced nutritional and biological program to build production, quality and soil carbon.

The combination of biological farm practices that David has adopted over 23 years has resulted in very visual black fertile soil, down to depths of 600mm, in what started out to be bottomless white sand.

 

Allana Moore - Author and Teacher, Geomantica

Alanna Moore has 26 years experience of dowsing and geomancy. She was a founder of the New South Wales Dowsing Society in 1984 and has taught 'probably thousands' of people how to dowse. She practises geomancy professionally and lives in central Victoria. Alanna is the author of seven books and a correspondence course (Diploma of Dowsing for Harmony) and she publishes three issues of 'Geomantica' magazine each year. She specialises in sensitive permaculture design. Alanna has studied acupuncture, naturopathy and spiritual healing modalities, as well as permaculture, organic farming, bush tucker and bush regeneration, and now specializes in working with Earth spirit.