Wildlife Tourism Australia committee

Ronda Green, Maree Kerr, Aise Kim, Bill Spence, Rebecca Scollen, Cat Davidson and Greg Clancy

CHAIR Ronda Green BSc(Hons) PhD
Queensland WTA Committee

Dr. Ronda Green holds a PhD in zoology and is an adjunct research fellow at Environmental Futures, Griffith University, an ecotour proprietor and an environmental consultant (mostly fauna surveys and advice on conservation management). Her main research involves seed dispersal by fruit-eating animals and the effects of habitat alteration. Publications and presentations by Ronda can be viewed at http://www.learnaboutwildlife.com/Ronda_Green.html . She has been involved in wildlife tourism for several decades, including ‘Araucaria Ecotours’ specialising in wildlife tours from Brisbane since 1996. She is developing the Scenic Rim Wildlife Information Centre, powered by photovoltaic cells, on her family property near Rathdowney, South East Queensland, and nature trails emanating from this, and has recently published a handbook of wildlife tourism for guides, students and business start-ups, and has authored and co-authored several research reports for Sustainable Tourism CRC Griffith University (negative and positive effects of wildlife tourism on wildlife, birdwatching tourism in Australia etc.,) and initiated and run various wildlife workshops and conferences and the 2 day Wildlife Festival in Beaudesert in 2008 She is also chair of the Scenic Rim Branch of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, and coordinates fauna surveys involving volunteers and motion-sensing cameras as well as running various workshops and other activities for Scenic Rim residents and others. She is currently guest editor of a special wildlife tourism issue of the international Journa of Ecotourism, and co-editor (with Dr Ismar de Lima of Brazil) of a book on wildlife tourism, both to be published in 2017.

VICE CHAIR Maree Treadwell-Kerr
Queensland

Maree Treadwell-Kerr has a Masters of Wildlife Management and is an executive committee member of the Australasian Bat Society Inc, a member of Australian Wildlife Management Society and Animal research group, and a state representative of Interpretation Australia. MareeKerr

She has a background in environmental, heritage and cultural interpretation and visitor services in zoos, wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and museums, including nine years in outreach community and school programs with Ku-ring-gai Bat Conservation Society. Maree has a special interest in bats, particularly flying-foxes, and in 2012 created the annual Australasian Bat Night which she coordinates on behalf of the Australasian Bat Society (ABS), in partnership with community groups, local councils and people involved in bat conservation, interpretation and tourism.

Maree is looking at a PhD project investigating societal values on flying foxes and assessing impact of education/ interpretation (including tourism) programs in changing attitudes and impact of this on c
onservation effort and outcomes. Maree is also coordinating a Batty tourism project on behalf of the ABS. She is currently compiling a list of places to see bats of all sorts throughout Australia and New Zealand prior to placing these onto an interactive map on the ABS website, and is asking for information from people involved in tourism, education, research and bat care. Please send information to [email protected] Maree also has an interest in social media and its potential for education, conservation, research and tourism.

SECRETARY Aise Kim, PhD
South Australia Dr-Aise-Kim
Dr Aise Kim is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism Management at the University of South Australia. She completed her PhD on visitor interpretation and sustainable tourism at the University of Surrey, U.K. Her research interest areas include tourism impacts, tourist behaviours, pro-environmental behaviour, market segmentation, destination image, and tourism destination marketing. She has a distinctive track record in the field of environmental behaviour and visitor interpretation in nature-based tourism areas, publishing her research work in top-tier journals, Journal of Travel Research, Tourism Management, Journal of Ecotourism, and Tourism Geographies.

Dr Kim has been actively involved in several research projects focusing on tourist behaviours and the psychological and environmental impacts of those behaviours in the field of special interest tourism, such as bird-watching tourism, fossil-based tourism, nature-based tourism, food tourism, and ecotourism. She was one of the successful applicants to the South Australian Tourism Commission and Flinders Ranges Tourism Industry Association for the project which examined the potential of nature-based tourism products for sustainable regional economic development in the Flinders Ranges region, South Australia. Her recent research work also is extended to examine a cross-cultural study on green accommodation, targeting wildlife tourists and nature-based tourists. She is keen to make a stronger connection with the industry and engage with the project which makes significant impacts on the policy development and practical implications for sustainable business development at a local, regional and national scale.

TREASURER Lu Richards, Queensland

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Rebecca Scollen , Queensland

Dr Rebecca Scollen is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Arts and Communication at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) (2015 – ongoing). She is also a Board Member of Flying Arts Alliance Inc http://flyingarts.org.au/ (2016 – ).

From 2007 to 2014, Rebecca was the Manager of USQ Artsworx https://artsworx.usq.edu.au/. In this role she was responsible for the management of multiple projects, and teams of staff, to produce and stage numerous public events each year. Prior to working at USQ, Rebecca taught Theatre at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) from 1996 – 2003. She was then awarded a 3-year Australian Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to assist 14 regional performing arts centres throughout Queensland and the Northern Territory to better engage with their local communities and to build new audiences.

Rebecca was awarded her Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2003 at QUT. Her thesis, Building New Theatre Audiences: post performance audience reception in action, saw her work directly with professional theatre companies in Brisbane to arrive at a working model for audience development.

Rebecca’s research interests and employment to date have primarily concerned regional arts (advocacy, capacity building, audience building and performance), audience reception and development, arts management, arts marketing, and community engagement. However, in recent times Rebecca has sought to apply the knowledge she has gained over the last 15 years to the wildlife tourism and animal studies fields. She believes her experience in creating new audiences from non-theatregoers, and in using performance as a tool for engagement and learning, can be applied in a nature setting.

Rebecca has held a lifelong passion for nature, wildlife, and environmental/animal protection. She feels strongly that the way to preserve the natural environment, and all that live within it, is to engage individual’s emotions, imagination and intellect through awareness raising and direct experience to see them come to value flora and fauna and the systems that enable them to thrive.

NON-EXECUTVE COMMITTEE MEMBER Cat Davidson, Qld

More details soon, but Cat is originaly from Scotland, has worked as a wildlife tour guide in Greenland and the Falklad Islands, and is currently employed by WTA member O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat

NON-EXECUTVE COMMITTEE MEMBER Dr Greg P. Clancy, PhD, NSW

New South Wales Greg completed a Bachelor of Science (Zoology/Earth Sciences) at Macquarie University and a Master of Science (The breeding biology, feeding ecology and diet of the Osprey Pandion haliaetus cristatus in New South Wales) and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ecology, conservation and management of the Black-necked Stork Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus australis) at the University of New England, Armidale. He has worked as an ecological consultant since 1979 after a number of years as a clerk/administrative assistant in the NSW public service. During this time he has also worked as a ranger, a seasonal ranger and now a discovery ranger with the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service (Office of Environment and Heritage). The seasonal and discovery ranger work has provided Greg with experience in the interpretation of the flora and fauna of local national parks and his vast experience in ecological consulting allows this interpretation to be science based.

He also worked as a fauna consultant on the North-east Forest Biodiversity Surveys, the Rainforest Surveys, the Natural Resource Audit Council surveys, the Joint-Old Growth Surveys and the surveys for the Comprehensive Regional Assessment of Forests in NSW all carried out during the early to mid 1990s. Peter has published over 50 papers in refereed journals, mostly on birds. Greg has long wanted to carry out wildlife tours and in 2013 set up his tour and guiding business ‘Greg Clancy Ecologist and birding-wildlife Guide’ based in the Clarence Valley at Coutts Crossing, near Grafton, and runs tours on demand from Grafton, Coffs Harbour and Yamba.

Greg is now a councillor with the Clarence Valley Council in northern New South Wales and this position allows him to work to improve the environment of that large shire

NON-EXECUTVE COMMITTEE MEMBER Simin Maleknia, NSW

NON-EXECUTVE COMMITTEE MEMBER Bill Spence, Western Australia

Bill Spence works for the WA State Government in Perth and is a member of the board of the Jaycees Community Foundation, which runs the Historic Whaling Station at Discovery Bay in Albany WA. This major tourist and education facility also operates a biodiversity park and Australian wildlife park. He has a degree in geography and a post graduate diploma in Environmental Management.