The Sunshine Coast BioBlitz 2023

Kieran and Alina have combined skills and knowledge spanning over 25 years in the environmental industry with a particular focus on wildlife, biodiversity, education, and applied ecology (field). Our fields of expertise include fauna and flora surveys, wildlife monitoring, biodiversity assessments, and delivering educational workshops.

Andrew is a consultant botanist and arborist but his true passion is immersing himself into the microscopic world of the bryophytes (moss, liverworts and hornworts). Andrew has undertaken bryophyte surveys across Queensland. Andrew curates the Queensland Herbarium’s (BRI) bryophyte collection and is reasonably confident that he is the only consulting arborist to specialise in moss.

Ben’s been working in the environmental sector since 2003 in a variety of settings including local government, private consulting, not-for-profit and environmental management and compliance. Ben currently works as a Senior Ornithologist for a private consultancy specialising in bird work on renewable energy projects. Ben also works for Sunshine Coast Council as an officer in reserve management.

Dion Dior is an amateur field naturalist, Dion specialises in natural science illustration, nature journaling, guiding, and teaching workshops. In 2019 she founded the Noosa & Sunshine Coast Nature Journal Club. Dion is also a Sessional Instructor with the University of the Sunshine Coast in Naturalist Field Studies and Field Journaling Technique.

Elliot is a Ecologist who specialises in Field Botany. Experienced in conducting flora surveys in a broad range of vegetation communities which target individual species, threatened taxa and mapping regional ecosystems & threatened ecological communities. His background is in ecological restoration, implementing prescribed fire regimes and threatened species projects.

My love of all things botanical began at a very young age. I’ve been a member of Council’s Bushcare programme for over 20 years and am convener of the Noosa Parks Association Botany Group. For me, there is nothing better than being out enjoying our beautiful environment and all it has to offer.

Jono is an Ecologist who grew up on the Sunny Coast and he is passionate about Australia’s frog fauna. His work includes managing and leading various ecological projects where threatened frog species occur. He has been responsible for developing the offset pond construction plans for several large offset sites on the Sunshine Coast, which have successfully met the performance criteria. Jono has also volunteered with the QLD Frog Society for about 10 years and is currently the Events and Initiatives Coordinator.

Kat is a Conservation Ecologist originally from Victoria with a strong passion for citizen science and community engagement. Kat has worked with an array of threatened mammals across Australia, focusing on possums, small macropods and dasyurids in arid and forested ecosystems. Kat completed her undergraduate degree and Honours at La Trobe University in 2019. She has since published this research in Forest Ecology and Management (2021) and is active in research on landscape-level threatened species conservation and ecology.

Kieran and Alina have combined skills and knowledge spanning over 25 years in the environmental industry with a particular focus on wildlife, biodiversity, education, and applied ecology (field). Our fields of expertise include fauna and flora surveys, wildlife monitoring, biodiversity assessments, and delivering educational workshops.

Marc has over 40 years in environmental management. Experiences include growing and selling native plants, and seeds, establishing/managing 9 local native plant nurseries, small and large-scale revegetation projects, bush regeneration, ecological consulting, and working as Land for Wildlife officer for Sunshine Coast, Gympie and Fraser Coast Regions.

Nick has over 20 years professional experience undertaking ecological assessments for a broad range of clients and projects throughout Queensland. He is an accomplished field ecologist with extensive experience conducting terrestrial flora surveys within the diverse vegetation communities of the South East Queensland bioregion.

Ollie is a freshwater ecologist with a background in threatened species monitoring and conservation, particularly in Southern and South-East Queensland. His main obsessions are with frogs, crayfish, small-bodied fishes, and reptiles. He currently lives and works in Outback Queensland but his passion for the mountains and coastal swamps keeps him coming back.

Rachel has more than 20 years of experience in strategic planning, natural resource planning, wildlife and biodiversity management. She has considerable involvement in natural resource management program delivery management. Rachel is also a committed and well-known wildlife rescuer and trainer.

Robin is a PhD candidate at the University of the Sunshine Coast investigating the impact of living near humans and urbanisation on microbats. This project aims to locate microbat roosts in buildings, trees, and bridges/culverts on the Sunshine Coast to analyse the stress levels of the microbat residents.

Ross has been studying the wildlife of southeast Queensland for 10 years with a special focus on insects in particular. He has described several species of stick insects from the scenic rim region and has undertaken biology studies on fulgorid planthoppers.

Spencer has worked in the native plant, re-vegetation and bush regeneration industries for over 30 years and is passionately committed to the preservation of rainforest through various eco-restoration works but also through education. Spencer writes articles, presents on Youtube and is talks at events for a variety of eco-restoration and flora topics.

Vivian is an entomologist working with Fruit fly phenology and post-harvest research for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Queensland, Australia. She is also an Honorary Research Fellow at Queensland Museum, doing taxonomic research on minute-tree fungus beetles from their collections. Previously she worked as a lecturer in Entomology and Invertebrate Zoology at the Federal University of Tocantins (UFT) in Brazil and as the curator of the Invertebrate Collection of the same institution.

Geologist who has worked with the Geological Survey of Queensland on geological mapping, resource investigations and geological hazards for urban areas. Bringing geology to the public and has written booklets and leaflets in a Rocks and Landscape series for the Geological Society of Australia.