Victoria's Nature: A Weather Report

Rob Gell is a coastal geomorphologist by training; he taught Environmental Science and Physical Geography at tertiary level, then for twenty-five years he presented television weather. In his professional life he works as an environmental and communications consultant and is Chairman of Access Environmental Pty Ltd. He is also a company director, and a published author and a photographer. He is the President of Greening Australia Victoria, Chairman of the Mornington Peninsula and Westernport Biosphere Reserve Foundation Ltd. and a member of the Victorian Coastal Council. Rob is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an Inaugural Fellow of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand. He is the savewater® ambassador and was Environment Ambassador to the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. Rob Gell is a uniquely qualified individual who has the respect of government, business, environmental groups and the community for his approach to sustainable development. Importantly he is also an excellent communicator who can get the message across. Roger Jones (CSIRO) is Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research. He joined CSIRO in 1996 and since that time has been developing and implementing methods for assessing the risks of climate change. These methods have been used in both Australia and overseas. Risk assessment methods used by Dr Jones to assess climate impacts and manage risk through adaptation have contributed to the Australian Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, the United Nations Development Program Adaptation Policy Frameworks and are being used by researchers in a number of countries. He is a convening Lead Author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's. Previous to CSIRO, Dr Jones was employed by the Melbourne Museum where he wrote essays on new themes for the Museum and managed a multimedia project. Previous to that he investigated a 16,000-year history of climate change in western Victoria by modelling the water levels of crater lakes. In 1988, he joined the Museum of Victoria as curator of the travelling exhibition Salt and the Earth, visiting twelve Victorian centres in eighteen months. He joined the Victorian Indigenous Nurseries Cooperative in 1984, becoming its manager in 1986 and later chairing the board of directors. From 1982 to 1990 he was a regular broadcaster on public radio, co-hosting the Eclectic Parrot Natural History Program on 3RRR and 3CR between 1995 and 1991. Dr Jones has a Bachelor in Earth Sciences, a Ph D in palaeoclimate studies and has published over 100 papers, book chapters and reports. Bruce Beatson (farmer, Toora, South Gippsland) grew up in South Gippsland going dairy farming after finishing school. A decade later he was a director of the Toora Artificial Breeders Co-operative, moving on rapidly to become local President of the United Dairy Farmers Victoria (UDV) and by 1985 became Deputy President of the UDV. From 1988 to 2000 he was a director of Bonlac Foods and obtained a Companies Director Diploma from University of New England in 1993. He's currently a director of the Bendigo Community Bank (Toora Branch) and manager of the Dollar Wind Farm Information Centre. He and his wife Catherine still run cattle and alpacas. Bruce is one of only 85 presenters of the Australian Conservation Foundation's Al Gore Climate Project. Bruce speaks eloquently of his changing attitudes to 'life on the land' - both his and the rest of nature, and how farming practices need to change under the heat of the climate crisis.