My road to stormwater definitely originated in concern for our waterways. I’m a swimmer, diver, kayaker, whitewater paddler, and skiier. Basically if it’s in water, on water, or water-related I love it. Water is where I find my peace. When I left school I spent a year working on a station in Queensland. It was brigalow country, the kind with rich black soil and intermittently flowing creeks. I was horrified not only at the wholesale clearing of thousands of acres of land, but also the manner in which they crossed their creeks by bull-dozing a path, usually with steeply eroding banks on each side. This set me on a course to study agriculture because I wanted to reduce the impact farming had on the environment.

I then phased into working in community engagement, and very quickly found my home working for Sydney Water and the Metropolitan Water Directorate. My passions of engaging communities, achieving change, and working with water had been met. I went back to uni and now have a Masters in Natural Resource Management and a Masters of Research, in which I looked at the management of stormwater treatment infrastructure on private property. I am continuing this theme into a PhD, which is currently in progress.

Following my work on Sydney’s Metropolitan Water Plan, I spent five years working in local government as part of a catchment team, and am now very excited about my new role with Alluvium Consulting, where I hope to be able to influence a wider range of organisations and entities in their management of our beautiful waterways.