Our team is comprised of a Committee and a series of Sub-Committees. Sub-committees enable additional/specialist skills and person-power to be added to the group as the KKA further matures and grows as an organisation. Each Sub-Committee is convened by a KKA committee member who reports at KKA committee meetings.
President
Rex Dusting is the KooyongKoot Alliance President.
As representative of the Friends of Scotchmans Creek and Valley Reserve (FSCVR), he has been actively involved with the Alliance since its inception – both on the committee and also contributing to field work, policy development, submissions, and the KooyongKoot Collaboration.
Rex, amongst other interests, has a passion for Australia’s natural environment and its effective protection and improvement. Living a childhood and adult family life mostly within the Gardiners (KooyongKoot) Creek catchment and with an urban water professional background, he has a strong personal interest in success of the Alliance’s objectives.
As well as KKA and FSCVR he has also been active at committee level in other community not-for-profit organisations. Rex is currently retired from full time employment. Previously he had a professional career in the urban water industry in technical, strategic, and executive leadership roles – as well as project development and delivery roles including managing large teams and budgets, community engagement and advocacy to government and other authorities.
KooyongKoot Catchment Keeper
The KooyongKoot Catchment Keeper is a very important role within the KKA. The Catchment Keeper acts as a voice for the creek and its biodiversity and also advocates for a strategic plan that involves all the major stakeholders, such as governments, landowners, businesses, educational institutions and the catchment community. Generous funding from the Victorian Government helped fund the establishment of the role of the KooyongKoot Catchment Keeper.
Graham Ross was engaged in the role beginning 1st December, 2022. Graham has a background in conservation and land management.
Graham has over 30 years of experience in the commercial property sector with a strong focus on sustainability. Since then, Graham has become active within the not-for-profit space, forming and working with several biodiversity focused advocacy groups.
Graham has a personal and professional interest in native revegetation. He has been involved in a number of reforestation initiatives in Victoria, is a board member of Greenfleet and is on the committees of the Victorian Environmental Friends Network and Rewilding Stonnington. He is a founding member of the KooyongKoot Alliance and was the organization’s first President. As part of his role as KooyongKoot Catchment Keeper, he is also a member of the Concerned Waterways Alliance and Urban Waterways Alliance.
With a wealth of experience across sustainability, land management, and real estate, Graham brings a unique perspective to his role as the KooyongKoot Catchment Keeper.
Vice-President
Frank Giorlando is Vice-President of the KooyongKoot Alliance.
Dr Frank Giorlando is a clinician-scientist with long-standing interests in environmental rehabilitation and community access to nature. He was a founding member of the Yarra Link project, which is primarily focused on revegetation and care for indigenous flora and fauna near the confluence of the Kooyongkoot (Gardiners Creek) and Birrarung (Yarra River).
Frank is also interested in how healthy waterways and natural environments can contribute to human well-being. Having undertaken research studies in neuroscience and neuroimaging, Frank believes that application of modern data-sciences and information technology tools can help shape our understanding of the determinants of health of natural
environments and lead to informed decisions regarding management.
Secretary
Pam Welsford is the inaugural Secretary of the KooyongKoot Alliance. Pam is also the convenor of the Marketing and Communications and Fundraising Sub-Committees.
Pam has lived in the Gardiners Creek catchment for over 30 years. She has worked in education in secondary schools and as the education officer for Environmental teachers across Victoria. Pam was a Science teacher at Strathcona including the Hawthorn campus on the Yarra River where she initiated a revegetation program.
Pam has been president of Friends of South Surrey Park for over twenty years. The focus has been revegetating the park, so that the area becomes a significant aspect of the Back Creek biodiversity corridor.
As Secretary she has worked to:
- Establish KooyongKoot Alliance as an important charity
- Create networking opportunities for Friends Groups within the catchment
- Raise the importance of having a management plan for Gardiners Creek. Gardiners Creek is the only tributary of the Yarra River without an overall management plan.
Treasurer
Chris Pettit has been appointed as our new Treasurer. We’ll post his profile here shortly.
Urban Guerrillas Representative
Sam Russell has initiated and leads a youth-based and very successful grassroots environmental organisation called the “Urban Guerrillas”. The Urban Guerillas aim to restore biodiversity to urban landscapes. The Urban Guerrillas often partner with the KKA in revegetation projects along the KooyongKoot Creek. Sam is also the Projects/ Revegetation Sub-Committee convenor.
Sam coordinates and plans strategies with multiple stakeholders’ groups including Friends-of Groups, institutions, nurseries, local communities and Local, State and Federal Government.
Sam has a strong interest in ecological conservation and indigenous based management, implementing holistic frameworks to incorporate human and environment-based solutions. While studying, Sam has worked several years part-time in bush regeneration, learned conscientious understanding of habitat, communities and Ecological Vegetation Classes.
Sam’s group has already conducted several major revegetation events in the Gardiners Creek Reserve with the KKA and local community.
Other Committee Members
Susan Dempsey is a non-executive committee member and the convenor of our Litter and Pollution Sub-Committee. For the last 50 years, Su has lived in leafy Blackburn and been involved in many aspects of the local community. This included at Blackburn Lake Sanctuary assisting in the formation, development and delivery of a Volunteer Education program, organising Community Environment and Cultural Awareness events for the public and serving on the Blackburn Lake Sanctuary Advisory Committee including in litter management and water quality programs.
Su has a lifelong love and appreciation of nature and the natural environment and has been fortunate to have been able to incorporate many aspects of this into her personal and professional life.
Having the great privilege of spending some special times with First Nations people on Yorta Yorta country, has instilled a lifelong respect, admiration, and appreciation for their culture, wisdom, care for family and country, and resilience, which has guided her philosophy of “caring for country” and her community ever since.
The KooyongKoot Alliance has given Su a greater awareness of the need to advocate for the protection and improvement of valuable remnant vegetation, connectivity of habitat for native species, and natural wetlands, and waterways and as an avenue of peace, tranquillity and opportunities for all to connect and learn about the natural environment.
Sub-Committees
In late 2024, the KooyongKoot Alliance committee recognised that the formation of sub-committees was strategically the best way to advocate for better environmental outcomes for the KooyongKoot and to facilitate the implementation of a KooyongKoot Master Plan.
Sub-committees bring additional skills and person-power to the group as the KKA further matures and grows as an organisation.
The following Sub-Committees have been initiated (with convenors’ names italicised):
- Marketing and Communication – leading preparation of newsletters, website, social media, posters etc for the purpose of developing communication for KKA events and KKA Friends Groups. Also communication with the wider public on Catchment activities and issues.
- Members: Pam Welsford, John McMahon, Glenys Grant
- Litter and Pollution – understanding pollution issues and contributing to litter and pollution reduction activities and programs of stakeholders across the catchment.
- Members: Su Dempsey, Mark Landmann, Graham Stone
- Projects/ Revegetation – understanding the issues, contributing to stakeholder programs across the catchment and manage/participate in KKA revegetation projects.
- Members: Sam Russell, Antony Braakhuis, Ben Chessler, Rex Dusting, Rob Pettit, Graham Ross, Albert Toet
- Advocacy – to Government, Councils, Authorities and other stakeholders on Catchment wide issues.
- Members: Graham Ross, Callum Clarke
- Fundraising – source funding from institutional organisations and companies to support activities and programs run directly by KKA or as a contributor to Catchment wide studies and actions.
- Members: Pam Welsford, Beth Hebdon, Anne Payne, Graham Ross
- Governance – Oversee KKA activities and systems to ensure consistency with KKA Principles, obligations and good governance.
- Members: Rex Dusting, Ben Chessler, Trevor Eddy
- Education – Working with organisations including educational organisations to foster learning relating to Gardiners Creek and its catchment, and collect data.
- Members: Frank Giorlando, David De Angelis, Barbara Ormerod, Ian Moodie, Tony Slater, John White