John Woinarski

John Woinarski has been involved in research, management, advocacy and policy relating to biodiversity conservation, particularly in relation to threatened species, in Australia since the 1970s. Much of this work has been undertaken in northern Australia, with a particular focus on threatened mammal species, but his research and management has also considered plants, invertebrates, birds, reptiles, the impacts of fire, pastoralism, forestry, mining and invasive species, monitoring, survey design, Indigenous land management, reserve design, translocations, and islands. This work has been recognised with the Eureka Prize for biodiversity research (2001), the Serventy Medal (for lifetime contribution to Australian ornithology) (2001), the Northern Territory Chief Minister’s Award for Research and Innovation (2008), and the Australian Natural History Medallion (2012). Until 2011, he was executive director of the biodiversity division of the Northern Territory government’s environment department, but then moved to Christmas Island. From 2003 to 2012, he was a member of the Threatened Species Scientific Committee, which provides advice to the Australian minister for the environment on conservation issues relating to threatened species. He is currently employed part-time as Professor in the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, and within the North Australian Hub of the National Environmental Research Program.

The Nature of Northern Australia »

Its natural values, ecological processes and future prospects

Authored by: John Woinarski, Brendan Mackey, Henry Nix, Barry Traill

Publication date: July 2007

Northern Australia stands out as one of the largest natural areas remaining on Earth- alongside such global treasures as the Amazon rainforests, the boreal conifer forests of Alaska and Canada, and the polar wilderness of Antarctica. Nature remains in abundance in ‘the North.’ Its intact tropical savannas, rainforests, and free flowing rivers provide a basis for much of the economic activity and the quality of life for residents of the area. The Nature of Northern Australia details the latest science on the Northern environment. With increasing debate over the future of Australia’s often forgotten North, this is a timely examination of its environmental significance, the ecological processes that make it function, and the economies that are compatible with maintaining healthy communities and people and healthy country into the future. The authors, Dr. John Woinarski, Professor Brendan Mackey, Professor Henry Nix and Dr. Barry Traill, are leading experts on the environment of Northern Australia, and combined have many decades of experience on Northern ecology and land management.

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