About Bill Phillips

Born at Lake Cargelligo, Bill Phillips grew up in the farming communities of Trundle in central New South Wales, Harden-Murrumburah and Tocumwal on the River Murray. He attended Finley High School and then completed a Bachelor of Science and PhD in Zoology at the Australian National University in 1985 before joining the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service (ANPWS).

While employed by the ANPWS (later to become the Australian Nature Conservation Agency, and then Environment Australia) Bill worked across a range of program areas including the National Koala Conservation Program, Ocean Rescue 2000, Save the Bush and One Billion Trees. In each of these roles Bill developed his skills for policy development, strategic planning, program management and liaison with stakeholders.

It was during this same period that Bill was among the first representatives of the Commonwealth Environment portfolio to participate in the working groups of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and this honed his skills in integrated natural resource management and catchment management which have served him well since.

Bill Phillips was also a key player in the establishment of Waterwatch Australia - a community education program focused around water quality monitoring and promoting integrated catchment management. Today this program has over 60,000 people across the country monitoring regularly in over 300 catchments.

In 1989 Bill began his association with wetlands, which saw him lead the establishment of the National Wetlands Program, become chief organizer for the global conference of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 1996 in Brisbane (for which he and his team were officially commended) and eventually to be the Deputy Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention based in Switzerland from 1997-2000.

Bill has extensive experience in the environment field both in Australia and internationally for more than 20 years. He has worked in policy and program development and implementation in a wide range of natural resource management and biodiversity conservation fields. Upon his return to Environment Australia in early 2000 Bill was promoted to Assistant Secretary with responsibility for water programs - an area of specialisation he has developed through his 20 years of Australian and international experience.

Bill Phillips is recognised as an excellent communicator with the ability and experience to work across sectors and cultures and to build consensus solutions in natural resource management. Coordination skills and the ability to find innovative solutions to complex problems are particular strengths.

Yatco Wetland, South Australia

The Yatco Wetland Landcare Group was formed in 2007 to take forward an initiative to see 11 irrigators sourcing water direct from the River Murray so that Yatco lagoon could be returned to a semi-natural wetting and drying regime; thus reducing evaporative losses and saving an average of 2 gigalitres every 3 years for helping improve the health of the River Murray. Yatco lagoon, and the irrigators are also winners under this project. In September 2007, the group received a grant of $3.3m under the National Plan for Water Security to finance the infrastructure changes needed for this initiative to proceed and the water savings to be realised.

Visit the web site http://www.mainstream.com.au/YatcoWetlandPlan.htm

to find out more and this model project.

Katfish Demonstration Reach, South Australia

This community-based initiative sees stakeholders and landholders working with several government agencies to advance an integrated recovery plan for this large floodplain area near Berri. Visit the web site http://www.katfish.org.au/ to find out more and this model project.

RiverWorks-RiverSkills is owned and operated by Dr Bill Phillips

About Bill Phillips