About me
October 25th, 2007
My early childhood was spent in Devon in the South West of England & in London. I then lived in Singapore 1974 - 79 and was lucky to attend the United World College of South East Asia. In 1979 my family moved to Sydney, Australia. I am married to Sandy with two sons, Bede aged 19, & Raffe aged 16 & live in the beautiful town of Bellingen, NSW.
After studying an Arts degree at Macquarie University I became involved in a series of environmental and horticultural practices. In my twenties I worked in market gardening, landscape design and construction and then to Permaculture consultation and teaching. This was later followed by the project management of a series of community-based Landcare projects and an increasing involvement in adult and community education, community development, and teaching and mentoring various adult groups - often disadvantaged.
In 1996 I returned to university and completed a Masters degree in Social Ecology in 1998. I remain involved in community-based Landcare in an organisational capacity. My current work combines teaching Social Sciences at Southern Cross University and Conservation at TAFE. I remain interested in the crossovers between the theoretical and the practical, and social and the environmental. I am aiming to complete my PhD in 2009. It focuses upon the importance of developing an engaged ‘sense of place’ as way of positively reframing conservation challenges.