Members Council 

Bernie Malone

Corangamite

Bernie has had a career as a MICA Paramedic and been a member of Bellarine Landcare for over 25 years. His family moved to the Bellarine in 1998 and has always operated their property using organic and sustainable practices. Bernie completed a Masters of AgScience (Melb) in 2020 and is currently president of Bellarine Landcare group. Bernie acknowledges that people’s mental and physical health directly correlates with the food they eat and the environment in which they live. He says it is critical to our future health and wellbeing, and the environment, that we work together to achieve a balance between biodiversity, human health, climate change and food systems.

Sophie Small

Corangamite - Professional Landcarer

Sophie has been employed with the Bellarine Landcare Group as a Landcare Facilitator for 11 years. She values an engaged community and enjoys collaborating with landholders, volunteers and other land managers to conserve biodiversity and support sustainable farming. In her role, Sophie supports the Bellarine Landcare Nursery, which is co-managed in partnership with Bellarine Secondary College in Drysdale. She is motivated by the synergy that comes from working alongside passionate and committed people and by creating positive, long-term impact for both people and the natural environment. Sophie holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Conservation and Land Management and has worked in land restoration roles for 24 years.

Dawn Parker

East Gippsland

Dawn has been an active Landcare member since 1992, originally helping form a group in a remote farming area called Wangarabelle, in far East Victoria. Dawn was drawn into the ongoing need to advocate for local resourcing, recognising the importance of the local group and the difference they could make in bringing knowledge, contacts and encouragement. About 10 years ago Dawn helped form the Far East Victoria Landcare network and has maintained the community centered flavour of Landcare. Dawn has enjoyed being secretary then president of the network over those years.

Beth Ripper

East Gippsland

Beth is a former Landcare Victoria Board Member (2018 - 2025) and is a dedicated community leader and sustainability advocate, serving on multiple Landcare and community boards, a former Wellington Shire Mayor and a driving force behind renewable energy and climate action initiatives across Gippsland. Beth has been involved in local landcare for over 25 years, and has been representing East Gippsland at a regional, state and national level for around 10 years. Beth is a past Board Member and Chair of the Maffra and Districts Landcare Network and is the current Chair of the Avon Landcare Group. She is also involved in the Lakes Entrance Community Landcare Gippsland Group, where she has been President since 2020.

Michele Shugg

East Gippsland - Professional Landcarer

Michele has been part of the Landcare story since 1993, in both Victoria and the Northern Territory. These days she works part-time as a facilitator for the East Gippsland Landcare Network, supporting 25 local Landcare groups, helping to share knowledge and ideas between them and neighbouring networks. With experience in horticulture, agriculture and natural resource management, Michele is passionate about bringing people together — building partnerships, encouraging community participation and creating opportunities for people of all ages to connect with nature. Alongside her husband, she now runs a small landscaping business and hobby farm, where sustainability and local connections are at the heart of everything they do. Michele recently completed the East Gippsland Agricultural Leadership Program and is excited to contribute to the 'big picture' side of Landcare — helping shape a strong and connected future for our communities and landscapes.

Tony Kent

Goulburn Broken

Tony is chair of Burnt Creek Landcare, a group delegate to Granite Creeks Project Inc., a director on the Gecko CLaN board, and is active in the local CFA and other community groups. Before retiring in 2022, Tony had a long professional career in agriculture, working across a broad range of disciplines in a variety of socio-cultural and geographical environments, both in Australia and overseas. He had operational, executive and non-executive director roles in agribusinesses, government agencies, NGOs, and latterly ran his own grain industry advisory business. Since retiring, Tony and his wife Sue are managing their small grazing property and farm-stay in the Strathbogie Ranges. There, freed from the demands of corporate careers, they now satisfy their previously unrequited passion for landscape rehabilitation and protection.

Dan Walker

Goulburn Broken - Professional Landcarer

Growing up on sheep and cropping farm, surrounded by farming and Ramsar listed wetlands in the Lakes District of Northern Victoria, ignited Dan's passion for the environment and agriculture. His educational journey led him to study Conservation and Land Management, followed by further exploration in permaculture, sustainable agriculture and training and assessment qualifications. Returning to a family farming operation, Dan continues his efforts in land restoration and the exploration of alternative farming practices. Dan also works part-time as a Landcare Facilitator with the Goulburn Murray Landcare Network and runs a small revegetation and consulting business.

John Rowlands

North Central

John resides in the Smeaton district which is part of the Ullina Landcare Group, a member of the Upper Loddon and Avoca Landcare Network. John joined Landcare when Ullina formed in 1994 and has been an active member since. John joined the Members Council to represent the interests of the Network’s 11 member groups and to share knowledge from interaction with the Members Council. John and his partner operate a farm with special interests in revegetation, regenerative agriculture and biodiversity.

Andrew Borg

North Central - Professional Landcarer

Andrew is a relative newcomer to Landcare. Although raised in a farming family, he spent most of his adult life in and around the Defence Forces, living and working all around Australia. After moving back to regional Victoria in 2014, he reconnected with his natural surroundings, becoming the Landcare Facilitator for the Buloke and Northern Grampians Landcare Network in 2019. As the new Facilitator for Mid-Loddon Landcare (appointed 2025), Andrew lives with his wife Debra, on a 40-acre property alongside the Kara Kara National Park (near Redbank) where they manage a small herd of alpacas and numerous marsupials held as part of a captive breeding program.

Julie Hind

North East

Julie has been an active landcarer since 2006, helping to establish Friends of Willow Park in Wodonga, then the Wodonga Urban Landcare Network (WULN) of which she is Chair. Her work in Landcare draws on her professional skills – strategic planning, program design and implementation, evaluation, facilitation, and policy development. Julie believes the face of Landcare is changing – it must if it wishes to stay abreast of increasing urbanisation and the voice of urban Landcare is critical to Landcare’s future.

Anthony Griffiths - Chair

North East

Anthony is passionate about the landscape, environmental issues and community. He is part of the family beef farming operation at Greta West in North East Victoria and actively involved in his local landcare group (Greta Valley Landcare). He is also on the committee for the Ovens Landcare Network and is both a graduate and board member of the Alpine Valleys Community Leadership program. Anthony was previously a Local Government Councillor at Wangaratta for ten years, including two years as Mayor, and was also on the Board of the North East Catchment Management Authority for eleven years.

Penny Raleigh 

North East - Professional Landcarer

Bio coming soon.

Ross Colliver

Port Phillip & Westernport

Ross Colliver is president of Riddells Creek Landcare and a member of Jackson Creek EcoNetwork Committee. He has been a consultant in the NRM sector for 30+ years. His PhD looked at the marginalisation of Landcare in NRM regional decisions in the early 2000s and what could be done about it. Stronger advocacy was one answer and now we have Landcare Victoria! Locally, Ross helped establish the Water Think Tank, a network of people in the Maribyrnong catchment who want to understand water and waterways and how these are being managed, so people can give informed opinion when water agencies consult their communities. Ross also helped organise Riddells Creek residents to say what they think about a housing development, that threatens to double the town population, overload the town's infrastructure and services and jam people into a car-dependent suburb. Ross chairs the Members Council Collaborative Working Group that is preparing a response to the State Government's draft Waterway Management Strategy. He is also a keen member of the Members Council Urban Landcare Collaborative Working Group, where landcarers can discuss the challenges of Victoria's rapidly urbanising towns.

Susan Anderson

Port Phillip & Westernport

A beef farmer in Bunyip for over 30 years, Susan is a founding and life member of Bunyip Landcare Group and has served as a committee member of the Western Port Catchment Landcare Network. Susan has been a board member of PPWCMA since 2015 and is currently Deputy Chair until December 2021, and is a board member of West Gippsland CMA. Susan holds qualifications in Conservation and Land Management, and as president of Bunyip Landcare, she has driven recognition of local Southern Brown Bandicoot populations, engagement with Wurundjeri and Bunurong peoples, and Gardens for Wildlife participation.

Linda Sijpkes

Port Phillip & Westernport - Professional Landcarer

Linda is an experienced horticulture and business professional with over 30 years in the nursery and environmental sectors. Growing up on a flower farm and plant nursery in Gembrook, she developed a lifelong connection to plants and the natural environment. She is currently a Landcare Facilitator with Cardinia Environment Coalition, supporting environmental volunteer groups through community engagement, governance, partnerships and digital communications, and is passionate about helping communities protect the environment for future generations.

Ian Hill

West Gippsland

Ian joined his local landcare and beefcheque groups after making a tree change 23 years ago to a beef farm and has since won two regional Landcare Awards. Ian is a board member of Latrobe Catchment Landcare Network, previously serving on the West Gippsland CMA board and the committee of his local landcare group. Ian is very aware of rural issues through radio broadcasting for 23 years, including weekly rural news. He is a member of VicGrid’s Roundtable for the new Gippsland Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) and its transmission line, and brings a long knowledge of landcare, power generation and energy transmission to the Members Council.

Alicia Merriam

Wimmera - Professional Landcarer

Alicia grew up on the prairies in Saskatchewan, Canada, spending plenty of time outdoors and becoming fascinated by plants from a young age. She completed a Bachelor of Agricultural Science in plant ecology before moving to South Australia, where she undertook a PhD in herbicide resistance. With this background, landcare’s balance between ecology and agriculture was appealing and she started a Facilitator role with Lismore Land Protection Group (Corangamite) in 2021. In 2023 she relocated to the Wimmera and is now the Landcare Facilitator for Yarrilinks Landcare Network. Outside of work she loves travelling with her husband, ‘botanising’, and caring for far too many houseplants.