Say g’day to Lisa, Regina and Justine – doing great work for NGT in Victoria, SA & Tasmania
In recent months, we’ve had a few friendly new faces join the team at NGT, so it must be well and truly time for some introductions!
Lisa McIntyre has joined NGT to provide a local contact point for our community activities in the Southern Grampians, including across NGT’s three local Restoration Reserves. For a recent example of the type of work Lisa is assisting us with, please see this story about our Long Point Restoration Reserve near Dunkeld.
Lisa grew up in Melbourne, then went to Longerenong Agricultural College and worked for the Agriculture Department before farming sheep and beef with her husband at Karabeal, Victoria. They are both heavily involved in Landcare, and Lisa has become a Landcare facilitator working with local groups. She also works at the local primary school where she teaches garden and environmental lessons in their kitchen garden program.
Lisa is based in Karabeal (Vic).
Regina Durbridge formally joins the NGT team at the Clayton Bay Southern Bell Frog Facility, having been involved in the initial planning with project founders Peter & Mia Mirtschin and the Clayton Bay Nursery and Environment Group in 2016. See here to learn more about the story of the facility.
Regina has worked with volunteers and landholders in various monitoring projects for the Goolwa to Wellington Local Action Planning Association in the Lower Lakes region since 2009; acid sulfate soil monitoring, Coorong Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth Revegetation project, community frog monitoring and providing field assistance to Natural Resources staff with bird, fish, frog and water quality surveys since 2011.
Her love for frogs started during the Millennium Drought when she first heard about the search for the endangered Southern Bell Frog, this turned into many nights over the years around the lakes searching for this elusive frog with many hours analysing frog calls. After a Save the Frogs showcase day in 2012 Regina went on to share her frog collection and knowledge to many community groups and schools and was part of Narnu Farm’s Eco Camp program. She also assisted with the recently developed FrogSpotter app and FrogwatchSA website and is on the Murray Valley regional panel for FrogwatchSA.
The Southern Bell Frog has had significant declines in the Murray Darling Basin over the past 30 years and especially in the Lower Lakes. This project aims to successfully captive breed this species for release to prevent local extinction. Captive breeding reduces some of the threats this species face during early life stages and learnings from this community driven project will help fill existing knowledge gaps and may guide future environmental and habitat restoration works for the species. Ultimately we hope to return that missing call in the frog chorus!
Regina is based in Goolwa (SA).
Justine Latton has recently joined NGT to assist with our wetland restoration field work in Tasmania, providing technical support to our Hobart-based Senior Wetland Ecologist Bec Sheldon. Their main focus at the moment is the fascinating investigation and restoration assessment of the Moulting Lagoon and Apsley Marshes Ramsar sites.
Justine grew up in New Zealand’s South Island and moved to Tasmania in 2000, where she now lives with her family. She has worked in freshwater ecology for twenty years, with a particular bent for field and laboratory work. She finds restoration work particularly satisfying and enjoys linking field surveys and data with recommendations for on-site protection of conservation values. Water bugs (aquatic macro-invertebrates) are also of special interest for Justine.
Justine is based in Hobart (Tas).
To learn more about the fantastic team at NGT, please refer to our staff page.
