Our Team
Meet our management committee
In November 2023, we elected and welcomed a new Management Committee: Gary Meredith (Deputy Chair), Alberta Hornsby (Chair), Christina Howley (Secretary) and Sue Marsh (Treasurer) (photo above).
Our founding committee from 2021 were Kallum Clarke (Deputy Chair) and Priscilla Gibson (Chair), as well as Christina (Secretary) and Sue (Treasurer). This committee guided us through the challenging set-up stage and helped to create a strong governance foundation for CYWP.
Our Management Committee hold three meetings per year. The AGM is held between October and mid-December.
Our staff
Over three years, Cape York Water Partnership has expanded from an informal alliance of people and organisations committed to protecting aquatic ecosystems, to an incorporated association with a four-person management committee, nine staff, and three dedicated contractors. In this part of the world, where finding the right people for a science-based organization can be difficult, we are blessed with a dedicated and experienced team.
Our diverse backgrounds include hydrologist/ fluvial geomorphologist, ranger, aquatic scientist/marine biologist, zoologist, ecologist, environmental scientist, engineer, builder, farmer, storyteller and more. Over half our team were born and raised in Cape York, bringing a deep understanding of the place and its people. The rest of us have been captured by the magic of the Peninsula and made it our home.
Below: CYWP Staff from left to right are Eric Dick (Water Quality Project Officer), Barb Rosendale (Program Management Support Officer), Dr. Jeffrey Shellberg (Track Erosion Project Manager), Sarah Herkess (Program Coordinator), Lyndal Scobell (Comms advisor), Ori Albert-Mitchell (Track Project Officer and GIS whiz), and Dr. Christina Howley (Program Director and Aquatic Ecosystems Monitoring Project Manager).
Left are (from top): Bev Coleman (finance officer), Robbie Morris (Tracks and Monitoring field team) with former Water Quality Project Officer Brodie in the background, Brad Smith (Track Project Officer), Sam Hobbs (Water Quality Project Officer) and Sienna Thomason (water quality intern).
Above: May 2017 CYWP Water Quality Training Day
Our founders and science leadership
CYWP was first established in 2016 by Dr Christina Howley, Dr Jeff Shellberg and 14 local partners to share resources and knowledge, raise awareness and improve management of Cape York's aquatic ecosystems.
Dr Christina M. Howley
Christina has been living in Cooktown since 2001, working with local community groups, Traditional Owners, and government organisations. Her Cape York work has focused on monitoring water quality, freshwater wetlands and seagrass meadows, and developing management plans to protect aquatic ecosystems. She completed her PhD-"Drivers of Water Quality in the Normanby Basin and Princess Charlotte Bay" based on 13 years of research across the catchment. Christina manages the Cape York region water quality monitoring for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Monitoring Program (MMP).
Dr Jeff Shellberg
Jeff has a background in fisheries science, hydrology and fluvial geomorphology. He moved to Cape York in 2007 and completed a PhD studying alluvial gully erosion in the Mitchell River catchment. Since then he has spent many years quantifying erosion from roads, tracks and gullies across Cape York, managing erosion control projects and developing Best Management Practice (BMP) guidelines to reduce sediment run-off to the Great Barrier Reef. He also leads the way in implementing advanced sediment load monitoring projects in the challenging and remote rivers of Cape York.
