The Gascoyne Food Bowl team
The team working on the Gascoyne Food Bowl Initiative from the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia consists of:
Tony Della Bosca: Project Manager
Tony Della Bosca has worked for over 10 years in project management, predominantly in the private sector and has over 45 years of primary industry experience.
Tony is the Project Manager for the Gascoyne Food Bowl Initiative and is responsible for the running and coordination of the entire project.
Richard George: Principal Research Scientist
Richard has an international reputation in catchment hydrology (land and water) and has published 170 papers and reports.
For this project, Richard will oversee and manage all areas of water supply investigations and planning. This will include implementing AEM surveys and investigations to select drill targets and aquifer characteristics, managing partner research with CSIRO and liaising with other agencies and industries to support all activities.
John Bruce: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Officer
John is undertaking all GIS analysis and map production for the project. This has included assisting in the planning and defining of potential horticulture production areas and analysis of data for water supply investigations.
Henry Smolinski: Research Officer
Henry is a specialist in land assessment and has conducted many soil surveys for agriculture development throughout Western Australia, including the South-West viticulture regions and Ord irrigation areas.
Henry is the Soil Team Leader, responsible for identifying potential horticulture areas bordering the Gascoyne River.
Russell Speed: Research Officer
Russell Speed is based in Geraldton. He has been the Regional Hydrologist in the Northern Agricultural Region for the past 24 years.
Russell will assist with overseeing water supply investigations and use of the airborne geophysics to select drill targets.
Trina Anderson: Senior Policy Officer
Trina will coordinate the land use planning component of the Gascoyne Food Bowl. This will mainly consist of progressing the land identified for expansion through the tenure change and local town (and district) planning scheme amendment process, while managing associated technical studies.
Trina works closely with the Shire of Carnarvon, the Department of Planning, the Gascoyne Development Commission and other regional stakeholders.
Megan Hevron: Senior Policy Officer
Megan will manage DAFWA’s consultation with other government agencies, the local community and the horticultural industry in Carnarvon. There will be a close collaboration between DAFWA and the Gascoyne Development Commission, which will support growers and the community to reap benefits of the expansion of the Carnarvon Food Bowl.
Kirrily Palmer: Communications Officer
Kirrily has worked in various marketing, communications and event organising roles with industry and government.
Her role is to keep stakeholders and the community informed of achievements and progress within the Gascoyne Food Bowl Initiative.