Board members are elected from across 14 NRM Management Units (12 NRM regional body areas).

QWaLC board meetings are held four times a year. If you would like to have your views represented to the board or share a particular experience as a community NRM group or NRM volunteer, contact the board member for your region.

Our board is both representative and skills based and focused on organisational governance and listening to the members. Management tasks to deliver the strategic direction and to provide the services members need (e.g. grants, insurance, information, training) are delegated to the CEO and delivered by our great team of volunteers and contractors. The board have subcommittees and working groups for various projects.

Chairperson and South East Queensland Representative

Michael Bond was elected to the QWaLC board in 2022. 

Michael is a member of Save Our Waterways Now, a community catchment organisation working to restore the habitats of creeks and waterways in the catchments of Enoggera, Ithaca and Fish Creeks in Brisbane’s north and west.

Michael is a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland with a distinguished public sector career working in senior positions in the Commission for Children and Young People, the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy and the Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs.

In a parallel career, Michael has served 38 years as a member of the Australian Army (parttime), with four operational tours of duty. In 2012, Michael was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross for his leadership of an Infantry Battalion. He was awarded a Bar to the Conspicuous Service Cross in 2017 for outstanding achievement in enhancing the operational outcomes of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. He retired in 2022 as a Brigadier.

Having witnessed first-hand and at length, the ravages on communities of human rights abuses, mass population displacement, starvation, disease, drought and floods, Michael is passionate about practical, community-led actions in combatting climate change. Michael in inspired by the volunteer effort in Queensland towards caring for country, including maintaining species diversity and habitat, improving soil health and reducing emissions.

Vice Chairperson and Cape York Representative

Trevor Meldrum was elected to the Board in November 2024.

He is an Australian with aboriginal heritage born in Cooktown, Cape York Peninsular, with ties to Princess Charlotte Bay, Lakefield and the Palmer River regions.  For the last thirty-one years, he has lived and worked in environmental and natural resource management roles and holding an International Agricultural Diploma, and a Certificate in Animal Husbandry. Other qualifications include, Conservation and Land Management, Training and Assessment.

Trevor has also undertaken numerous courses such as Conservation and Land Management Training, Environmental Project Management, Aerial and on ground Environmental Scientific Surveys to name a few. He would enjoy a second term as Chair of Queensland Conservation Council.

Secretary and Fitzroy Basin

Representative

Lynette Keene was elected in November 2024.

Lynette and her family David, Ellen and Breanna live on the lands of the Western Kangoula people. Central to everything Lynette does is the land she and her family walk on. Her motivation is healthy land and healthy water as well as respect for those that have come before her. She has experience with many land types that includes the Desert Uplands in the Jericho area and the Central Highlands around Emerald and Springsure area. Her passion lies in agriculture and educating producers to be better custodians of their land supporting biodiversity and clean healthy waterways. All their properties have showcased this through field days that have introduced producers to the benefits of biodiversity, value of native grasses and grass budgeting. They have also been earlier adopters of technology.

Lynette has experience in teaching which includes from kindergarten to being a TAFE teacher. Many years’ experience in development of environmental projects and working with different environmental groups. These include CHRRUP, FBA and several local Landcare groups in the past.  Her family together has developed Northdown Cattle Company enterprise. Being first generation grazers with a strong agricultural background has enabled them to develop an understanding of all aspects of a business. They have worked together on development of land, production, business but most importantly the people who are involved with Northdown Cattle Company.  She is also a strong advocate for networking with like minded individuals which has led her to looking to become a director on the QWaLC board.

Treasurer and Southern/Northern Gulf Representative

Mark Van Ryt was elected to the Board in November 2025.

Mark was born and bred in the North West of Queensland and has a passion for the community, its history, cultural heritage, and the environment. He has previously served on Mount Isa City Council for two terms, was appointed to the regional NRM board and did some years as the Regional NRM Facilitator. Mark went on to found a Landcare group and reenergise another now called Gulf Rivers Landcare. Mark is continuing in the role of secretary for his landcare group. He is the regional weed spotter coordinator and the Sunfish representative for Southern Gulf.

Desert Channels Representative

Robyn Adams was elected to the Board in November 2021.

After twenty five plus years in the creative arts, Robyn returned to her birth country to run a cattle grazing property in central west Queensland in 2002.  Through that quarter of a century in Melbourne, Perth and overseas, she acquired extensive and broad experience and unique combination skill set, in design, costumiery, fashion, theatre arts and tertiary education.

For the two decades since returning ‘home’ to this Wadjebangai Country, she has developed her grazing and beef production enterprise at Stratford, a modest breeder block in the southern Desert Uplands. Enjoying the ride of repurposing those skills, and learning and relearning all about rangeland management, Stratford is now a leading example of good ecological stewardship of its natural woodlands alongside grazing best-prac and award-winning bovines. That enjoyment has extended to voluntary positions within the boards of Desert Uplands Committee, Desert Channels NRM and QWALC where Robyn shares her love, understanding and knowledge of country, cattle and community, for a betterment of all (hopefully).

Extending these diverse skills into many community and public arts projects and programming empowered a cultural flourishing of sorts in inland Queensland, favouring costume and sculpture to speak of and for our communities. Robyn has learnt alot from Indigenous Cultural practice enabled on Stratford, its surfeit of Aboriginal assets therein expounded, and continue encouraging shared learning, especially regarding fire and flora in this desert, timbered grasslands.

QLD Murray Darling Representative

Leo Perkins was elected to the Board in November 2025.

He has a deep commitment to sustainability and the opportunities it brings to agriculture and natural resource management across the Condamine and Murray–Darling regions. He brings to the board skills in strategic planning, communications, ESG compliance, events and stakeholder engagement, grounded in practical experience managing conventional and organic agricultural operations in Southeast Queensland and northern NSW.

Condamine/South West Qld Representative

Chris Meibusch was elected to the Board in November 2025.

Chris is a member of Save Mt Lofty Inc, an urban based landcare association located in Toowoomba, Southern Queensland. He has been project manager for recent successful government funded projects including the Toowoomba Escarpment Bushfire Preparation Project in 2022 and the Toowoomba Region Koala Habitat Project from 2023 – 2025.

From 2017 – 2020, Chris managed Save Mt Lofty’s campaign to protect critical koala habitat on the site of the former rifle range at Mt Lofty. Chris authored “Save Mt Lofty – Lessons for a Successful Community Campaign” – available via Apple e-Books. The 390ha rifle range site is now owned by ARTC Inland Rail as a biodiversity offset – which Save Mt Lofty Inc continues to monitor.

Over recent years, Chris has committed himself to community environmental and landcare work through Save Mt Lofty Inc, Pittsworth & District Landcare, Condamine Catchment Management Association and Darling Downs Environment Council.

For the last 5 years, through Save Mt Lofty Inc, Chris has managed the annual Toowoomba Region Koala Count as a community based citizen-science initiative.

Beyond his koala work, Chris’ major landcare focus has been on engagement of our older volunteer base with the wider community and with younger generations – in particular, through engagement with schools.

Burnett Mary Qld Representative

Debbie Seal was elected to the Board in November 2025.

Elected to the QWaLC board in November 2025, Debbie has for the past 30+ years worked with non-profit community environment organisations, including the Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee (MRCCC) where she currently works part time, managing the group’s finances and providing project and administrative support.
In an honorary capacity, she also the Secretary/Treasurer of the Australian Native Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Association (ANARRA), operating in the Gympie/Wide Bay region, and a volunteer on the Wildcare Australia 24 hour hotline. Debbie is deeply committed to providing support for sick, injured and orphaned native wildlife.
Debbie’s small acreage at Tamaree provides habitat for wallabies, possums, gliders, bandicoots and many species of native birds

Statewide Representative

Richard Sporne was appointed by the Board in November 2024.

Richard has twenty years’ experience in community development, engagement and project management providing expert advice, support and leadership to Indigenous communities throughout Australia. Trained and experienced in facilitation, mediation and stakeholder engagement with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities and clients. Adept at report writing with skills in cross-cultural communication and project management. Richard believes effective relationships between any clients (especially Indigenous) and service providers start with – ‘Know people, create a connection’ one of the core elements of community engagement skills. With this in mind, it is also important to have consideration for Indigenous ways of working when planning and delivering.

Qualifications include Bachelor of Applied Science – Curtin University (2005) and Advanced Diploma in Natural and Cultural Resources – Deakin University (2012).

His current roles are Manager, First Nations Engagement | Greening Australia, Strategic Advisor | Wadja Indigenous Protected Area Consultation and Working Group Member | Fitzroy Catchment Traditional Owner Alliance.

Out going Representatives

November 2025

We would like to thank all the outgoing QWaLC Directors for their dedication and work for the QWaLC Board:

Mary-Lou Gittins OAM, John Brisbin, Craig Magnussen, Craig Allison and Jeffery Baines.