I hail from the beautiful Atherton Tablelands. Growing up in such a location, my passion for everything nature was inspired by the rich diversity and uniqueness of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.  

Field biology is a passion of mine. Throughout my schooling, countless general and species-specific bird surveys led to fieldwork monitoring frogs and freshwater turtles. Later I was lucky to join field trips to the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York for fresh and saltwater turtle monitoring. My project experience is a mixed bag, reflecting my broad interests. Radio telemetry of freshwater turtles and undergraduate projects on ant community assemblages, and the effect of thermal stress on the heritability of fitness traits in Drosophila.

Ornithology is a central interest of mine, and surveying for the Black-throated Finch and Carpentarian grasswren has opened my eyes to the importance of proper fire management for arid/semi-arid species.

I recently completed my Bachelor of Zoology and Ecology at James Cook University, now beginning my Honours research project with the GFS lab at the University of Queensland. My project is the beginnings of an investigation into a poorly understood and threated species, the Carpentarian grasswren. I will use species distribution modeling to hopefully identify key drivers of this birds fragmented and apparently shrinking distribution. Fire extent and frequency is a known determinant of suitable habitat. I am interested in assessing the importance of high-resolution fire history mapping for such models and hopefully inform on fire management strategies to prevent further population decline.