17-06-2004

The Board and staff of Land & Water Australia have congratulated Professor Peter Cullen and Dr George Gardiner for the awards they received as part of the Queens Birthday Honours list.

Freshwater ecologist and Land & Water Australia director Professor Cullen was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to freshwater ecology, particularly in the areas of policy development, implementation and sustainability in relation to water and natural resource management, and to education.

Since his appointment to the Land & Water Australia Board in 2002 he has provided invaluable strategic advice and guidance for the Corporation's research and communications programs.

Professor Cullen has also been credited with helping to get water and river management issues on the national agenda. In 2001 he was named the Prime Minister's Environmentalist of the Year.

Dr Gardiner was appointed as a Member of the General Division of the Order of Australia for services to agriculture, particularly through the provision development of agriculture in the Kimberley region. He was instrumental in the development of the Ord-Bonaparte Program through his membership of the program's provisional interim Board and the first Governing Board.

The Ord-Bonaparte program, managed by Land & Water Australia, was established as a partnership between government, industry and the wider community to meet the research and development needs of the Kimberley region of North-Western Australia. The program concluded in December 2003.

ENDS

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