About Us

CHAIR

Gabriella is the current Chair of FOWB. She is committed to being a watchdog for the heritage and environment of the Aldinga Beach and Sellicks Beach areas (including the Aldinga Conservation Park and the Washpool), focusing on sustainable housing and heritage endemic trees.

A Champion of contemporary music and founder and artistic director of Soundstream New Music, pianist Gabriella Smart is a leading advocate of new music in Australia through performance, improvisation, composition and curation. She regularly gives performances in the Willunga Basin, focusing on site specific music making and composition that highlights the unique ecological systems of the Fleurieu Peninsula.

She is a Churchill Fellow and received a Helpmann Award in 2009. In 2019, she was the recipient of the Australia Council Residency in Paris, and an Arts SA Fellowship. 

TREASURER

Rob Bickford has worked, extensively, in technical and scientific libraries, including forestry, architecture and building, and earth sciences: heritage conservation in its widest sense has been an abiding theme.

As Treasurer for FOWB, he is pleased to be part of a team that has had significant and effective  influence on the development and conservation issues of our region, and the serious challenges ahead of global heating. 

He has particular interests in the SA Conservation Council and Transport Action Network.

SECRETARY

Dominic is a researcher with an interdisciplinary career spanning ecology, education, psychology and population health. With experience across university, non-profit, state  government and community roles, his passion has been in developing and communicating evidence to support best practice and decision making.

He has been a resident of the Willunga Basin since 2006 and is grateful to make a meaningful contribution to the sustainable development of the region through his role as Secretary of FOWB.

He holds a PhD from Flinders University and a Masters in Marine Science.

Geoff Hayter is a grape grower, practicing environmentalist and sometimes radio presenter, all activities designed to back-fill his former career as a property consultant. He lives on a regenerated creek near Willunga.

Within FOWB, he maintains a particular interest in the Aldinga Conservation Park, and in all nature of planning matters as they affect the Willunga Basin. Alongside this role, he is also Chair of Biodiversity McLaren Vale, a group spawned by FOWB.

Felicity is an established leader whose portfolio career showcases an enviable range of successes delivering service excellence, guiding significant change, and building high performing teams.

Her passion is to prove sustainable concepts through design and early adoption and be a positive leader of these adaptions, passions that she has brought to profit-for-purpose organisations, government agencies and corporations. 

Felicity is an active volunteer in environmental and social services organisations serving in leadership roles. 

She holds a Masters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, a Bachelor of Media Communications and a Diploma of Sustainability.

Gina has lived in Willunga for 40 years and has always been involved with various environmental and social justice issues.

She has been a long-time supporter/ activist of the Aldinga Scrub Conservation Park and Washpool Lagoon.

In her recent retirement from Chiropractic she is an active member of the Willunga Basin Trail and is developing her interest in identification, propagation and preservation of native vegetation.

She is particularly interested in the Conservation Council’s Urban Tree Canopy Campaign.

Bridget Gardiner has lived in Aldinga Beach for 23 years and is passionate about protecting the beautiful natural environment of the area. Of particular interest is the connection of the range to reef with a focus on the foreshore connection to the Aldinga Washpool Karuna Heritage Conservation Zone and the Aldinga Scrub.

Tom Gara, an historian, has only become a resident of the area recently, but has been involved in archaeological surveys on the southern Fleurieu since the 1980s and has worked with Kaurna people on a range of historical research and heritage projects. He has also worked with Kokatha, Wirangu and Maralinga Tjarutja people in the far west of the state.

Since the 1990s he has specialised in native title research, first for the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (1993-1999) and then for the SA Crown Solicitor’s Office (2010-2021). He has published several papers about Kaurna history and others on the Aboriginal history of Eyre Peninsula, the Nullarbor Plain and the Great Victoria Desert. He is an Honorary Research Associate at the South Australian Museum and a member of the Friends of the Aldinga Scrub.

Tom is interested in early settler history and environmental history and is concerned about the impact of infrastructure, commercial and residential development on the natural and cultural heritage of the Willunga area.