Introducing our 2025-26 Emerging Leader…

A love for the Wet Tropics region and its sustainable future has led Thomas Herridge into a wide variety of roles – from a tradie to a tutor and Federal politician’s office manager. The latest is the 2025-26 ‘Emerging Leader’ on the Terrain NRM Board.

Thomas says the chance to step into a boardroom role is exciting.

“The average age of board directors in Australia is 61. It’s not common to be given an early career opportunity like this, to help lead an organisation.”

He’s the seventh Far Northerner to take advantage of Terrain NRM’s annual Emerging Leader mentoring program, designed to help future leaders on their career paths and to bring fresh perspectives to natural resource management leadership.

Thomas is currently working as an advisor for the National Indigenous Australians Agency, collaborating with Indigenous organisations and stakeholders across the region to support community-led initiatives.  He grew up in Machan’s Beach on Cairns’s northern beaches.

“I’ve got a deep love for that community, and for the whole Wet Tropics community. The Emerald Creek, Davies Creek and Freshwater Creek areas are favourite spots and working across a range of industries has given me a broad perspective on a sustainable Wet Tropics region with industries being profitable alongside healthy waterways and improved land for future generations.”

When you think of a board of directors, what images come to mind? In Australia, almost 70 per cent of directors are males and their average age is 60, but some organisations are beginning to buck the trend. One of them is Terrain NRM, whose ‘Emerging Leader’ program is in its sixth year and is inspiring other organisations to think outside the square.

When the Terrain NRM Board came up with the ‘Emerging Leader’ program back in 2018, the youngest board member was in his fifties and six out of seven directors were male. Five years later, four directors are in their thirties and the Board is made up of four women and three men.

Former Chair Keith Noble says directors could see there was “untapped leadership talent in the region” and it was most noticeable in the environment sector, where Terrain is the Far North’s natural resource management organisation.

Earlier leadership opportunities for the younger generation 

“While we recognised that youth were our region’s future, the Board had very little engagement with the younger generation at the time,” Keith says.

“The very first interviews for an Emerging Leader blew us away – this program has shown us just how much the Far North’s millennials value the environment and the community we all live in, and how they are looking for ways to make a bigger contribution. It has given us the confidence to appoint younger directors and we’ve seen the benefits.”

Two-way knowledge-sharing program

The one-year ‘Emerging Leader’ program is a mentoring initiative aimed at giving the younger generation opportunities to break through to leadership positions and gain governance experience while also giving the Board a chance to tap into fresh perspectives and connect with a new audience across the region.

Since 2018, three of the Board’s six Emerging Leaders have gone on to become Terrain NRM directors. Lucy Friend is an environmental scientist and North Queensland Airport’s Environmental Manager, and this year she became a Deputy Chair on the Board.

Lucy says a seat around the table to set the strategic direction of an organisation and help shape the region’s future resource management plans has been invaluable.

“The issues facing natural resource management are large-scale, long-term and multi-faceted. It is going to take innovation and commitment from a wide range of individuals and organisations to balance environment, social and economic sustainability across the Wet Tropics region.

“Young people have a lot to contribute and they want to be involved in decision-making, but we don’t often get the opportunity to sit at the boardroom table as colleagues.

“This program gave me the growth I needed…”

“This program gave me the growth I needed to become an effective director, and it has also given me a strong foundation for further growth. I will be more effective in my profession as an environmental scientist too, because I have a better understanding of how organisational structures work and how decisions are made.

Do you have a passion for the Wet Tropics region, the environment and sustainable agriculture? Do you want to know what goes on inside a boardroom and see first-hand how good governance underpins successful businesses? Terrain NRM is looking for the next ‘emerging leader’ to join its board of directors.

The Emerging Leader program is entering its sixth year, creating an opportunity for a new young leader to take on a 12-month paid mentoring program. ‘Emerging Leaders’ participate in board meetings and learn from Terrain NRM’s directors and its leadership team.

The Board’s Deputy Chair Lucy Friend is a former ‘Emerging Leader’.

“As a young person who had never been on a board before, the role gave me an opportunity to gain practical experience and build confidence,’’ Lucy said.

“I’ve studied governance and read about the theory of being a director but practicing it with the guidance of great mentors gave me the skillset I needed to progress my understanding and my career.

“My ideas and viewpoints were valued, and they contributed to boardroom decisions, so the benefit was mutual.”

Lucy is also North Queensland Airports’ Environmental Manager and a community volunteer across conservation, agriculture, youth support and mental health sectors. She said the Emerging Leader opportunity was open to a wide range of people, and believes diversity is important.

“We’ve had Emerging Leaders from sectors including business, tourism, environment, economic and agricultural,’’ she said.

It has been 20 years since FNQNRM began natural resource management in the Wet Tropics. Why was it established and how have regional NRMs benefitted the environmental sector?

People might be surprised to hear that it was Coalition Prime Minister John Howard who instigated the regional delivery model for natural resource management. The framework was created to solve a problem identified in a mid-term review of the Australian Government’s Natural Heritage Trust.

The Natural Heritage Trust, funded through the sale of Telstra, invested $1.5 billion into Landcare programs in 1997. While it was a significant policy and investment, the mid-term review found the effectiveness of the program was hampered by:

• A scatter gun approach (27 programs, thousands of small grants)
• Not enough science behind funding decisions
• A local approach that didn’t necessarily meet landscape needs
• A lack of defined strategic targets
• Limited monitoring, evaluation, and accountability
• Limited partnerships and cooperation.

As a result, a new concept of ‘regional delivery’ was proposed to tackle landcare issues from a landscape perspective, invest at a regional scale, work collaboratively, build capacity in local communities and enhance knowledge and information.

A network of 56 NRM organisations was set up around the country, with 14 of them in Queensland (now 12). Geographical boundaries were determined by catchments. One of the key reasons for the framework was recognition that each region had its own unique challenges that needed tailored landscape-scale strategies to be effectively managed.

In the Wet Tropics, FNQNRM Inc was established to cover the nine catchments from the Daintree to the Herbert. The business name Terrain NRM was adopted in 2006.

Different organisations, same philosophy

The organisational structure of the original 56 regional NRM organisations varied around the nation. In Queensland they were set up as independent not-for-profit companies. In some of the other states they were attached to local or state governments.

Today, Terrain NRM announces the upcoming appointment of Barry Hunter as Board Chairperson.

Barry succeeds Keith Noble who, after 12 years on the Terrain NRM Board including eight as Chair, has announced that he will retire from the Wet Tropic region’s natural resource management board on 14 November.

Barry was first appointed to the Board in 2018. A descendant of the Djabugay and Jiddabul-speaking people of the Cairns hinterland, his career has included a broad range of roles in government, mining and not–for-profit organisations. He has a passion for working with indigenous land and sea rangers and has consulted on indigenous land management, the carbon industry and community economic development.

Terrain NRM CEO Stewart Christie said he was looking forward to working with Barry in his new role: “Barry brings a wide breadth of knowledge and experience and will provide important continuity for Terrain NRM as we position the organisation for the future. I would also like to thank Keith Noble for his invaluable contribution as chairperson since 2011.”

Outgoing Chair Keith Noble said Terrain NRM was privileged to have Barry on its board.

“A nationally recognised leader in landscape management, Barry also brings a continuous and unbroken connection to the Wet Tropics reaching back thousands of generations,” he said. “His input over five years has been integral to our development, collaborations and future aspirations.”

Barry said he firstly wanted to pay tribute to Keith and his leadership over the past 12 years, during a period where the not-for-profit organisation’s innovative thinking led to ground-breaking projects combining science and local knowledge.

Indigenous students can be part of a new bursary program in the Wet Tropics region to help with their studies and future employment opportunities.

Terrain NRM has launched the Natural Capital Fund Indigenous Education Bursary Program.

Natural Capital Fund director and Terrain NRM Board’s first ‘Emerging Leader’ Rhiannon Simcocks said the fund wanted to encourage more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to become future leaders in natural resource management.

Students in the fields of natural resource management, environment, sustainable development, agriculture and conservation are eligible for the fund’s $3000 bursaries.

“It’s incredibly important for us to recognise the connection between young indigenous people and Country,’’ Ms Simcocks said. “We are hoping this new program will help to support Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders who want to further their studies for careers in natural resource management and advancements in collaborative management of the land and sea.”

Terrain NRM Board member and Djabugay traditional owner Barry Hunter said it was heartening to see more indigenous people caring for Country in the Wet Tropics region, and also guiding cultural land and sea management.

“We are seeing growth in land, fire and cultural heritage management roles,’’ he said. “We are also seeing growth in indigenous-led research. Having more young Aboriginal people engaged in the Wet Tropics region is crucial.”
Ms Simcocks said long-term goals of the program included an alumnus of bursary holders.

“There is a huge amount to be learned from young indigenous people, and from younger voices as a whole,’’ she said. “I was lucky enough to be Terrain NRM Board’s first ‘Emerging Leader’, an opportunity that included a 12-month mentorship program.

The first indigenous research grant has been awarded through a new Wet Tropics partnership, formed to improve land and water management in the Far North.

Skyrail Rainforest Foundation, Terrain NRM’s Natural Capital Fund, the Wet Tropics Management Authority and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service have joined forces to create the Wet Tropics Cooperative Research Partnership.

The partnership has awarded a $40,000 grant to CQ University for researchers to work with traditional owners and others in the Atherton Tablelands region.

CQ University Professor of Tourism Bruce Prideaux said the team would establish protocols for a traditional knowledge and science supply database.

“We will be working closely with traditional owners from several groups and with others in the Tablelands community from local government to other land managers, industry and groups like historical societies,’’ he said.

“In this project we’ll be doing the groundwork, learning more about Country and cultural data needs and designing a framework including intellectual property agreements and cultural protocol templates.

“The aim is to combine traditional knowledge and science with western knowledge and science for improved land and sea water management outcomes.”

CQ University’s Joann Schmider, who is a Mamu traditional custodian from the southern Tablelands, said there was a passion to integrate traditional knowledge and practices into management of the Wet Tropics region.

“We sincerely thank each of the funding partners and each of the research partners, and look forward to the exemplary outcomes that these kinds of joint venture approaches can achieve,’’ she said.

Making the Wet Tropics region and its communities more resilient to climate change is a goal of Zsuzsa Banhalmi-Zakar.

Terrain NRM’s newest board director is an expert reviewer of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report, a lecturer in environmental management and an advisor on increasing climate adaptation investment in Australia.

She sees major challenges ahead for the Wet Tropics region in relation to climate change, but also enormous potential in the sustainable finance and green project sectors.

“A lot of people visit our region as tourists, see the incredible biodiversity and potential for green initiatives and have a desire to help make a difference here – but they don’t necessarily know how,’’ she said.

“There is huge potential for climate-resilient and sustainable development goal-aligned initiatives, and bringing stakeholders together is an important way to lead this conversation.”

Dr Banhalmi-Zakar was a member of the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative and contributed to Australia’s first sustainable finance roadmap released late last year. More locally, she is the Green Finance leader at James Cook University’s Agriculture Transformation Adoption Centre. She also co-leads a project to incentivise water quality improvements in the agriculture sector within the Great Barrier Reef catchment and is a member of the Australian Government’s ‘Blue Carbon Method Working Group’ which seeks to reward landholders for coastal and catchment restoration.

She moved to northern Australia four years ago and said joining the Terrain NRM Board was an exciting opportunity to make a difference in her home region.

A career that benefits the natural environment has brought Hulton King back to Cairns.

The new ‘Emerging Leader’ on Terrain NRM’s Board moved from Brisbane and a law and business background four years ago to a programs manager role with Cairns’ Reef and Rainforest Centre – and the change has also led to volunteering and a board position in the environmental sector.

Mr King said strengthening the link between science and on-ground activities was a goal.

“Communicating the science and research to land managers is important, and seeing how it’s applied on the ground,’’ he said.

“In Northern Australia there are an enormous amount of opportunities in environmentally sustainable use of natural assets and we all benefit from open discussions on everything from water quality to renewable energy and sustainable development.”

Mr King is the third Far Northerner to take advantage of Terrain NRM’s new Emerging Leader mentoring program, designed to encourage the younger generation onto corporate boards.

Terrain’s Board Chair Keith Noble said the one-year position helped future leaders to strengthen their career paths and, just as importantly, brought fresh perspectives to the board.

“There is a lot of untapped leadership potential in our region,’’ he said.  “This program is showing us first-hand just how much millennials value the environment and look for new ways to make a contribution.”