Join Landcare Tasmania for this free field day on sustainability and integrated pest management. The program will provide insights for wine makers, farmers and other landholders.
Spots are limited, so make sure you RSVP below. Once the event is booked out, please contact [email protected] to be put on the waiting list.
Admission Free. Lunch Provided. Please bring a warm coat, as the event will be in the open.
Mardi Longbottom, Manager – Sustainability and Viticulture, AWRI
Dr Longbottom began her career in the wine industry in the early 1990s helping to establish her family’s vineyards in Padthaway, South Australia. Shortly afterwards she gained her viticultural degree and held technical and vineyard management positions spanning numerous Australian wine regions. Mardi returned to The University of Adelaide in 2002 where she completed a Masters and PhD in Viticulture and was a Lecturer in Viticulture. For the past ten years, Mardi has focussed on research and extension of wine industry sustainability projects including regional climate risk analyses, benchmarking greenhouse gas emissions from vineyards, the management of corporate water assets, and she manages the Australian wine industry’s sustainability program, ‘Sustainable Winegrowing Australia’. Mardi is a graduate of the SA Governor’s Leadership Foundation Program and she is a director of the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology.
Hannah McKay, Vineyard Manager/Viticulturist, Pooley Wines
In her former life Hannah was a collegiate rower in the US where she gained a Bachelor of Business Management and Organisation, minoring in sports administration from the University of Miami. After a 2 year stint in Oslo and Prague working, Hannah returned home (Sydney) to work in finance and business management in a small aviation and defence consulting firm, spending weekends at the family farm in the Southern Highlands. She soon became disgruntled with city life and office work and enrolled in the Bachelor of Viticulture at Charles Sturt University in 2015. Catching the viti bug Hannah quit her job in the city, moved to the highlands and started teaching herself how to prune. In 2016 Hannah moved to Margaret River where she worked for Vasse Felix as a supervisor of 150ha and then leading hand on the estate (54ha) site. In her last year there, Hannah successfully administered the organic certification of 330ha, Australia’s second biggest organically certified vineyard including the implementation of biodynamics. Graduating from CSU in 2019, I set out to Tasmania and begun work with Pooley Wines in 2020. Hannah’s work at Pooleys is dedicated to enriching the site’s ecology and organic resistance and the company is now committed to organic certification by 2026.
Robyn Dixon, Senior Viticulturist, AWRI
Robyn has over 20 years of experience in the Australia and New Zealand wine industry and a Post Graduate Diploma in Viticulture and a Master of Applied Science (Viticulture). In New Zealand, Robyn was the senior viticulturist for Delegat Wine Estate, where she worked with vineyard managers on technical and operational aspects of cool climate viticulture. Since moving back to Australia in 2014, Robyn has been adapting her cool climate viticulture knowledge to Australian conditions, through the management of technical and extension programs across Australia. Most recently, Robyn worked as a technical viticulturist for TWE across most winegrowing regions of Australia. Robyn’s career and volunteer work reflect her passion for the environment and for advancing sustainable viticulture practices. In her role at the AWRI, Robyn is working with Chris Penfold to develop tools and resources to assist growers with non-chemical weed control.
John Ireson, TasWeed Biocontrol
Dr John Ireson has over 35 years of experience working on the biological control of weeds and led the research that was conducted in Tasmania from 1979-2013. During this period over 30 host specific biological control agents were released against 16 weed species including ragwort, gorse, Paterson’s Curse and Cape broom. His research group received a Tasmanian Landcare Australia Research Award for work on the biological control of ragwort.
This event is part of Landcare Tasmania's 2022 Outreach Program.
Landcare Tasmania works to represent, support, strengthen and grow community Landcare. Landcare Tasmania has more than 300 member groups across the state, representing over 5,000 Tasmanians.