Growing up on the family property at Ardlethan in the Riverina gave me a grounding in agriculture and natural resource management. Fascinated with water and soil movement after rain together with my father contracting the Soil Conservation Service to restore eroded gullies using earthmoving equipment, gave me an inkling of where I might focus my attention after school. I completed a Bachelor of Natural Resources with honours from the University of New England at Armidale and then had my gap year and a half overseas in Europe and North America. Coming back to Australia I was lucky enough to secure a position with the Soil Conservation Service at Condobolin where I was mentored and gained great experience in the design and construction of erosion control earthworks. Moving from Condobolin to Bathurst and then Young, the variety of Natural Resource Management (NRM) issues were both complex and satisfying when restoring degraded ecosystems was achieved. Specialising in stream and wetland restoration, I was able to implement large scale projects by raising community awareness and delivering on-ground best practice with landholders to restore streams and catchments. Moving into management has given me a good perspective of what is required to get a team engaged and working toward a common goal. Staff who understand their role, are happy to share information and help out other team members is what I strive for. In a 25 year career I have come a long way in understanding the complexities of NRM delivery and look forward to the learning more in future years.