Noel Preece

Dr Noel Preece is a conservation ecologist with expertise in northern and central Australian ecosystems, fauna, vegetation, fire, pests and carbon sequestration. Noel's current research interests include improving forest and landscape restoration practices, conservation of the endangered Spectacled Flying-fox, Indigenous ecological knowledge and engagement and threatened species conservation at landscape scale. Noel is Lead Scientist on the Spectacled Flying-fox Recovery Team.

Noel holds a PhD (CDU) on Indigenous Ecological Knowledge and Natural Resource Management, and worked with Miriwoong Gadjerong people in the Kimberley for part of his PhD. His MSc (UQ/NTU) was on ecology of desert fauna – reptiles and mammals. His first degree (BSc Macq) was on earth sciences and plant physiology, majoring in earth sciences and environmental law.

Noel and Dr Penny van Oosterzee set up the Thiaki ARC Linkage rainforest reforestation project (38,000 trees on 16 ha in 90 replicated plots) on their property in the Atherton tablelands and are currently managing the project and researching various aspects of the experiment. They have published more than 20 research papers related to this work.

Noel was a Chief Investigator on a JCU ARC Linkage project on accelerating species richness gains and carbon sequestration in secondary regrowth in Nth Qld with Drs Susan Laurance, Stephen Goosem, Bill Laurance, Rod Fensham and others. Noel is also studying the causes of faunal declines across the savanna region and means of reversing these declines.

Noel is a Director of Terrain NRM Ltd, and currently a Director of Biome5 since 2006, a Director of Biocarbon PL until 2016, and of EcOz Environmental Services in Darwin from 1990 to 2006. He was a Director of Discovery Ecotours and Desert Discovery from 1987 to 2000 in central and northern Australia. He has directed major environmental impact assessment projects for gas pipelines, subdivisions, biofuel plants, and run many smaller environmental projects in Qld, NT and WA. He has a long involvement with indigenous enterprises, helping to set up the first Indigenous Protected Area, Paruku, in Western Australia, and with other Indigenous tourism, natural resource management (Yugul Mangi Women Rangers) and others. He has conducted many biodiversity surveys in WA, NT and nth Qld. His professional career began as a Ranger in NSW, and he progressed to Regional Manager in the NT.

Noel has worked on hundereds of diverse projects such as operations manuals on pests and fire for an indigenous organisation in the Kimberley, fauna and flora studies in the Gulf Region and on Cape York, Northern Territory and Western Australia, and IEK and savanna burning on the Cape. He also published a comprehensive a conservation assessment of Eucalypts and Corymbia of the savanna region.