MINE LAND REHABILITATION AUTHORITY - Key Persons
Andrew Mains has been involved in the education industry for over 20 years as a teacher, program presenter and lecturer. Having graduated from Monash University with Arts and Science qualifications, Andrew also gained his teaching degree and has taught at both the Primary and Secondary levels. He has also spent time lecturing to beginning teachers as part of their university course work and supervised the Science in Schools project, as well as leading Areas of Learning, school operations sub committees and been an active member of school councils.
Antonia has 20 years' environmental experience in the UK and Australia in mine closure, geo-environmental risk and approvals and brown field development. For the last 11 years she has focused on mining, specifically mine closure. She has worked for the mining industry, consultancies and government and has experience with a range of commodities in hard and soft rock mines. Antonia is passionate about mine closure and has driven interstate government knowledge sharing by launching and chairing the interstate government closure discussion group. She was also a key in the closure legislative change process in South Australia. Working for industry and consultancy, she has developed and led mine closure projects, providing advice on direction, undertaking risk identification & mitigation, audits, regulatory documentation, criteria, technical study management, implementation and stakeholder engagement.
Over the last 4 years Antonia has focused on the closure of lignite coal mines in the Latrobe Valley, where she worked for industry before joining the Mine Land Rehabilitation Authority (MLRA) as Technical Director in October 2022. She is keen to employ her knowledge and experience in this area, to assist in ensuring there is a smooth pathway to mine rehabilitation for industry, government and community, that enables easy transition to secondary land uses to facilitate the growth and prosperity of the area.
Job Titles:
- Administration Support Officer
Brooke Wilkins commenced with the Mine Land Rehabilitation Authority as an Administration Support Officer in March 2023. She brings to the MLRA a range of skills and expertise in finance and office administration. Brooke works closely with the Executive Assistant to provide efficient administration support across the team.
Brooke has a Diploma in Human Resources Management and Certificates III and IV in Business. Brooke commenced her administration career in the Oil and Gas industry and was most recently employed by a local private entity as the Office and Finance Manager.
Claire has over 10 years of board level experience across the public and commercial sectors with a focus on the utilities, resources, infrastructure and energy industries. In her executive capacity, she has held the role of General Counsel and Company Secretary including managing governance, compliance, risk and audit functions across a range of industry sectors including energy, infrastructure, gas, utilities, resources, and property in government, ASX and private entities.
Having studied geomorphology and climatology, Corinne's career spans more than 30 years starting in soil conservation in New South Wales. Corinne's expertise advanced into mine rehabilitation, closure and related research in Australia and overseas when she coordinated Energy Resources of Australia's Ranger Mine rehabilitation and research program in the Northern Territory.
During this time, she undertook overseas study within Rheinbraun (now RWE) in the lignite mining region near Cologne, Germany, where she observed rehabilitation, post-mining land use and community resettlement processes. Next, Corinne applied her expertise to legacy mine management, developing a rehabilitation project for the Mount Morgan (historic) mine while employed by the Queensland government. Following this, Corinne consulted to industry, government and NGOs in mine rehabilitation and closure.
In 2009, Corinne won a Churchill Fellowship to study ‘leading practice abandoned mine rehabilitation and post-mining land use' in Austria, Germany, UK and Canada. Corinne then joined the Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation at The University of Queensland where she developed a jurisdictional maturity model for managing abandoned mines.
Corinne was inaugural chair of the Community and Environment Society of AusIMM in 2017 and was a recipient of an AusIMM Excellence Award in 2018. Corinne commenced her PhD in 2017 at The University of Queensland's Business School studying organisational risk management.
Ian is a long-term resident of Gippsland and has extensive networks in the public sector, community organisations, business, academia and sporting bodies.
He holds qualifications as a Master of Public Policy and Management and in Economics and Arts. He is a member of the Board of East Gippsland Water, and has been a Board member with the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, Coal Corporation, West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority and Latrobe Regional Hospital.
Ian's work experience has been in local government, regional development and tertiary education. He is currently a sessional member at Planning Panels Victoria.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia
Ian Nethercote has been involved in the electricity and coal mining industry for almost 40 years and held the role of Chief Executive of Victoria's largest power station and open cut mine for more than 13 years. During this time, he provided oversight and overall business direction and strategy in addition to managing the finances, technical/maintenance aspects, market and human resources. He was also the Chairman of the Loy Yang Marketing Management Company until his retirement in 2012.
He contributed to the future direction of the industry through his active involvement and participation in a range of industry groups and associations, where he chaired the Electricity Supply Association of Australia and the National Generator Forum for several years.
Ian has served as a member of many organisations, including the Monash and Federation University Councils, the National Low Emissions Coal Council, the Energy Futures Forum of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, and the Energy & Transport Sector Advisory Council.
Ian is currently a Director of Latrobe City's biggest Ever Blokes BBQ Committee which he Chaired from 2012-18.
Ian Nethercote holds engineering qualifications and is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia, a Fellow of Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of the Institute of Managers and Leaders. In 2018 Ian was awarded Member of the Order of Australia for "Significant service to electricity supply in Victoria through industry reform and restructuring, to education and to the community of Gippsland".
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- CEO at the MLRA
Jenny is the CEO at the MLRA. Her background is in the environmental field and she has worked on a variety of large projects across many industries (including water, construction, telecommunications, rail and road) with government, consultancies and the private sector.
Her qualifications a Doctorate in Organisational Change Management (DBA), a Master of Public and International Law, a Masters of Environmental Science and BA in Geography.
Jenny's skills include team building and management, organisational change, facilitation and consultation, auditing and reporting (environmental, quality and safety), systems development and implementation, environmental management, legal and regulatory environments, training, and stakeholder liaison.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Chair
- Member of the Board
Mrs Chris Trotman has extensive Board experience spanning 15 years, serving as Chair and member of a range of Boards and Audit & Risk committees in the not-for-profit sector, including Chair of the Lower Yarra Ministerial Advisory Committee. Chris is the Board Chair of the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, and a Board member of Parks Victoria where she Chairs the People and Safety Committee. From July 1, she is also a Board Director of TAFE Gippsland.
Formerly a Registered Nurse (Div 1), Chris holds undergraduate, postgraduate, and Masters degrees in Business/Accounting, Health Education and Business Management respectively. Chris is also a graduate of the AICD Company Directors course. She has over 20 years of executive experience, most recently as CEO of a public hospital in Gippsland. Chris has extensive experience in the areas of corporate governance, public sector administration, audit and risk management, and financial and strategic planning.
Job Titles:
- Technical Specialist
- Position of Technical Specialist at the MLRA
Nathan Gardiner was appointed to the position of Technical Specialist at the MLRA in September 2021 and brings to the MLRA a diverse range of skills and lessons learned from the oil and gas industry. He has over 15 years' experience working with a range of small and large companies, most recently at Chevron as a development geologist assessing reserves and in managing well-planning for exploration and development wells, including the Gorgon and Wheatstone Developments and the Barrow Island CO2 carbon capture facility. In particular, he brings an understanding of assessing and managing uncertainty in large, complex capital projects. Nathan has accumulated a range of practical experiences working in different cultural settings, having spent several years working in remote sites including offshore and onshore drilling platforms in the Middle East, North Africa and South America, in addition to hosting guests in French ski chalets.
Prior to his appointment, Nathan completed a PhD at Monash University focusing on the signature of plate tectonic events preserved in the sediment record in New Zealand, and has undergraduate degrees in Geology, Physics and Petroleum Geophysics. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Member of the Board
- Emeritus Professor
Emeritus Professor Rae Mackay held the role of Latrobe Valley Mine Rehabilitation Commissioner from June 2017 to June 2020 before becoming the Chair of the MLRA Board. Rae has extensive mine rehabilitation related expertise, with more than 40 years' experience as a practising engineer, hydrogeologist and academic.
He was the Director of the Geotechnical and Hydrogeological Engineering Research Group (GHERG) at Federation University, working on issues of geotechnical stability and risk at the Latrobe Valley brown coal mines from 2011 to 2017. During this time, he was also a member of Victoria's Technical Review Board, which had oversight of stability issues across the state's mines and quarries.
He was Head of Hydrogeology at Birmingham University, UK for 15 years before moving to Australia in 2011. He has worked on and researched a wide range of geotechnical, hydrogeological and water resources problems from deep geological disposal of nuclear waste to arid zone groundwater resource and agricultural development, spanning many countries around the world.
Rosemary Joiner has over twenty years' experience in the community and not-for-profit sectors. She has led stakeholder engagement, co-design, quality improvement, governance and accreditation work in various roles and chaired and facilitated numerous committees.
Rosemary holds undergraduate, postgraduate, and Masters degrees in Business Administration, Project Management and Writing and Communications. Passionate about social impact and regional stories, she is currently undertaking a PhD with Federation University exploring the social impact of volunteering through practice-led creative research.
Suzanne has extensive experience working as an Executive Assistant for both private and government entities.
In her current role with the Mine Land Rehabilitation Authority Suzanne provides executive level support and coordination to the CEO and secretarial support to the MLRA Board. Suzanne is also responsible for the day to day running of the MLRA office including finance, governance and people management.
Suzanne is a farmer and local resident of Gippsland and is keen to see successful rehabilitation of the declared mines located in the region and beyond.