Richard Wheater

Richard is a generalist who has had an exceptionally wide range of agricultural experience during his working life.

He started as a Research Crop Agronomist in Uganda working with cotton, groundnuts and sorghum. He exchanged working on the equator for being a farmer in Perthshire Scotland with its generous helpings of snow and ice.

He moved to Western Australia in 1985 and began lecturing in Soils, Food Production, Horticulture, Soil Degradation and Rehabilitation at Curtin and Edith Cowan Universities.

Richard joined DAFWA as a Regional Landcare Officer in the fledgling days of the Landcare movement. He was then responsible for managing the Swan-Avon Catchment Program which was one of the initial community managed programs before Catchment Councils became autonomous.

Richard managed the Department's Graduate Recruitment Program for several years before becoming involved in the implementation of the new State and Federal Genetically Modified Crops legislations. An internal opportunity resulted in his appointment as Project Manager for the NHT/NAP funded Gaps project and a return to a greater landcare focus.