Emma Knowles, President, NSW
I’m delighted to be able take on the Presidency of the DSWAA. The organisation plays an extremely important role in developing the craft of dry stone walling in Australia and preserving its heritage and I’m confident our collaborative management team will be able to drive the association’s new strategic direction forward in a very positive manner.
Based in NSW, with a background in Community Service Management, I’ve successfully convened many groups and have expertise in leadership, strategic planning, fundraising, public speaking, technology, advocacy, governance and risk. I’m also a DSWA Advanced level full time professional dry stone waller and instructor, International Specialised Skills Institute Fellow and current Co-Convenor of the Women’s International Stone Alliance.
Working in partnership with other such international bodies, I’m keen for the organisation to work towards setting standards, developing the dry stone community and generating further access to diverse opportunities such as national heritage conservation activities, skills development, therapeutic activities, overseas exchanges, festivals, competitions, on shore accreditation and pathways to employment.
With big shoes to fill, I plan to undertake a thorough orientation to the role before commencing a period of review and development. It’s an exciting time to get involved with the DSWAA!
Dr. Timothy Hubbard, Vice President, Vic
Dr. Timothy Hubbard, a longstanding member of the DSWAA, is a heritage architect and planner. His retirement from Planning Panels Victoria and Working Heritage Inc will allow him to spend more time supporting the DSWAA.
As the new Vice-president, he is looking forward to strengthening links between the continuing craft of walling and the recognition, celebration and conservation of fabric surviving from its past.
Photo: Peter Casamento
Alone and in association Timothy has authored over 90 heritage studies, conservation management plans, research reports and academic papers. He completed four major studies about the Western District in which dry stone walls featured: the Southern Grampians Shire Heritage Study; Stage 2 of the Glenelg Shire Heritage Study; the City of Warrnambool Heritage Gap Study; and the Port Fairy Heritage Review. In 2006 he was awarded the inaugural ISSI Leslie M. Perrott Travelling Fellowship to study historic roads in Europe, the US, and the UK. It included a section on the dry stone walls and similar structures of Lancashire. More recently he wrote a report on the so-called ‘Chinese Wall’, a dry stone wall on Mount Sturgeon in Victoria’s Grampians/Gariwerd. His most intriguing research is into the standing stones of Tarrone immediately to the north of Port Fairy. ‘Discovered’ by him in 2012, he included the enigmatic monoliths in the DSWAA field trip he led in 2013. Their origin is still uncertain.
Bruce Munday, Treasurer, Editor of TFS, SA
Bruce and his wife Kristin for 42 years ran a cattle property in the Adelaide Hills from which Bruce also worked as a communications consultant. He has had a long fascination with dry stone walls, built a few, run workshops, and published a book on dry stone walls in SA: Those Dry-stone Walls.
His most recent published book, Those Wild Rabbits, describes herculean but futile attempts to control the pest by every conceivable means including dry stone walls.
Stuart Read, Secretary, NSW
Stuart Read is a landscape architect, bureaucrat and educator focused on the contribution heritage landscapes make to sustainable economies. He helps the NSW Heritage Council identify, list, assess and manage key places and has worked for the Australian Heritage Commission and Environment Australia’s world heritage & biodiversity units.
He has studied gardens in Australasia, Asia, the Middle East and Europe, including a 2005 Pratt Foundation overseas fellowship study tour of, then in 2010 led a tour of Spanish gardens. Stuart has been an expert member of ICOMOS-IFLA’s international scientific committee on cultural landscapes since 2008. He contributed to the National Trust of Australia (NSW) book Interwar Gardens – a guide… (2003), Gardens of History & Imagination: Growing New South Wales (2016). Stuart wrote Spanish lessons for Australian Gardens... (2005) and contributes to Garden Drum and Australian Garden History.
Jim Holdsworth, Vic
Founder of DSWAA and former President, Jim is an architect and planner and Honorary Fellow of Planning Institute Australia. He has led the Association from 2003 to 2022 and delivered on the objective of making the DSWAA a truly National body and a peak body for certification of wallers in conjunction with the DSWA UK. He has organised countless field trips and other events and collaborated with local government in mapping Australia’s extensive dry stone walls.
Raelene Marshall, Vic
Raelene is an arts and culture practitioner. She was commissioned by the Australia Council to research drystone structures in the Grizedale Forest, Cumbria, UK. She curated the exhibition; A Stone Upon A Stone; undertook the Shire of Melton Dry Stone Walls Pride of Place Study and represented Australia at the Societe Pierre Seche, presenting at their bi-annual International Congresses.
Andrew Garner, Tas
Andrew is a DSWA-certified (UK) waller who has worked professionally in northern Tasmania since 2004 on numerous projects for private, heritage and government sectors.
He joined the committee in 2019.