Dr Garry Middle - VisionEnvironment

Dr Garry Middle is the Director of the VisionEnvironment, and has over 40 years experience in environment planning, as a consultant, educator/trainer, researcher and practitioner.

He has worked with State and Local governments, consulting and as an academic. Before joining Curtin in June 2008, Dr Middle was the Appeals Convenor for the WA Minister for Environment and prior to that was Director, Environment and Natural Resource Planning, at Department of Planning and Infrastructure. He also worked for the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) - the peak environmental agency in WA - for over 15 years.

Expertise

Agency climate change adaptation planning - formally the climate change policy officers at WA Local Government Association, formally Curtin University's representative on  the United Nation's COP; provided advice to several local governments on preparation of climate change adaptation planning.

Training in Environmental impact assessment - ten years working for the WA EPA; provided advice to several local governments and individuals on submissions on proposals subject to assessment by the EPA; ran training courses for staff of the office of the EPA; taught EIA and Curtin University and have run several professional courses on the EIA processes in WA; internationally and in nationally recognised expert in EIA.

Coastal adaptation planning - appointed to the Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) as the coastal planning and management expert; past chair of the peak coastal planning body in WA, the Coastal Planning and Coordination Council; worked with several local governments in their preparation of their CHRMAPs; completed several research studies into the character and values of the coast in WA; conference chair of the 2014 national Coast to Coast conference.

Public open space planning - Completed several research studies into regional open space planning. 

Meeting and workshop facilitation - facilitied many workshop on a range of environmental planning issues, including workshop on the future of coastal planning in WA at the 2017 State Coastal and NRM conference, mountain bike trails planning in Kalamunda using MCA, addressing climate change at local government level, national workshop on strategic environmental assessment.

Current positions and boards/committees memberships

  • Director, VisionEnvironment;

  • Member of the WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) scientific council;

  • Part-time member State Administrative Tribunal;

  • Associate at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia (WA);

  • Chair of Great Victoria Desert Biodiversity Trust, an independent Trust fund dedicated to funding research and on-ground works in the Great Victoria Desert. The Trust was established and funded by the proponent of the Tropicana Gold Mine as an offset for its impacts on matters of National Environmental Significance;

  • Member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand Special Interest Groups on Impact Assessment and climate change;

  • Members of NELA Climate Change Working Group;

  • Member of Profession Advisory Committee, Department of Geography and Planning, Curtin University.

Professional affiliations

  • International Association of Impact Assessment (25 years);

  • Planning Institute of Australia (20 years);

  • Environmental Institute of Australia and New Zealand (5 years)

  • Environmental Consultants Association (WA) (5 years).

  • National Environmental Law Association (NELA) (2 years).

  • Parks & Leisure Australia (2 years).

If you would like to contact Garry, his email is garrymiddle@vision-environment.com - (click to email).