GEORGIA ANGUS

Georgia is an author and illustrator based in the Dandenong Ranges/Corhanwarrabul. She has experience in several areas of natural history education and communication:

- Writing (including The Guardian, Organic Gardener Magazine and illustrated field guides)

- Artworks (logo design and illustrations for publications, personalised commissions)

- Educational colouring-in sheets (e.g. VNPA Western Vic grasslands sheet) and other scientific illustrations

Georgia’s work aims to educate people about the value of the natural world, and to promote environmental literacy.

EVELYN ARALUEN

Evelyn Araluen is a descendent of the Bundjalung Nation, a poet, researcher and co-editor of Overland Literary Journal.

Her widely published criticism, fiction and poetry has been awarded the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers, the Judith Wright Poetry Prize, a Wheeler Centre Next Chapter Fellowship, and a Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund grant. Born and raised on Dharug Country, she is a descendant of the Bundjalung Nation.

Evelyn's debut collection Dropbear was shortlisted for the 2021 Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection and the 2022 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, and won the 2022 Stella Prize. It was Highly Commended for the 2021 Anne Elder Award.

ROBBIE ARNOTT

Robbie Arnott is the author of Dusk, Limberlost, The Rain Heron and Flames. He's a two-time winner of The Age Book of the Year, and has also been awarded the Voss Literary Prize. He's been named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist, and has twice been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, as well as the Dylan Thomas Prize. He lives in Hobart with his wife and daughter.

TRACE BALLA

Trace lives on Djaara Country, South Eastern Australia. Her ancestors come from Hungary, England and France - from them she has inherited a love of dance and artistic creativity. Trace loves to rise at dawn, especially in late winter when it’s frosty, and walk up hills above the fog line to marvel at the dawn light and early spring flowers. She creates graphic novels and children’s books about connecting with Country and community. A self-described ‘story catcher,’ she finds inspiration in nature and incorporates local plant and animal species into her detailed, cartoon-style drawings.

PAUL BANGAY

Paul Bangay OAM holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Horticulture) from The University of Melbourne. In 1994 he was granted a Victorian Arts Centre travelling scholarship to further his study of landscape design in Europe and the Americas. He won the Mobil Pegasus Award for the best contribution to the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts (1989). In 2001 Bangay was awarded the Centenary Medal for his contribution to public design projects and in 2018 he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to landscape architecture. Since 2020 he has served as a trustee for Cruden Farm, and since 2018 as an ambassador for Prince's Trust Australia. He is the author of twelve books on garden design.

HILARY BLACKSHAW

Hilary Blackshaw is a multi-instrumentalist musician and educator who is passionate about sharing knowledge, unravelling ideas and exploring stories about nature and the world around us, preferably through music.

Hilary studied violin, ethnomusicology and primary education at the University of Melbourne. She enjoys interconnecting all three in her performing, composing and songwriting, and teaching experiences. Environmental themes are favourites woven into her work, and she is a strong advocate for encouraging students to explore their stories and ideas through their own musical journeys. Hilary currently enjoys working with students from Bendigo region secondary schools as a strings teacher for the Bendigo Instrumental Music Program.

BOB BROWN

Bob Brown was born and educated in rural NSW and worked as a doctor before becoming the face of the campaign to save the Franklin River in 1982. He was elected to the Tasmanian state parliament in 1983 and during his tenure most notably advocated for gun law reform, gay law reform and achieved the expansion of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. In 1996 Bob was elected to the Senate, where he led the national debate for 16 years on issues including climate change, democracy, preventative healthcare, conservation, and human rights. Bob resigned from the Senate in June 2012 to establish the Bob Brown Foundation, a not for profit organisation dedicated to supporting action campaigns for the environment in Australia and our region. He is a published author and acclaimed photographer. Bob lives in Tasmania with his partner Paul and when he gets the chance, enjoys photography, bushwalking, poetry, and philosophy.

FLEUR CHAMBERS

Fleur Chambers is a multi-award-winning meditation teacher.
Best selling author. Philanthropist.
Creator of the free meditation app, The Happy Habit.

With over 3 million downloads in over 45 countries around the world, Fleur is helping people say ‘yes’ to their entire lives.
Even the parts that caught them by surprise.

GINA CHICK

Gina Chick is a rewilding facilitator, adventurer, writer and speaker. Writing is in Gina Chick's genes. Her grandmother, Charmian Clift, was an author, essayist and Australia's first female columnist in the early 60's. Charmian married George Johnstone (My Brother Jack) and they lived together on Hydra with Leonard Cohen and bohemian expats. Charmian's teenage indiscretion, an illegitimate daughter, was given up for adoption. Gina's mum, Suzanne Chick, who, after finally discovering her mother's identity at 48, wrote her own book, Searching For Charmian, which was shortlisted for the NBC Banjo Award. Gina was one of ten participants of the first series of Alone Australia, made by iTV and screened on SBS in 2023. After 67 days of unforgettable moments of searing vulnerability, Gina was the last person standing, and the second woman to win an Alone solo challenge. Her determination, passion, and love of the natural world endeared her to more than 5.5 million people around Australia. Gina's articles have been published in The Guardian, news.com.au, Mamamia and SBS online.

DR GRÁINNE CLEARY

Dr Gráinne Cleary received her PhD from Trinity College, Dublin. She has lived and worked in Australia for many years where citizen science became a passion. Gráinne has been a Research Fellow at Deakin University and has also worked at Sydney University, Taronga Park Zoo, and National Parks & Wildlife NSW.

Gráinne, author of Your Backyard Birds, is an enthusiastic communicator about birds and their habits. She is often sought for radio interviews, Q&A segments, and television to discuss topical birding news.

INALA COOPER

Inala Cooper is a Yawuru woman with German and Irish heritage, from Rubibi/Broome in the Kimberley in Western Australia. She grew up on Gunditjmara land in south-western Victoria and has lived on the land of the Kulin nation in Melbourne for over twenty-five years. She has a Bachelor of Arts (Drama/Contemporary Dance) and a Masters in Human Rights Law, and has long been an advocate for Indigenous rights, access to education, and social justice. Inala is a regular contributor on ABC News Breakfast and The Drum, and is also a director on a number of not-for-profit boards, including Culture Is Life, Jesuit Social Services, State Library Victoria and the Adam Briggs Foundation. Inala is currently the Director of Murrup Barak, the Melbourne Institute for Indigenous Development at the University of Melbourne.

JACLYN CRUPI

Jaclyn Crupi is a book editor, project manager, event host and bookseller. Jaclyn has worked in publishing and bookselling since 2002. She has written numerous books for both children and adults. Her most recent book, Garden Like a Nonno, was shortlisted for an Indie Book Award and longlisted for an Australian Book Industry Award. Her most recent book for children, The ABC Kids Guide to Loving the Planet, was awarded the Wilderness Society Environment Award for Children's Literature. Jaclyn's work has appeared in The Guardian, SBS Voices, At Home, Audrey, Slow and Frankie as well as the anthology Family published by Text Publishing.

SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM

Sophie Cunningham is a non-fiction writer and novelist with a passion for trees, walking and broader environmental issues. She is currently the 2023-24 Miegunyah Creative Fellow at the University of Melbourne and is writing about colonial botany and eucalyptus.

Sophie has written nine books, including the essay collection City of Trees: essays on life, death and the need for a forest. She is currently working on a novel about trees (and other stuff) called 'The Whole Earth Catalogue’. She posts an image of a tree on her Instagram account @sophtreeofday every day.

KRYSTAL DE NAPOLI

Krystal De Napoli is a Gomeroi award-winning author, astrophysicist and science communicator devoted to the advocacy of Indigenous knowledges and equity in STEM. Krystal is co-author of Astronomy: Sky Country (2022), winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award People's Choice Award (2023), shortlisted for both the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing (2023) and Book of the Year by the Age (2022). Krystal is the host of the weekly radio show Indigenuity on Triple R 102.7FM.

SEAN DOOLEY

Sean Dooley has written for TV comedies like Full Frontal, Hamish and Andy and Spicks and Specks, is author of books such as The Big Twitch and Cooking with Baz, and is currently editor of Australian Birdlife magazine. He was also the national birdwatching champion, holding the record for seeing the most birds seen in one year. Sean Dooley is the Birdman.

ASTRID EDWARDS

Astrid is a bibliophile and literary critic. She hosts The Garret: Writing and Publishing, and is the Chair of Judges for the 2025 Stella Prize.

MARY GEARIN

Mary Gearin is an accomplished and seasoned journalist, news presenter, TV and radio host.

Throughout a career of over three decades, Mary spearheaded coverage for the national broadcaster on various significant international, national, and local stories, becoming a prominent figure at ABC News Victoria. A trailblazer for women in sports journalism, Mary has reported on four Olympics and three Commonwealth Games.

Mary is also a warm, vibrant, and versatile interviewer, moderator and MC. She is highly regarded for her ability to connect with a wide range of audiences and has a proven track record of editorial and strategic leadership.

JOËLLE GERGIS

Joëlle Gergis is an award-winning climate scientist and writer. She served as a lead author for the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report and is the author of the Quarterly Essay Highway to Hell: Climate Change and Australia’s Future, Humanity's Moment: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Sunburnt Country: The history and future of climate change in Australia. Joëlle also contributed chapters to The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg, and Not Too Late: Changing the climate story from despair to possibility, edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua.

BILLY GRIFFITHS

Billy Griffiths is a writer and historian who lives in the Macedon Ranges. His latest book, Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia (Black Inc., 2018), won the Ernest Scott Prize, the Felicia A. Holton Book Award, the John Mulvaney Book Award, the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction and the 2019 Book of the Year at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

He is the Deputy Chair of the Australian Book Review and a Research Fellow with ADI at Deakin University.

TOM GRIFFITHS

Tom Griffiths is a historian whose books and essays have won prizes in literature, history, science, politics and journalism. His books include Hunters and Collectors, Forests of Ash: An Environmental History, Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica, Living with Fire and The Art of Time Travel: Historians and their Craft. His short epic on the history of Australia and the planet, ‘Odyssey down under’, was published in Inside Story and narrated on the Science Show in 2023 and 2024. Tom lives in the Macedon Ranges and is Emeritus Professor of History at the Australian National University.

DUANE HAMACHER

Duane Hamacher FRAS, is Associate Professor of Cultural Astronomy in the ASTRO-3D Centre of Excellence and the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne and the author ofThe First Astronomers. Duane's work examines humanity's connection to the stars in terms of science, history, culture, and society, with a focus on Australian Indigenous Astronomy.

SARAH HANKINSON

Sarah Hankinson is a Melbourne based Artist and Illustrator with over 15 years experience engaging in commercial illustration as well as other creative pursuits. More recently, Sarah has continued to hone her skills and artistry into a fine arts based practice. Inspired by the natural world we inhabit, Sarah has a passion for botanical, landscape and still life painting and drawing; prompting us to delve deeper into an understanding of our sense of place. In focusing on the natural surrounds, she illuminates the fragility of our environment and encourages others to foster a deeper appreciation and connection to the wonders of nature by slowing down and taking notice. Pieces are a visual ode to the profound beauty of the everyday which can be easily overlooked. They express a richness of the intricacies that make life bountiful and abundant.

LYN HARWOOD

Lyn has worked as a teacher, a dancer, an editor, a publisher and an artist. She is a director on the Board of Black Duck Foods, promoting Indigenous food agriculture. Lyn has instigated a community based fuel management practice for the Mallacoota township. She feels that the country has much to teach us about proper care.

LESLEY HEAD

Lesley Head is Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Melbourne, where she works on the cultural dimensions of environmental issues including climate change. Her essay ‘The Preserves’ was shortlisted for the 2023 Nature Conservancy Nature Writing Prize. Her book Beyond Green. The social life of Australian nature will be published by MUP in 2025.

DR LYNNE KELLY AM

Dr Lynne Kelly AM is an educator and an Adjunct Research Fellow in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at La Trobe University, and an Honorary Fellow in the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne. Over the past decade, she has focused on Indigenous knowledge systems and the use of story, song, place and art as mnemonic devices. She is an Australian Senior Memory Champion, and her work is used widely in schools and universities. 

 Lynne is the author of 20 books on science including the bestselling The Memory Code, Memory Craft, Songlines: the power and promise and Songlines for Younger Readers. Her new book, The Knowledge Gene, explains why evolution ensured that the uniquely human skills of music, art and story are innate in all of us, despite introducing a devastating genetic disorder. It also explains why evolution ensured that all human populations involve neurodiverse members.

TIANA KHASI

Tiana Khasi emerges from a powerful period of chrysalis, introducing listeners to her most vibrant and engaged creative chapter yet. With a voice as “venomous as it is honey-sweet” (Happy Mag) and sonic palette as bold as her heritage, the Samoan-Indian powerhouse is rewriting the rules of contemporary R&B, jazz, and soul with a flair that’s impossible to ignore.

VALANGA KHOZA

Valanga Khoza left South Africa in 1976, exiled along with many other young people because of their struggle against apartheid or racism. The music and stories he has since created reflects the places he has been and the people he has touched throughout his journey across the world as a political refugee, finally settling in Australia in 1988. Valanga charms his audiences with humour and wit, telling stories that are embellished by beautiful music from many traditional instruments such as the kalimba, shipendani and shijoro (jaw harp) aswell as irresistible rhythms from the guitar, percussion and Valanga’s velvety voice. Valanga has performed and warmed audiences of adults and children at selected world music events and in many schools across Australia, the Pacific and Europe. Aswell as recording six albums of original music, he is also the author of well known “Gezani and the Tricky Baboon” republished by Ford Street in 2014 and “Dumazi and the Big Yellow Lion” published by Scholastic in 2019. Valanga has recently been penning his autobiography, "Skin In The Game", to be released in the coming year.

JEANINE LEANE

Dr Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri writer, poet and academic from south-west New South Wales. Her first volume of poetry, Dark Secrets After Dreaming: A.D. 1887–1961 (Presspress, 2010) won the 2010 Scanlon Prize for Indigenous Poetry and her first novel, Purple Threads (UQP),won the David Unaipon Award for an unpublished Indigenous writer in 2010. Her poetry and short stories have been published in Hecate: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Women’s Liberation, Journal of the European Association for Studies of Australia, Journal for the Association of Australian Literary Studies, Australian Poetry Journal, Antipodes, Overland, Best Australian Poems, Lifted Brow, Southerly and Australian Book Review.

In 2017, Jeanine was the winner of the University of Canberra Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Poetry Prize, and she has twice been the winner of the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize (2017, 2019). In 2018, she was shortlisted for the Australian Catholic University National Poetry Prize. Her poetry also features in art exhibitions, installations, promotional material and public transport. Jeanine’s second volume of poetry, Walk Back Over, was released in 2018 by Cordite Books. In 2019 Jeanine was the recipient of the Red Room Poetry Fellowship. She has published widely in the area of Aboriginal literature, writing otherness and creative non-fiction poetry and prose. Jeanine is the recipient of an Australia Research Council grant on Aboriginal literature: Aboriginal Writing: Shaping the literary and cultural history of Australia, since 1988. She teaches creative writing and Aboriginal literature at the University of Melbourne.

TANYA LOOS

Tanya Loos is passionate about wildlife and nature! Whether it be via writing, radio or giving presentations Tanya loves drawing from ecological science to educate and inspire people to care about wildlife and wildlife habitat… In 2013, Tanya published her first book ‘Daylesford Nature Diary: six seasons in the foothill forests.’ This book is a collection of nature diary articles, set to a nature calendar created for the wonderful Wombat Forest. Many of the articles feature tips on living harmoniously with wildlife, and Tanya has developed this theme into a whole new publication: Living with Wildlife: a guide for our homes and backyards, by CSIRO Publishing. Living with Wildlife provides practical information, advice and solutions, based on current guidance from wildlife rescue organisations and the latest research. Tanya lives near Daylesford on a bush block with her husband, small poodle mix and an aviary of rescued domestic parrots.

KATE LUCKINS

Dr Kate Luckins is the author of ‘Live More with Less; Upgrade your life without costing the Earth!’ She is a sustainable living educator and the creator of The Clothing Exchange. She has a published MA of sustainable fashion and a PhD in sustainable living. She’s also a busy mum who drives her kids to school when it rains. So, if you don’t know how to recycle, she won’t judge. Across two decades, Kate's kick-started a global clothes swapping movement, has made over 50 media appearances from the Financial review to Mamamia, and was invited to speak at the UN Headquarters in Nairobi, COP15 and Ted X Canberra. She has helped thousands of people ditch their eco-guilt and reduce fashion and food waste via her educational platform Sustainable Lifestyle.

NATASHA MITCHELL

Natasha Mitchell is a multi-award-winning journalist, radio presenter, podcaster, and audio storyteller. She is host of the ABC Radio National's flagship Big Ideas program and podcast, was founding host and producer of the internationally renowned radio show and one of the ABC’s first podcasts, All in the Mind, which won the Grand Prize and four Gold World Medals at the New York Radio Festivals, amongst other awards. Natasha hosted the ABC's daily social affairs program Life Matters, and was founding host and producer of Science Friction, awarded Best Science and Medicine podcast at the Australian Podcast Awards. Natasha served as a board member and vice president of the World Federation of Science Journalists and was recipient of an MIT Knight Fellowship. She has facilitated many public forums around Australia, including four science dialogues with the Dalai Lama and guests. She has an engineering degree.

STEVE MUSHIN

Steve Mushin’s graphic novel style STEM book Ultrawild: An Audacious Plan to Rewild Every City On Earth was published in Nov 2023.

Steve is an industrial designer, hack engineer and illustrator. He collaborates with scientists, and engineers to develop outrageous, but scientifically possible inventions to rewild cities back into jungles.

Steve runs creative thinking, illustration and design workshops with primary and secondary schools, universities and businesses, where he uses his ‘design thought experiments’ as starting points for madcap STEM explorations.

In 2015, he was awarded an Australian Design Honours for work in sustainability design education.

CAROLINE PARKER

Caroline Parker (BHSc Western Herbal Medicine) is a herbalist, farmer, forager and facilitator. She grows herbs and flowers for her business, The Cottage Herbalist, where she sells her award-winning, certified organic and wildcrafted tea blends. When she isn’t in her studio hand-blending and packing orders she is sowing seeds, picking flowers, prepping garden beds, shovelling compost and tearing around on the ride-on mower. Her latest book is The Medicinal Garden.

JACINTA PARSONS

Jacinta Parsons is a broadcaster, radio maker, writer, and public speaker. She currently co-hosts The Friday Revue with Brian Nankervis on ABC Melbourne.

She has written two books Unseen (Affirm Press 2020) & A Question of Age (Harper Collins/ABC Books 2022).

She is a sought after public speaker and facilitator with over 15 years of experience hosting live events.

BRUCE PASCOE

Bruce Pascoe is a writer and farmer. He has published 36 book including Dark Emu which won the NSW Premier's Award for Literature in 2016 and Young Dark Emu which won the both the Booksellers Association Prize and the CBCA Non-fiction award in 2020.

He has published numerous essays and journalism both in Australia and overseas. he is also a farmer and grows Australian Aboriginal Grains and tubers. He is a Board Member of First Languages Australia, Black Duck Foods and Twofold Aboriginal Corporation.

PIRRITU

Ngiyampaa man and First Nations singer-songwriter Pirritu’s music is gentle, honest and melodic, enticing you into the depths of his personal journey, to sing you a story of sadness, love and hope.

JOSÉ RAMOS

Jose Ramos is the director of Action Foresight, co-editor of the Journal of Futures Studies, co-founder of the Participatory Futures Global Swarm, and initiator of Futures Lab, and he has published more than 70 articles and 3 books. He holds a PhD from Queensland University of Technology in critical globalization studies.

TIM ROGERS

Tim Rogers is best known as the songwriter and front man of the hugely popular rock band You Am I, which produced platinum-selling albums with record sales of almost 1 million worldwide, and is the recipient of ten ARIA awards. He also regularly performs and records solo, and with several other bands. Tim is also a stage and film actor, a composer for the theatre and a regular compere and/or guest on Australian television.

MILLIE ROSS

Millie Ross is a professional horticulturist, designer, writer and Head of Research for Gardening Australia ABCTV.  An innovative gardener with an unconventional approach, Millie specialises in creative construction, sourcing local, low-cost materials and using plants in unusual ways. Author of The Thrifty Gardener; a practical guide to building the garden you want with whatever you've got, Millie aims to get everyone growing!

JANE RUSDEN

Adventures and trips to natural places and wilderness areas, sometimes very remote, form the foundation of Jane Rusdens’ work. Mode of transport is anything from her own two feet, to helicopter, motorbike or her trusty Toyota Landcruiser 4x4. She collects inspiration and material to work from in a tiny watercolour sketch book, when space and weight are at a premium on bush walking trips. In the back of her Landcruiser you're likely to find printmaking supplies and large rolls or sheets of paper, stored along side the mountain bike.

Embedded in Jane Rusden’s passion for wilderness and love of adventure is a strong conservation consciousness. It is this that runs through her work and manifests in a deep understanding of the environment and its inhabitants, especially the birds.

STEPHEN RYAN

Stephen Ryan is the newly appointed Patron for the Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria (RHSV). He is also the President of the Mt Macedon Horticultural Society, one of the oldest gardening clubs in Victoria.

Stephen lectures and holds seminars both in Australia as well as overseas which have included a lecture that was translated into Spanish as he spoke to an audience in Argentina. As a plant hunter and traveller he has travelled to many places in the world such as Namibia, India, Oregon, England, Ireland, South Africa, Peru, New Guinea and France as well as the aforementioned Argentina. He has also led tours into Madagascar and North West France.

He has published three books on rare plants that have received rave reviews and his manual contains over 2000 plant entries of rare plants available in temperate Australia. He also contributed to the two large tomes produced in Australia Botanica and more recently Flora. Stephen’s garden and nursery hold three national plant collections, Cornus, Sambucus and Acanthus, for the Garden Plants Conservation Association of Australia.

HARRY SADDLER

Harry Saddler is the author of  The Eastern Curlew (2018), We Both Know: Ten Stories About Relationships(2005) and Small Moments (2007), a short novel about the aftermath of the Canberra bushfires of 2003, both published by Ginderra Press.  His writing about the ecological, physical, and philosophical interactions between humans and animals has been published online at Meanjin and the Wheeler Centre, and in print in The Lifted Brow, and formerly at his blog, He was the joint winner of the 2014 Melbourne Writers Festival/Blurb ‘Blog-to-Book’ Challenge, resulting in the book Not Birdwatching: Reflections on Noticing Animals   

In 2015 his piece Thought Experiment, examining questions of human and non-human consciousness, was shortlisted for the Lifted Brow Prize for Experimental Non-Fiction. He has twice been shortlisted for this prize.

His book A Clear Flowing Yarra was published in Aug 2023.

FIONA SCOTT-NORMAN

Fiona is a humourist, chicken enthusiast, performer, MC, DJ and writer, who specialises in using a warm, light tone to make a serious point. Exhibit A is the best-selling This Chicken Life: Stories of chickens and the Australians who love them, a collaboration with photographer Ilana Rose published by Pan Macmillan. Her satiric personal column in The Big Issue magazine ran from 2008 to earlier this year, and her third book about not fitting in at school, Hard Knocks with Affirm Press, came out in 2022. Her first publication was a smarty pants two-sided look at giving up smoking, 50 Reasons to Quit Smoking/50 Reasons to Keep Smoking. A one-time theatre and comedy critic and arts writer for the Age, FSN also teaches creative nonfiction writing at RMIT and is a long-time broadcaster with 3RRR. Fiona lives in Footscray with her flock of beloved bantams and accordingly has strong opinions about foxes.

ANNIE SMITHERS

Annie Smithers is one of Australia's most highly regarded chefs and one of the first to truly epitomise the paddock-to-plate ethos. Her restaurant du Fermier, in the small village of Trentham, features a menu du jour based on classic French farmhouse cooking, using vegetables harvested that day from her kitchen garden, and local meats and poultry. Annie has written two cookbooks and writes for The Saturday Paper fortnightly. Her first memoir, Recipe for a Kinder Life, was published in 2021.

Annie’s new memoir Kitchen Sentimental was published in Aug 2024.

JEFF SPARROW

He is a writer, editor, broadcaster and Walkley award-winning journalist.

He is a former columnist for Guardian Australia, a former Breakfaster at radio station 3RRR, and a past editor of Overlandliterary journal. He is the author of Provocations: New and Selected Writing, Crimes Against Nature: Capitalism and Global Heating; Fascists Among Us: Online Hate and the Christchurch Massacre; Trigger Warnings: Political Correctness and the Rise of the Right; No Way But This: In Search of Paul Robeson; Killing: Misadventures in Violence and Communism: A Love Story; the co-author, with Jill Sparrow, of Radical Melbourne: A Secret History and Radical Melbourne 2: The Enemy Within; the co-author, with Sam Wallman, of Twelve Rules for Strife; and the co-editor, with Anthony Loewenstein, of Left Turn: Essays for the New Left.

JAEDEN WILLIAMS

Jaeden Williams is a proud Yalukit Willam man of the Boonwurrung; founder and director of Biik Bundjil, a Boonwurrung educational organisation, Jaeden is also a Lived Experience, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Trauma Informed, Emotional Wellbeing Coach, he has been working in the Emotional Wellbeing sector for over 5 years.

DAVE WITTY

Dave Witty is an Australian writer raised in the United Kingdom. He is the recipient of the 2021 Rosina Joy Buckman Award in The Nature Conservancy Nature Writing Prize, and his work appears in publications including Island, Griffith Review and Meanjin. What the Trees See, his first book, was shortlisted for the Mark and Evette Moran NIB Literary Award.

ALEXIS WRIGHT

Alexis Wright is a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria. She is the author of the prize-winning novels Carpentaria, The Swan Book, and Praiseworthy, and three works of non-fiction, Take Power, Grog War, and the Stella Prize-winning Tracker, a collective memoir of Aboriginal leader, Tracker Tilmouth. Her books have been published widely overseas, including in China, the US, the UK, Italy, France and Poland. Wright has won numerous literary awards, including the Miles Franklin Literary Award for Carpentaria and Praiseworthy, as well as the James Tait Fiction Prize and the Queensland Literary Award for Praiseworthy, which was also shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, one of the world’s richest literary prizes. Wright is the first author to win the Stella Prize twice, and her epic fiction Praiseworthy is the first and only book to win both the Stella Prize and the Miles Franklin. She is the inaugural winner of the Creative Australia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature.

CLARE WRIGHT

Professor Clare Wright OAM is an award-winning historian, author, broadcaster, podcaster and public commentator who has worked in politics, academia and the media. Clare is currently Professor of History and Professor of Public Engagement at La Trobe University. She is the author of four works of history, including the best-selling The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka and You Daughters of Freedom, which comprise the first two instalments of her Democracy Trilogy. The final instalment of the trilogy, Ṉäku Dhäruk, a history of the Yirrkala Bark Petitions, will be published in October 2024. Clare has written and presented history documentaries for ABC TV. She also hosts the ABC Radio National history podcast, Shooting the Past, co-hosts the La Trobe University podcast Archive Fever and is Executive Producer of Hey History! the first Australian history podcast designed for use in the classroom. In 2020, Clare was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours list for “services to literature and to historical research”. In 2022, Clare was on the National Cultural Policy Expert Advisory Panel and was commissioned to co-write (with Christos Tsiolkis) the Vision Statement for the policy document, Revive. She is a Member of the National Museum of Australia Council and past Board Director of the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas.