CURRICULUM VITAE - Dr Gianni W D'Addario

Dr Gianni W D'Addario
President
Friends of Oolong Inc.
Address: "Dalton Park" Dalton, NSW 2581
Ph/Fax 02 4845 6267
Mobile: 0423 200 202
Email: gianni@skymesh.com.au

With the purchase of a broad acre extensively overgrazed sheep farm, Dr D'Addario moved into farming in 1987. He had clear objectives in mind, which long preceded the national strategy and, since the time of purchase, he undertook an intensive program of rehabilitation of the ecosystems with the reduction of domestic stock. The emphasis has been since then on water quality and its conservation, salinity and weed control, the protection of the wildlife, the design of wetlands, the construction of several dams, a large lake, which he filled with Murray Cod, and Silver and Golden Perch fingerlings, and kept at a set level during droughts by pumping water from a perennial creek by way of a reticulated pipeline to feed also several ponds for frogs. He also organised the breeding and release of native waterfowl under licence.

To be able to continue the expanding conservation program Dr D'Addario realised that he needed greater community participation so he promoted successfully the formation of the Friends of Oolong Association, which was incorporated in the ACT in 2001. To achieve this goal Dr D'Addario had the support of the community in SE NSW and the ACT and of a very strong and devoted committee. He is the inaugural President of the association, which counts over one hundred members. He promotes, illustrates and reports regularly on the activities of the association by operating a very informative Web Page on the Internet.

Under Dr D'Addario first two years of presidentship, the Friends of Oolong has obtained the patronage of Dr David Suzuki; created and manages a sanctuary, a wildlife refuge, which extends over four properties with wildlife corridors to cover an area of over 520ha (1400a). The association and its public fund was entered into the Register of Environmental Organisations and are entitled to receive tax deductible donations. This fast and successful administrative development has allowed the association to operate, mainly with private funds and donations; and to initiate the research and development associated with a model of habitat/remnants linked by wildlife corridors; and to undertake the complete inventory of the endemic fauna and flora, including threatened and endangered species. An innovative educational program is to commence at the completion of the Fauna and Flora inventory.

Dr D'Addario retired from the former Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR), now Australian Geological Survey Organisation (AGSO) in 1991 after having spent over 20 years in the supervision, editing and compilation of geological maps. In that capacity he has been the major compiled of several thematic continent wide maps for the BMR Earth Science Atlas at 1:10M scale; the Geology of Australia at 1:5M and 1:2.5M scale; the first two geological maps of the Northern Territory: Hard Rocks Geology and Cainozoic Cover, and the first Geology of PNG at 1:2.5M scale.

From 1961 to 1963, in the first two years of employment in the BMR, he worked on the Canberra Lake Project and the joint analysis of its dam foundation, the searching for rock fill for dams and other construction material for the Engineering Geology Section of the BMR, as well as compiling the Geology of Canberra at 1:250,000 scale map.

From 1963 to 1970, he was seconded to the PapuaNewGuinea Administration as Senior Vulcanologist-in-charge of the Central Vulcanological Observatory and Director of the Station of the World-Wide Network of Seismic Stations (WWSS) at Rabaul. He trained all the staff in routine interpretation of volcanic tremors and tectonic earthquakes and supervised the setting up of a network of seismic stations in and around Rabaul and at other major volcanic centres in PNG for the prediction of volcanic eruptions. Thanks to this monitoring system no lives were lost during the recent volcanic eruption, which destroyed the city of Rabaul.

From 1970 to 1980, he occupied senior management positions in several soccer clubs and the ACT Soccer Junior League Management Committee in Canberra. He also coached junior and senior teams. The ACT Academy of Soccer is his brainchild. Dr D'Addario set it up, obtained grants and several sponsorships and ran it for the first two years as its first Executive Director. The academy is now a success story to the credit of the ACT Soccer Federation. His other hobbies are avian incubation, the study of ecosystems and the compilation of a matematical model of habitat/remants linked by wildlife corridors.

He is also a member of the Stakeholder Reference Group (SRG) of the Northern Australia Irrigation Futures project (NAIF).

Dr D'Addario received his Doctorate from the University of Rome. He is specialised in Vulcanology, Geology and Geophysics and has been active internationally in the prediction of volcanic eruptions with the use of seismology and chromatographic techniques for gas analysis in and around active and dormant volcanoes.

Nominee of Australian Ethical Investment Ltd
Climate Advocacy Fund
engaging for change