20th Cassowary Awards recipients

The 20th Cassowary Awards were held at Tjapukai NOW! on Djabugay Country on Friday 6 September 2024. Award recipients and their achievements are featured below.

Wet Tropics Management AuthorityClimate Change Leadership Awards

Sponsored by Daintree Discovery Centre

Cairns and Far North Environment Centre

Cairns and Far North Environment Centre (CAFNEC) have been advocating for the protection of nature in far north Queensland since 1981. CAFNEC has led, collaborated and supported scores of campaigns, coordinating action on important environment issues and becoming a leading voice in climate change action. As well as holding politicians and corporations to account, CAFNEC strives to enhance the capacity of the local community to act for conservation. 


Wet Tropics Management AuthorityEducation Research Innovation Award

Sponsored by Powerlink Queensland

Annette Ryan, Whitfield State School

Annette is a teacher-librarian and gifted education program coordinator at Whitfield State School. She has cofounded and coordinated innovative education initiatives across far north Queensland for the last 21 years, including the Gifted Global Green program. She developed and ran a STEM program for high-performing First Nations students and has conducted the Philosophy Café Academy at Whitfield State School for the last five years, where students discuss environmental ethics. 


Wet Tropics Management AuthorityIndustry Excellence Award 

Sponsored by CleanCo Queensland

Cassowary Conservation Management Plan, Department of Transport and Main Roads

The Cassowary Conservation Management Plan—developed by the Department of Transport and Main Roads in 2020—aims to improve cassowary conservation through a consolidated and consistent approach. 

As well as public awareness campaigns and best-practice road design and maintenance, it supports the development of new technology to enhance safety and reduce vehicle-animal collisions. This included a trial of a large animal activated roadside monitoring and alert system on the Kennedy Highway near Kuranda, to provide real-time hazard detection.


Wet Tropics Management AuthorityPeople Country Culture Award

Sponsored by Terrain NRM

Madjaybana Rangers

Since their program was established in 2020, Madjaybana Rangers have mapped cultural sites, documented story lines and language names, plotted ancestral walking trails, repaired degraded riverine land, collected litter polluting waterways, and monitored mangroves forests and the water quality of culturally important banas (creeks). 

Madjandji Elders have shared cultural, historical and traditional ecological knowledge of the minya (fauna) and mayi (flora) with the rangers, enabling the use of cultural knowledge to manage the land. 


Wet Tropics Management AuthorityPeter Hitchcock Community Champions Award

Sponsored by Queensland Water and Land Carers

Ingrid Marker, Cassowary Keystone Conservation

Ingrid is a lifelong advocate for the environment. As founder of the Cassowary Keystone Conservation community group, she is committed to protecting the southern cassowary including caring for orphaned, sick and injured birds. Ingrid has collaborated with various ecologists, environmental organisations, policy advisors and the Djiru Traditional Owners to lobby for strategies that will provide protection for keystone species like the cassowary. 

*Ingrid was unable to attend—Marshall Benzel accepted the award on her behalf


Wet Tropics Management AuthorityThorsborne Award for Conservation and Rehabilitation

Sponsored by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and Partnerships

Cathy Retter, Kuranda Envirocare

As president of Kuranda Envirocare, Cathy has been dedicated to protecting and rehabilitating the Wet Tropics, including facilitating tree plantings along the Barron River over the last two decades. Cathy has delivered citizen science projects, such as monitoring and protecting the habitat of the critically endangered Kuranda treefrog. She has been instrumental to community response to threats to the Wet Tropics, such as the yellow crazy ant invasion and inappropriate development and has effectively lobbied government at all levels. 
*Cathy was unable to attend—Bruce Wannan accepted the award on her behalf


Wet Tropics Management AuthorityWorld Heritage Presentation Award

Sponsored by Skyrail Rainforest Cableway

Martin Stringer

Martin is a nature photographer and filmmaker with a talent for capturing the beauty of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. Through photographing tree planting projects, he has documented rainforest regeneration over the last decade. 

Martin says: “Growing a rainforest community is more than just planting a rainforest, it’s about reconnecting through culture, nature, and each other.”

*Martin was unable to attend—Brendan Barber accepted the award on his behalf


Wet Tropics Management AuthorityYoung Cassowary Award

Sponsored by YETI (Youth Empowered Towards Independence)

Tyler Smith

While he may be young, Tyler has long been a rainforest advocate and regularly attends tree planting days with his family—he prides himself on being at the very first tree planting at NightWings. 

At just 12 years of age, Tyler’s passion for the environment, his local community and school saw him awarded his school’s Year 7 Community Involvement Scholarship. 



Chair's Award

Sponsored by the Wet Tropics Management Authority

BirdLife Northern Queensland

The Chair’s Award was given to BirdLife Northern Queensland, who is at the forefront of bird conservation in the Wet Tropics. For over 120 years, BirdLife Australia has been researching and protecting native Australian birds and through decades of work, the Northern Queensland branch has built on the mounting evidence that Wet Tropics rainforest-dependent bird populations are declining in the upland areas because of climate change. The findings from their collaborative Birds with Altitude citizen science project will help build a basis for effective conservation action planning.




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