by Margarita Bowen
WISENET Journal No. 34, March 1994, pp. 8-9
Now entering her third year as the first woman to hold the position of Executive Officer of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Dr Wendy Craik has a wide field of responsibility to survey from her office overlooking Townsville harbour in North Queensland.
Surely one of the most famous and fascinating management regions in the world, the Great Barrier Reef stretches over an area of some 350,000 square kilometres, from Cape York in the north to near Bundaberg in the south. In recognition of its outstanding values, it was nominated in 1981 as one of Australia's first World Heritage Areas.
After an intense public struggle, led by a number of devoted conservationists, including Judith Wright, who called for protection of tbe Reef, the Park itself was declared by the Federal government in tbe landmark Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act of 1975, which was to create the world's largest marine park and the greatest undertaking in marine management and nature conservation in Australia's history.
The same Act also set up the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). It was charged with an awesome task: 'to provide for the protection, wise use, understanding and enjoyment of the Great Barrier Reef in perpetuity through the development and care of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park'.
Promoted to her new position in April 1992, Wendy as Executive Officer of GBRMPA is responsible to the Chairman of the Authority and coordinates the work of some 140 staff in eight sections: Corporate and Strategic Planning, Executive and Secretariat, Planning and Management, Research and Monitoring, Environmental Impact Management, Education and Information, Corporate Sewices, and GBRMPA's popular Aquarium.
In addition, Wendy continues to coordinate the World Heritage Area Strategic Plan, and integrate this with GBRMPA's program - a task she first undertook in 1990 as Director of the Authority's Planning and Management section. Her achievements in that position, she believes, were in contributing to a better relationship and interaction between the Commonwealth and Queensland state agencies that are jointly responsible for ongoing management and enforcement in the Marine Park. This has been a major issue from the beginning, requiring sensitive diplomatic skills throughout GBRMPA in a state where there has often been vigorous resistance to any changes seen as Federal encroachment on state rights.
One of Wendy's strengths in dealing with the range of issues that now come across her desk - from navigation and oil spill response provisions to research program contracts, Reef zoning plans, fisheries management, public edutation, tourism, and pollution monitoring - is that in the years since she joined GBRMPA in 1978 she has been closely involved in contributing to the development of many of the current programs, through her work in a number of different sections.
She also has a wealth of knowledge of both the natural environment and the people of this complex region. This is a real asset in the constant workof liaison to reconcile conflicting interests, integrate programs and pursue planning strategies. To list some of her committee memberships over the last few years gives an insight into the range of her personal contacts: the GBR Monitoring Advisory Committee, Intromarc Management Committee, Queensland Oil Pollution, Marine Pollution, Fisheries Policy and Catchment Management committees, the East Coast Tuna Management Coordinating Committee.
Likewise, the variety of societies for which Wendy has been executive member or president points to the scope of her professional and community commitments. These include the Australian Marine Sciences Association, the Australian Society of Fish Biology, the Zonta Club of Townsville, and the North Queensland Palm Society. The last of these represents an interest that she shares with her husband, in the growing of tropical palms.
So, what of the woman who by the age of 42 had risen so far in the previously male dominated world of marine management and, at the same time, through the rather constrictive promotion structures of public service employment?
The focus of Wendy's academic and research work from the beginning has been on biology and fisheries. After graduating from ANU with a Bachelor of Science Honours degree and the University Medal in zoology, she gained a CSIRO postgraduate studentship to complete a PhD at the University of British Columbia on fish biology and fisheries management.
Returning to her Australian Public Service job in 1978, Wendy worked in the Department of Environment, Housing and Community Development and joined GBRMPA early in its formative period, when the difficult task of engaging public support in the drafting of the first zoning plan was underway.
Throughout the next years, as she moved through promotion sequences and work challenges, it has been a feature of Wendy's career path that she took up opportunities for professional training, at first with short courses in management, negotiation and administration.
Then in 1987 she was selected for the competitrve Australian Public Service Executive Development Scheme. This combined a range of courses with senior work placements in several departments, and as Executive Assistant to the Mayor in Townsville City Council. During that year she was, as one senior colleague put it, 'sorely missed' from her position in GBRMPA. That investment in management, however, clearly brought dividends on both sides: it represented wise career planning for executive responsibility.
Wendy herself is noted for her pleasant, easy manner -- apparently not ruffled by some ribbing from colleagues about things like indecipherable handwriting. Friendly and relaxed, with a warm smile, direct gaze and well modulated voice, she is typically calm and agreeable among people, but well able to be assertive and firm when required. In her words, 'I don't particlarly like generalisations, but if you had to characterise my approach, you could say I am generally a quiet person in manner, and rare to have outbursts. Or at least I hope I am.'
That kind of approach, she agrees, can be helpful in tense situations, which occur often enough in Marine Park administration. And she adds, with dthe wisdom of experience, 'In any system there are systemic obstacles working against change. You need to remember that you always keep on dealing with the same people.'
In terms of her position as a woman, Wendy finds it easy to work with either sex. If anything, she recalls wryly, being female may have been an advantage in some of the early meetings on fishing constraints in the Marine Park - when tempers could be high when a GBRMPA officer walked in.
Women, as Wendy sees it, in some cases discuss things differently from men, and that can be an advantage. Most important for women in career terms, she suggests, is the need to build up a network of men and women throughout the system. The list of referees for her current position reflects her own effectiveness in that area. They included Graeme Kelleher, Chairman of GBRMPA, and Don Kinsey, the former Executve Officer.
For the future, Wendy points to the progression in Park management from the first stage in establishing multiple use zones and strategies, when public consultation and eduration were primary tasks. In the stage GBRMPA is now entering, problems of enforcement will take a higher profile. It will be dealing with issues that do not have straightforward in-Park solutions, for example, water quality.
Fortunately, as Wendy notes, the good relationships built up with the Queensland authorities in the earlier period will assist in the work of developing better management plans, dealing with 'hot spots' like Green Island, and strengthening Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consultation.
We look forward to the development of Wendy's potential - in vision, balance, and management skills - for the future of the Reef.