Bill Borthwick Student Scholarships

Bill Borthwick Student Scholarships 2021

This year we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the scholarships. The scholarships are for Honours, Masters or PhD tertiary students to assist in the costs of research relating to public land in Victoria, including terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments. Relevant fields of study include natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, economics, law and politics.

The scholarships were established in March 2011 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the
first meeting of the Land Conservation Council (LCC) and to honour the vision of the Hon Bill
Borthwick, a central figure in establishing the LCC to advise government on the use of Victoria’s
public land.

VEAC received an outstanding range of applications. The successful projects are an interesting spread from studying the translocation of reptiles in fire-prone landscapes to looking at cemeteries as civic spaces.

The recipients of the 2021 scholarships are:

Luke Richards, Monash University
Harnessing open source technology to measure soil health and manage ecosystems, from the ground up.

Dylan Westaway, Charles Sturt University
Wild-to-wild translocation of reptiles in fire-prone landscapes.

Samuel Holleran, University of Melbourne
Cemeteries as civic places.

Kristen Agosta, Deakin University
Assessment of mammal refuges in the Otways.

Mark La Pla, University of Melbourne
Evaluating the response of feral cats and foxes to fire and intensive, localised lethal control in the Otway Ranges.