Growers Conference 2024

Ben Williams
Principal, AITHER

Ben is an experienced advisor with 10 years’ experience in water markets and more than 20 years working with irrigated agriculture and industry.

With Ben’s intimate knowledge of water markets, he provides unique perspective on complex water market issues along with strategies to support critical water management decisions.

Ben’s broader experience includes extensive business management, development and international trade.

Dr Mark Bailey
Northern Victoria Resource Manager

Dr Mark Bailey is Manager Water Resources with Goulburn-Murray Water. A civil engineer with 30 years of experience, Mark leads the Goulburn-Murray Water teams managing northern Victoria’s surface water and groundwater resources. Mark is the delegated Resource Manager for Goulburn-Murray Water and oversees bulk water availability across northern Victoria.

Tyson Milne
Director River Murray Operations, MDBA

Tyson is a fourth generation Sunraysia local with a background in farm management both locally and across the country. He was previously a member of various LMW customer committees, including deputy chair of the Strategic Advisory Committee.

Tyson spent time at LMW in an extension role working with Rural Customers before joining the MDBA where he is currently the Director of River Murray Operations.

Robert Ross
Assoc. Professor – Engineering, La Trobe University

Robert is a design engineer who led pioneering work in game-based learning using Educational Escape Rooms and designed some of the key STEM outreach programs used within the Engineering Department including LaserTag, LaserBot and BristleBot.

Robert’s R&D heavily tends towards creating functional prototypes and employs his considerable background in embedded systems and robotics to actually make things work – rather than just modelling them.

Robert is also the director of the RAMPS R&D group which is a research group aiming to solve real world problems related to Robotics, Automation, Mechatronics and Sensing by creating functional Prototypes. One recent project that Robert has been involved in was the development of a robotic pruning solution in collaboration with Dried Fruits Australia.