CPD: Building
Back Better

Tone Wheeler: Tone Wheeler is an architect, author, educator and consultant with an abiding interest in the triple bottom line in architecture: social, environmental and economical design. Tone founded environa studio in 1986 and has designed individual and multiple housing projects, commercial buildings and urban design schemes, all with a strong emphasis on social and environmental concerns. The practice has won numerous awards and competitions, including the Milo Dunphy award for sustainable architecture for the Wayside Chapel project.
Tone has been on faculty at Sydney University, UTS and Canberra University, and is currently Adjunct Professor in Sustainable Design at UNSW. He has is the current president of the Australian Architecture Association, has been chair of the Institute National Sustainability Committee, on the Boards of the NSW Building Professionals (BPB) and the Association of Building Sustainability Assessors (ABSA).
He is a frequent writer and speaker on architectural issues. He writes weekly for the Architecture & Design newsletter, has spoken at conferences and seminars for the (R)AIA, the BDAA and the PIA, has been a regular contributor to ABC Radio and TV, on Radio National ˜By Design”; on ABC702 as a “Woodie” and “Homie” and as a judge on the New Inventor program on ABC Television. Over 12 years he has designed and helped build four electric cars.

Corey Shackleton: Corey has over 16 years’ experience working in the bushfire and emergency services industry, including 14 years with the NSW Rural Fire Service.
Corey joined the RFS in 2006 and held a number of roles before being promoted to Director Community Resilience in 2013. Corey also spent two years as Director Operational Mitigation Services where he was responsible for over 130 staff which included the State Mitigation crews as well as Remote Area Firefighting and Special Operations.
As the Director Community Resilience, with the NSW Rural Fire Service, Corey has been responsible for the leadership, management and implementation of the NSW legislative planning framework for developments in bushfire prone areas, bushfire prone land mapping, environmental approvals, Neighbourhood Safer Places, bushfire risk management, Community Protection Planning, NSW bushfire mitigation grants and fire behaviour and predictive services.
Corey has been responsible for significant advances in building capacity and resilience from bushfires at state and national levels.
Corey has extensive experience having worked in both private industry and state government, including executive level positions in the NSW Rural Fire Service. Corey has been responsible for driving and maintaining industry best practice in all facets of bushfire risk management, land use planning, building controls, fire trails and community engagement.

John Travers: John Travers has been working in the fields of bushfire and terrestrial ecology for 39 years. Between 1981 and 1991 he was a Senior Ranger with the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service before joining the Department of Bushfire Services where he was Manager Planning & Research. For the past 27 years he has been in private practice providing advice to a vast array of clients in both the private and public sectors.

Douglas Brown: In 2016 Dr Douglas Brown set up Bushfire Architecture, a research consultancy which provides advice on building in bushfire-prone areas. Since 2015 he has been an academic at Western Sydney University, where he teaches undergraduate courses in Construction Management and postgraduate courses in Bushfire Protection, such as “Building in Bushfire-Prone Areas”. He has a PhD entitled ‘Domestic Architecture and the Perception of Risk in Bushfire-Prone Areas’. This research was undertaking in the Faculty of Architecture, Design & Planning at the University of Sydney and completed in 2017. He is currently working with the University of Sydney’s School of Architecture, Design and Planning on a project which uses drone technology and 3D imaging to assess how bushfires damaged selected houses during the 2019-2020 bushfire season.Dr Brown has previously given two CPDs on bushfire building ignitions points (vulnerable parts of a structure): Australian Institute of Architects, April 2018; and Blue Mountains Design Group, April 2015.He is a regular contributor to The Conversation where his publications have been viewed over 83,000 times.

Nigel Bell: Nigel Bell (FRAIA) is principle of ECOdesign Architects + Consultants, working from Katoomba (NSW) studio with decades of experience in balancing ecologically sensitive sites, client and Authority requirements, tight budgets – and now bushfire issues across regional areas. Project work extends from residential to small commercial, government and eco/tourism, with a string of local, state and national awards. Nigel has been a Churchill Fellow (1994), with his practice being judged the Blue Mountains “Outstanding environmental business” (2001). His Banksia Environmental Award ecotourism project (Jemby-Rinjah Lodge) had been the leading ecotourism and environmental education facility through the 1990’s and more – but has burnt down in the recent mega-fires.
Nigel has long been involved in educational and teaching work across universities, TAFE, community, through to schools. Using his research and facilitation skills from social ecology higher degree study, this led from 2009 to facilitating recovery within bushfire devastated communities in Victoria including leading the community visioning followed by a design charette. Further involvement occurred following the 2013 local bushfires, assisting both in recovery and enhancing sustainable architectural design.
Nigel has written four Environmental Design ‘Notes’ on bushfire and sustainability matters (most recent published last October 2019); is an Al Gore trained “Climate Leader’; has been elected to two terms as NSW AIA ‘Chapter Councillor’; and three terms to the ‘NSW Architects Registration Board’ in seeking positive change within the profession.
In consequence, Nigel has a strong history and commitment to people, planet and place, extending the architectural ethos into regional areas, community involvements, and past that of promoting elite architecture for the 10% (or is it 5%?).

Rory Betts-McCrae: M Arch Student, University of Newcastle
Rory’s mother, Sandy Betts, engaged Fergus Scott, architect, to design a house for them at Bawley Point NSW. This house, completed a decade ago, withstood an extreme fireball during the 2019/2020 fires while the surrounding landscape was decimated.

Jamie Brennan: Jamie Brennan, architect, is a partner of six b design He has lived and worked in the Blue Mountains for over 20 years, specialising in sustainable and bush fire architecture.

Ingrid Donald: Ingrid Donald is an Architect living and working in Blackheath NSW.
She has designed numerous BAL 40 and BAL FZ houses. Her climatic responsive architecture is imbued with a genuine interest in the people who occupy it and the surrounding environment.

Peter Buckwell: Peter is an architect with experience in large firms in Australia and the US. His own practice, Buckwell and Partners based in Mt Victoria in the Blue Mountains, was established in 1979.
Peter has also held a builder’s licence for many years and has completed the Arbitrators Course run by institute of Arbitrators.
Peter is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects, has served on juries for the Institute Awards and has been Chair of the NSW Country Division.
Peter holds a Graduate Diploma of Education, has taught in the TAFE system and has participated in the Student Mentoring Program run by the NSW Chapter.

Sue Bell: Susan Bell is a Landscape Architect and Strategic Planner currently working as the Principal Urban Designer for Blue Mountains City Council where she has worked since 2007.
Susan has lived in Katoomba for over 35 years and has a deep understanding of the Mountains in regard to the natural environment, towns, climate and communities. This understanding informs her current work of developing strategic documents such as the Street Tree Masterplan, Council’s Technical Manual and a range of Masterplans for various town centres. In support of these documents Susan has also drawn on her extensive teaching experience to design and undertake a range of community consultation across the life of various projects. She has also commissioned a range of Consultant work including Architecture, Urban Design, Landscape Architecture, Arboriculture and traffic and parking studies in support of these local government projects.
Prior to working for local government, Susan taught a range of technical subjects in Horticulture and Landscape Design at both TAFE and the University of Western Sydney. Ranging from Plant Materials subjects to Surveying and Levelling, Botany and Ecology, she retains a holistic appreciation of the design process generally and has never lost her keen interest in Garden Design in particular.
Susan has a strong belief in a well-researched design logic informed by aesthetic theory and backed by comprehensive local knowledge to support an authentic sense of place which is so redolent in the Blue Mountains generally. She retains a fascination with both design process and ongoing development of private gardens as a form of self-expression and the role of the Garden Designer in enabling this expression as a key facilitator. She finds the discipline of providing pragmatic services while simultaneously achieving a level of visual poetry in a dynamic, changing environment endlessly fascinating and she continues to experiment on her own garden in Katoomba while working in local government.