Senior Aquatic Ecologist Dr Scott Hardie has reached a major milestone in his Churchill Fellowship journey. After completing his eight-week international study tour in 2024, Scott has now finalised his Fellowship report and received his Fellowship medallion at a ceremony at Tasmanian Government House. The award was presented by Her Excellency the Honourable Barbara Baker AC, alongside this year’s Fellowship recipients.
Scott and Her Excellency the Honourable Barbara Baker AC, Tasmanian
Government House, November 2025.
Photo: Churchill Fellowship
Scott was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2023 to investigate approaches to monitoring, disentangling and managing impacts on inland waterways.
Scott’s study tour took him across New Zealand, the United States and Canada between May and July 2024. Across eight weeks he held more than 105 meetings and presentations in connection with over 125 people from more than 40 organisations, including government agencies, universities, First Nations groups, farmers, restoration experts and freshwater scientists. His itinerary ranged from field visits and scientific workshops to river rehabilitation tours, Indigenous sovereignty seminars and community catchment discussions.
Meeting at the International Joint Commission, Ottawa, Canada, June 2024
Photo: Churchill Fellowship
One of Scott’s most powerful experiences was visiting the Great Lakes system in North America, where the scale of the water resources left a lasting impression.
“The scale is mind blowing. One of the lakes is larger than Tasmania. But even in lakes of this size, pollution cannot be diluted away,” he said.
Scott’s Fellowship provided first-hand exposure to how other countries grapple with big challenges such as diffuse pollution, multiple stressors, restoration activities, and changing community expectations. He learned about long-term collaboration between scientific agencies, funding models that sustain monitoring programs, and different approaches for including landowners, First Nations communities and industry partners in co-design.
“There are many different groups involved in water management, each with their own goals and capabilities, but there is great value in working together. It takes time to build relationships and trust, but this is critical for collaboration,” he said.
Scott also emphasised that while technical science is essential, lasting solutions come from embracing more than one knowledge system.
A field tour of riparian restoration works, Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, USA, June 2024
Photo: Churchill Fellowship
“Bringing together cultural knowledge of First Nations and local community knowledge is a great way forward. It deepens understanding and fosters inclusivity. These are the sorts of things we need to grapple with at a high level if we are going to do the technical work well and effectively manage impacts.”
Scott’s full Churchill Fellowship report is now publicly available through the Churchill Trust. It documents his pre-tour engagement, international study tour, personal reflections, and key learnings and recommendations. These include principles on how to monitor waterways, disentangle pressures and stressors, improve the way organisations work together, and recognise the different knowledge systems that water management relies on.
Scott will be sharing his learnings in the coming months.
“A big thanks to managers in AW and more broadly in NRE Tas for supporting me during my Fellowship journey. I have really been representing us and all of the good work we do as a collective through the Fellowship process. Hopefully my learnings help us as we continue to study and manage water in Tasmania.”
Congratulations Scott on completing a remarkable journey and for bringing these insights back to Tasmania.