Board & governance
The Wimmera CMA Board is appointed by the Victorian Government’s Minister for Water. Board members have experience and knowledge in land management, water resources management, natural resource management, primary industry, business, community engagement and governance. The Board also engages two Associate Directors to provide additional insight from more diverse perspectives as they gain experience in leadership and governance. The Wimmera CMA Board is accountable for the overall performance of the Authority. Its role is to guide, govern, and provide professional and strategic advice in the development of the Authority’s strategic direction for land, biodiversity, and water management in the region.
How do people get involved?
The Minister, following an ‘Expression of Interest’ process, appoints members for a term of up to four years.
Our Board
Introducing:
Peter Hilbig – Chair
Peter Hilbig was initially appointed Chair in October 2017 and reappointed in October 2021. He has lived at Halls Gap for over thirty years, employed as a teacher, education consultant and principal. He has worked in Malaysia and Northern Territory as a teacher and school leader, and locally as a teaching and leadership adviser and coach. He currently facilitates organisational reviews and strategic planning. Peter’s interest in the Wimmera and passion for sustainable catchment management developed through six years as manager of Project Platypus – Upper Wimmera Landcare, where he was inspired by the commitment of a diverse range of stakeholders using science to monitor and inform improvement in land and water quality, agriculture and biodiversity.
Peter is a former Chair of Vic Catchments, the peak body for Catchment Management Authorities in Victoria. He is a volunteer firefighter and a Justice of the Peace.
Peter is keen for the Wimmera CMA to engage effectively with all stakeholders to achieve a healthy and sustainable catchment community.
David Drage – Deputy Chair
David Drage was appointed to the Board in October 2013 and reappointed for a third term, October 2021. David brings a diverse mix of farming, Landcare, community, and waterway experience and involvement to the Board. David lives on the family farm with his wife and two children. The farm grows winter cereals and legumes and they run a small flock of Merino ewes for wool and prime lamb production. There is also a strong focus on preserving and conserving the remaining remnant Buloke and box vegetation on the farm.
David’s long-term goals are utilising his land-based resources for food production, and his family’s livelihood, while preserving the farm to ensure it is handed on to the next generation in the best possible condition. David is a member of several community groups including Warracknabeal Rotary Club and Lah Landcare Group.
Andrew Barton
Andrew Barton was appointed to the Wimmera CMA Board in October 2023. As a Professor of Water Resource Engineering at Federation University Australia, Andrew brings considerable national and international experience and knowledge across strategic water resource planning, impacts of climate change to water supply, streamflow and water quality monitoring, entitlement and allocation frameworks, and direct operational experience of managing water resources through the extremes of droughts and floods.
Andrew also has extensive executive leadership, strategy and organisational management experience having worked and consulted across a spectrum of industry and university roles. Andrew is currently employed as the Deputy Dean of the Graduate Research School where he strives to develop research strengths and enhance the provision of research training for the University’s research students.
Andrew is a Chartered Professional Engineer, an Executive Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia, and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Angela Enbom
Angela Enbom was appointed to the Wimmera CMA Board in October 2019. Angela is a commercial beekeeper running her own business and a sustainable small-scale food-producer. As an apiarist, Angela has experience with a vast array of natural resources and landscapes. Angela is an executive on the Central Victorian Apiary Association and provides community bee and sustainable bee practices education to a range of community groups regularly.
Angela is a permaculture professional who has developed a sustainable organic integrated plant and animal system. One of the tenets of permaculture is to value the marginal and this includes our remote and regional communities. Angela is passionate about planning for the future of our rural communities and ensuring their sustainability now and into the future.
Angela brings to the board a wholistic, macro perspective and her experience in teaching, primary production, small business and the apiculture industry.
Duncan Ashby
Duncan Ashby was appointed to the Board in September 2023. He is currently a lecturer at Marcus Oldham College and has also had extensive experience in the agricultural sector as a farm business adviser and CPA. As a consultant he specialised in family farm businesses where he engaged with financial management, structuring, and succession planning. This work involved a particular focus on land leasing, share-farming and contract farming and he undertook a Churchill Fellowship in 2014 to study these issues in the USA, UK and Canada.
Duncan has also undertaken corporate governance work with selected companies and has co-authored an AgriFutures Australia (RIRDC) publication on land leasing (Successful Land Leasing in Australia). Other previous experience includes working for the Department of Defence where he held several roles, including working on Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUAs).
He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from The University of Melbourne with majors in economics, management, and business law; a Graduate Diploma of Arts (Political Science) – also from The University of Melbourne; post graduate qualifications in accounting (CPA) and certification from the Judge Business School at Cambridge University in ‘Circular Economy and Sustainability Business Strategies’ (2023).
Duncan has a long association with the Wimmera ranging from farm business consulting throughout the region, regular visits to the northern Grampians and Mount Arapiles and outings on the Wimmera River for the Dimboola regatta.
La Vergne Lehmann
La Vergne Lehmann was appointed to the Wimmera CMA Board in October 2017. La Vergne lives near Dimboola and brings a broad range of experience including natural resource management, community engagement, research, communications and media and tourism.
La Vergne is now working at the Yarriambiack Shire Council, coordinating the waste and sustainability functions of the Council.
She is passionate about sustainability and environmental issues in the region and is a regular contributor to several media and social media forums.
Michelle Graymore
Michelle Graymore was appointed to the Board in October 2017. Michelle is a non-indigenous environmental sociologist focused on the social dimensions of water system transformation, particularly in rural and regional areas. She has expertise in understanding the relationship rural and regional communities have with water, particularly how they are connected to, and manage, water from households and farms to businesses and resource managers. In Michelle research interested in place-based, community-led solutions and how we can work alongside Indigenous people, so together we can listen and learn to be good stewards of the places we live to ensure our watery places thrive and continue to nourish us and future generations.
Michelle’s is passionate about the Wimmera and the region’s wellbeing, because of her family’s connection to the region and having spent four years leading the Wimmera Research Group at Federation University in Horsham. Michelle also brings to the board expertise in sustainability, climate change adaption, social change processes, and community engagement. In her role on the board, Michelle is keen to use her skills to contribute to the resilience and liveability of the region.
Lillian Hearn (Associate Board Development Delegate)
Lillian Hearn was appointed as a board associate member in July 2024. As an environmental chemist she is passionate about understanding and supporting resilient landscapes and sustainable agricultural systems. Currently working in the grains industry completing her PhD through a partnership position with the University of Melbourne and Agriculture Victoria Research.
Lillian brings experience and knowledge of soil health, nutrient management, and atmospheric pollution. Based in Horsham she manages field trials tracing nitrogen loss pathways locally and in the southwest region of Victoria.
Lillian brings experience working across a diversity of landscapes with previous interstate work in Tasmania, Western Australia and Victoria in both Agriculture and natural resource management sectors in research and extension officer roles.
Danae McDonald (Board Development Delegate)
Danae is a proud Wotjobaluk Woman who has lived in the Horsham area her whole life. She currently works as a First Nations Hospital Liaison Officer at Grampians Health and is a member of the Barengi Gadjin Land Council.
Danae very passionate about how we care for the land and waterways on which we operate, and how we keep the land healthy and continue to improve its ability to thrive.
Danae brings knowledge passed down from the elders and community members about the historical ways in which Aboriginal ancestors cared for the land and waterways.
