Jim Brendon - Wedge Tailed Eagle in flight
Hall of Fame Awards
The AAWHG Hall of Fame was established in 2024 to honour those individuals and organisations who have made remarkable and enduring contributions to the AAWHG and have significantly advanced wildlife hazard management in Australia.
Nomination form
AAWHG 2026
Hall of Fame Award recipients
Dr Richard Dolbeer
Dr Richard Dolbeer, based in the United States, is arguably the godfather of aviation wildlife strike management. Richard has authored numerous journal articles on wildlife strike management, using decades of experience with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a wildlife biologist. During that time, he was the key driver behind the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) online wildlife strike database, a joint project with the USDA providing vital data about US wildlife strikes since 1990. Since that time the FAA has collected voluntary strike reports from airlines, airports, pilots and air traffic controllers, building one of the most comprehensive aviation safety databases in the world. His research (with over 230 papers published) is characterised by interrogating the data to see what practical applications can be adopted to reduce the major risks. It is impossible to guess at how many lives Dr Dolbeer may have saved during his career which stems back to 1972. The AAWHG has been fortunate to have Richard present at two of our conferences: one in 2016 at the Gold Coast when he presented on the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’. In 2026 he gave the keynote address in Sydney, speaking on ‘Birdstrikes during approach and climb: the need for innovative management strategies’. At the 2026 conference, we were also treated to an informal session before his keynote: ‘In conversation with Dr. Richard Dolbeer, author of Life on the Wild Side’. The AAWHG has much pleasure in welcoming Richard to the Hall of Fame.
For more information: Richard Dolbeer – Notable People
Dr Rebecca Johnson AM
Dr Rebecca Johnson AM is an expatriate Australian now working in the USA. Rebecca was instrumental in growing the scope and influence of the AAWHG as a very active and effective member of its executive committee from 2005-2014. During this time, she also acted as secretary of the Group, and was a member, along with Wendy Weir and Jill Brix, of the informal group known as Laurie’s Angels.
She completed her PhD in molecular evolutionary genetics at La Trobe University in Victoria, and worked as a geneticist before joining the Australian Museum in 2003 as laboratory manager. She later became the head of the Australian Centre for Wildlife Genomics. The Centre includes the DNA testing program to identify wildlife strike species, and through this Rebecca became involved in the AAWHG.
In 2020, she left her role as Director of the Australian Museum Research Institute (the first woman to have held the position in the Museum’s 191-year-old history) to take up the position of Chief Scientist and Associate Director for Science at the Smithsonian Institution, Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, a position she holds today.
As a legacy of Rebecca’s involvement, the AAWHG’s close connection with the DNA identification work of the Genomics Centre continues, with the support of the Centre’s Dr Matthew Lott. Rebecca couldn’t travel to Australia, but her award was accepted by Jim Whatton from the Smithsonian’s Feather Lab. The AAWHG has much pleasure in welcoming Rebecca to the Hall of Fame.
Dr Jeff McKee
Dr Jeff McKee has an eclectic and diverse background. After graduating in science (genetics) and then veterinary science in the early 80s, he had many careers, including time as a flying vet to remote cattle stations around Western Australia. Jeff worked in both the university and corporate R&D sectors in Australia and abroad, gaining experience in molecular biology and immunology. After returning to Australia in 1994, Jeff focused on wildlife population health assessment, wildlife management and emerging disease ecology, developing the Mobile Disease Ecology Unit to research koala and platypus health. In 2006 he joined wildlife hazard management consultancy, Avisure, and using his vast and relevant experience as a wildlife ecologist and pilot, quickly identified that effective wildlife hazard management had to include airspace management responsibility, and that the issue could not be managed by focusing on aerodromes only. In 2016 he was lead author on a chapter in the book Problematic Wildlife – A Cross-Disciplinary Approach. The chapter ‘Approaches to Wildlife Management in Aviation’ was an important trigger for slow but certain movement toward an industry-wide approach to managing the aviation wildlife collision risk. His influence on how this aviation risk will be managed into the future cannot be underestimated: his legacy will endure. The AAWHG has much pleasure in welcoming Jeff to the Hall of Fame.
Wendy Weir
Wendy Weir currently the Senior Manager, Sustainability for Sydney Airport. She served as a member of the executive, and later as chair of the AAWHG from 2011-2015, at a very strategically focused era for the Group. She devoted a lot of volunteer hours and dedication to the strategic development of the Group – the new logo, marketing and branding date from this time.
The executive committee at that time reinvigorated the recommended practices and 5-year strategic plans for the Group. A considerable focus at that time was on AAWHG involvement in various forums, working with the Australian Airports Association and others in joining the jigsaw pieces.
She was also instrumental in Brisbane Airport’s wildlife hazard management plan, as well as the airport’s Nankeen kestrel relocation project, and was a forerunner for Tom Ashover, our 2026 Maggies award winner.
The AAWHG has much pleasure in welcoming Wendy to the Hall of Fame.
AAWHG 2024
Hall of Fame Award recipients
Jill has more than 30 years of aviation experience, with skills in environment, operations, security, safety, emergency planning, quality and risk. She has dedicated many years to wildlife hazard management while working at six Queensland and Northern Territory airports and consulted to more than 60 civil and military airport projects across Australia and New Zealand in her role as General Manager at Avisure.
Jill is a highly valued contributor to the Australian aviation industry. She has held a number of executive positions on the AAWHG, including those of chair, deputy chair, the Australian Airports Association’s (AAA) representative and events manager. Jill was also the Australian representative for the World Bird Strike Association from 2012-2015.
Jill’s current and past memberships are extensive and demonstrate how involved she is in promoting aviation safety.
Jill has been a long-time Air Force reservist and is now employed full-time with the Australian Defence Force. She is an outstanding contributor to our organisation and the safety of our industry and is a worthy inaugural member of the AAWHG Hall of Fame.
Laurie graduated with a B.Eng. (Aero) from RMIT in 1979 and spent six years at the Government Aircraft Factory as a structures design engineer.
He worked with Australian Airlines, Air Niugini, Cathay Pacific, Ansett Airlines and then moved back to Qantas Airways in 2001 becoming the initial B737 Fleet Manager from 2003-2012. He then took up the role of A330/B787 Fleet Manager at Jetstar Airways; unfortunately, being made redundant in 2020 after parking up the fleet following the COVID-19 outbreak.
Laurie joined the AAWHG in 2003 and served on the Committee until 2015, service which included several years as chairperson.
The pivotal WHM moment for Laurie was a double engine birdstrike on a Qantas 737 during take-off from Adelaide (galahs), followed by a double engine strike on a QF 767 on take-off from Melbourne (little corellas) the next day. His manager asked him to get involved with QF Safety and he subsequently took over as the QF lead due to staff reductions in the safety department. Garnering internal funding was difficult as the consequences and potential outcomes were not well defined, so Laurie initiated a complete rolling QF fleetwide commercial impact database to demonstrate a valid reason to fund mitigation strategies, i.e. ‘Pulselite’ installation on the 737 fleet, to prevent not only financial losses but also, most importantly, to improve the safety of crew, passengers and the wider public.
The highlights of Laurie’s time with the AAWHG:
1. Federal Government recognition of the AAWHG as THE Australian authority on aviation wildlife management and the AAWHG’s input into the Aviation White Paper.
2. Being able to contribute a balanced airline rationale to the AAWHG process from a safety and commercial backdrop.
3. The passion and commitment of everyone involved in the AAWHG and seeing the growth/development of the recommended practices and website information.
In Laurie’s own words about his time with the AAWHG: ‘I owe much of my joy and satisfaction in the AAWHG to those with whom I served’.
Kylie was on the AAWHG executive between 2020 and 2024 but has advanced wildlife hazard management in Australia and internationally for much longer than that. In providing advice, preparing responses to white papers, assisting with submissions, developing podcasts and in a multitude of other ways, Kylie has contributed significantly to the aviation community with her knowledge and affable nature. Kylie worked with consultants Avisure for 20 years and in that time, she advised more than 100 airport clients on how best to manage their wildlife strike risk.
Kylie deserves her place as an inaugural member of the Hall of Fame as an outstanding contributor to the AAWHG and the aviation community in general, promoting aviation safety through effective, best-practice WHM.
Peter Davidson could be considered the father of wildlife hazard management in Australia. An ornithologist by training, in June 1975 Peter was appointed by the then Civil Aviation Authority (CAA, now CASA) to head a new development for the Authority, the Bird Hazard Investigation Unit or BHIU.
The BHIU was established in response to growing concern about safety-threatening bird strikes, of which there were several in the late 60s and early 70s, especially a series at Sydney Airport. (Silver gulls led to two serious strikes: a Pan Am B-707 in 1969, and a DC-9 in 1970. In 1973, bird ingestion on take-off from Sydney damaged a Qantas B-747-200’s no. 3 and 4 engines, necessitating a $500,000 replacement.
Before the BHIU, from 1964, eminent CSIRO research scientist, Gerry van Tets, had been studying bird strikes, but this series of high-profile strikes led to pressure to replace ad-hoc CSIRO expertise with CAA/Department of Transport in-house expertise.
Peter’s extensive research transformed the understanding and mitigation of birdstrikes involving civil aircraft in Australia. The BHIU became a key player, with its advice on reducing birdstrikes informing all aspects of airport design, maintenance and operation nationally, as well as being provided to the airlines and other civil aviation sectors.
Peter expanded the Unit, with the addition of Alison Rowell as a laboratory researcher, carrying on some of the earlier CSIRO work, and developing one of only four labs in the world that could identify bird remains from birdstrikes. The BHIU’s expertise grew with the addition of biologists, field researchers and data analysts, so that by 1985, it was a world leader in aviation bird hazard research and mitigation.
In 1991, the CAA disbanded the BHIU, leaving airports, airlines and GA operators to manage wildlife hazards. The Unit’s 16-year lifespan under Peter’s leadership left a significant legacy:
• New regulation (the Air Navigation regulation 92A) requiring training programs for aerodrome inspectors, necessity to include wildlife hazards in airport developments, and a more holistic and robust birdstrike reporting system.
• Perhaps the most enduring legacy is Australia’s wildlife strike reporting regime. From 1976, the BHIU focused on improving the quality of reporting and data collection, working with the Air Safety investigation Branch (ASIB, which became BASI in 1982, and the ATSB in 1999), tailoring three new forms to collect more accurate birdstrike data, and launching a national awareness campaign, with Peter presenting in every Department of Transport region to promote the new birdstrike reporting trial.
- Peter also worked with the ASIB to develop a comprehensive database and analysis system that could be interrogated to produce and present birdstrike analysis incorporating a wide variety of factors.
- This system became the international gold standard, and following the positive reaction to Peter’s papers presented at the inaugural ICAO Asia-Pacific workshop in in 1978, led to the establishment of the International Birdstrike Information System (IBIS) in 1979.