Committee of Management
Stephen Oxley: President 
Stephen Oxley “retired” to Guildford in 2021 after spending 30 years in Canberra where he worked in senior executive roles, including half of that time in the Federal Environment Department. He’s been a leader in marine conservation, world and national heritage, sustainable natural resources management and threatened species protection (among other things). He has a long-time interest in securing a better future for Indigenous Australians. He has also worked as a journalist and editor. Stephen joined Connecting Country because he was impressed by the work of this grassroots organisation and felt his experience might be useful. Really, he just likes to get his hands dirty!
Brendan Sydes: Vice President
Brendan is a Castlemaine resident and a member of the McKenzies Hill Action and Landcare Group. He is an environmental lawyer and was a founding member of Environmental Justice Australia, a not-for-profit community legal centre specialising in environmental law. He has advised a range of Landcare, community groups and conservation organisations on environmental legal issues. He now lectures in environmental law and water law at Latrobe University and the University of Melbourne. Brendan has a strong interest in biodiversity conservation and the role of the community in ecological protection and restoration at the landscape scale.
Cate Sinclair: Secretary
Max Kay: Treasurer
Max is a fifth-generation resident of Yapeen, and his family have farmed in the Yapeen and Guildford area since the 1840s. After completing undergraduate studies in accounting and economics and post graduate studies in agricultural economics, Max pursued a career in banking, working in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. Max and his family permanently relocated to Yapeen in 1987 where, until his retirement in 2001, he worked in agribusiness and commercial lending in Bendigo and Ballarat. He then ran a beef cattle farm until 2020 and now leases his property to a neighbour. Max is a member and former Committee member of Guildford and Upper Loddon Landcare Group. He is involved in many local community projects and is Secretary of the Guildford Cemetery Trust.
General Committee Members
Christine Brooke
Christine and her husband, John, have a beef fattening property at Faraday. They previously ran an irrigated beef, cropping and walnut property at Pyramid Hill. Christine was a founder member of the Loddonvale Landcare Group, a forerunner to the Loddon Plains Landcare Network. Christine is a former board member and Deputy Chair of North Central CMA and has served as a Councillor and Mayor at Loddon Shire, as well as Board member and Chair of the Goldfields Library Corporation. Christine is currently the secretary of the Sutton Grange Landcare Group and member and Treasurer of the Landcare Victoria Incorporated Committee of Management. She is also a committee member of the Faraday Community Association.
Deirdre Slattery
Ben Welsh
Darren Tinker