Koala CQ Research Students
Current Students
Roshan Akther
Roshan Akther is a PhD student at the School of Education and the Arts, Rockhampton North campus of CQUniversity. Roshan earned his MSc in GeoInformatics and BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science from the University of Peradeniya and the University of Jaffna, respectively. He has several research articles published in online journals and at research conferences in the fields of GIS and environmental management.
Roshan's PhD project involves analysing the habitat suitability of koalas in Central Queensland using GIS and remote sensing techniques in order to inform effective management of this endangered species in the region. He is well-versed in spatial analysis and has worked in the environmental management aspects of mining projects in particular.
Over the years, he has gained expertise in researching land use changes, vegetation mapping, water resource management, land surface temperature evaluation, multiple criteria decision-making approaches, and an array of environmental applications.
He believes that environmental management requires a system thinking approach, taking into account the interconnectedness of environmental phenomena, and spatial tools/software should be used to their full potential for enhanced decision-making.
Carlie Sommers
Carlie’s 3rd-year project “Identifying and mapping prospective koala habitat on Woppa (formerly Great Keppel Island), Queensland, to explore the viability of certain potential koala conservation efforts”, which she completed with a High Distinction, was a fundamental first step in her research on the topic. During Carlie’s work it has become clear that much more detailed work is required to make informed suggestions for future koala conservation on Woppa including the consideration for potential re-introductions of koalas to the island. Such additional work is in the form of extensive ground-truthing of the digital habitat analyses that Carlie performed as well as involving the traditional owners of Woppa; this work is now shaping her honours research in 2025.
Past Students
Mrs Charley Geddes
Thesis Title (honours): Can utilising a citizen science approach add valuable scientific data, and make a meaningful impact, to scientific research and environmental decision making? A koala monitoring case study.
Supervisor: Dr Rolf Schlagloth
The value of the ‘collective’ nature of citizen science to wildlife monitoring, data collection and conservation is well established. However, one person’s practice can also be valuable to citizen science projects and is often overlooked in the literature. Charley explores and critically evaluates her novel approach of identifying individual koalas by particular facial and body features and its contribution to scientific monitoring of koalas living in close proximity to highway underpasses near Nebo in Central Queensland.
