Matthew Salmon

2011 College Recipient, College of Arts, Society and Education

Mr Matthew Salmon is the Assistant Director at Parks Australia in the Northern Territory. Previously he was the Aridlands Program Director for the international conservation organisation The Nature Conservancy.

He graduated from James Cook University in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) majoring in anthropology and archaeology and returned some years later to gain a Graduate Diploma of Education in 2005.

Working with the Queensland Department of Premier and Cabinet, the University of Queensland and as the Director of Operations and Policy for Parks Australia, Mr Salmon has displayed a passion for environmental education and turning conservation outcomes into sustainable economic opportunities.

In the early 2000s, he lead tenure resolution negotiations in Cape York Peninsula, which resulted in the declaration of several new national parks - the first in Queensland for more than a decade. More recently as an Assistant Director with the Australian Government’s Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, he has been responsible for the design and development of land management programs in the Australian desert region, which now employ more than 200 Indigenous Australians.

Focusing on species and landscape conservation in arid Australia and the integration of Indigenous Ecological knowledge with western land management practices, he and his team have attracted significant partnerships worth more than $20 million for these initiatives.

He completed a Master’s degree in Environmental Systems, Markets and Climate change at the University of New England in 2014.

Updated 2020