Dean Cameron was influenced from an early age by his mother Maureen who was a gifted organic gardener with a green thumb. She taught him the importance of organic matter and earthworms to both break up heavy Tasmanian clay soils and make them more aerobic and free draining and to make deep sandy soils in the Perth region of WA retain extra precious moisture and stop nutrients from rapidly leaching away. She also inspired him with the close connection she had for over 75 years between the garden and the kitchen, both domains where she became a true master.
Dean was also mentored by his father Bill in the art and science of shaping the earth and our habitats to make our living environment better meet our needs. His civil and mechanical engineering expertise exposed Dean from an early age to what it takes to construct a dam, water supply, sewerage system, road or roaded catchment and Bill’s give it a go attitude gave Dean confidence to tinker and experiment without fear of failure. The connection between water collection, storage, treatment and recycling of organic matter and the production of nutritious food by nurturing the soil gradually became intuitive for Dean and ultimately lead to him being awarded the Clunies Ross award for Science Innovation in 2006 for his work in developing and commercialising Biolytix, a soil ecosystem based treatment method and apparatus for wastewater. This innovative technology also won several other awards including the Asian Innovation Award in 2007.
In 2008 Dean won the ABC New Inventors invention of the year for Joinlox, an innovative joining technology. Since 2000 Dean has been informally experimenting with ultra-low cost treatment methods to meet the global needs for clean drinking water and better sanitation by eliminating everything but what is truly essential to achieving very ambitious treatment outcomes. Some of his experiments have been so successful that they have inspired him to launch GOSEP as a collaborative open-source project to both demonstrate the robustness of these new designs and also evolve them to be even more effective, and to ultimately popularise GOSEP throughout the world.
Check out our inspiring GOSEP constitution and see how you can become a member
BSc(Hons) NSW, BE(Hons) W.Aust., GradDip(Meteorology) BoM, PhD Cantab
Senior Lecturer, Geotechnical Engineering
Adventure STEM Advocate
e: amccallu@usc.edu.au
p: +61 7 5459 4576
Office location H1.2.46 Sunshine Coast Campus
Dr Adrian McCallum is a Senior Lecturer in Geotechnical Engineering at USC and:
A Specialist in remote area science and engineering
An accomplished leader and manager across a diverse range of endeavours
Has extensive experience in the collection and analysis of scientific and engineering data
Is a leader and manager of projects in remote regions of the world including the Arctic, Himalaya and Antarctica
Core competencies
Leadership, project management and team building skills; ability to communicate with all levels
Relationship builder; wide ranging experience in managing diverse defence, infrastructure, scientific and engineering projects
Collection, analysis and communication of technical scientific and engineering data
Experience in industrial relations, equal opportunity and health and safety issues
Stay in touch with Adrian and visit:
* This is an external website and the University of the Sunshine Coast is not responsible for the content.
Distinguished Professor Cynthia Mitchell
Deputy Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, UTS
For two decades, Distinguished Professor Cynthia Mitchell has worked alongside industry and governments to improve the ecological, economic, and social outcomes of our decision-making and investment in urban water infrastructure. Her offering is distinguished by the way it weaves her engineering and science training with insights from learning, systems, social science, futures, and new economics, like Kate Raworth’s groundbreaking Doughnut model.
Locally, Cynthia served (2012-2019) on the New South Wales Minister’s Independent Water Advisory Panel; as Deputy Chair of SEQWater’s Independent Review Panel (2014-2018); in 2015 was honoured as one of the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence; and in 2018, was recognized as a Legend of Water by the water industry. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, a Fellow of Engineers Australia, and a Fellow of the Institute of Community Directors. She is on the board of Foodswell, a small charitable organization working to improve food security/sovereignty in rural and remote areas, and was previously a Director of ICEWARM. She serves on the national Community Directors Council, providing governance oversight to the not-for-profit sector nationally.
Globally, Cynthia is inaugural Chair of the global Advisory Board for UKCRIC, a GBP300M investment in infrastructure research capacity in the UK; a Visiting Professor at University College London; a ProtoSynthesis Professor at EAWAG, the Swiss National Water Research Institute; and in 2019, gave the opening keynote at the International Transdisciplinary Conference in Sweden.
Cynthia first met Dean Cameron in the mid-90s and has been inspired by him ever since! His ingenuity in mimicking nature in ever more clever ways demonstrates the depth of both his insight and his humility. For the last decade, Cynthia has worked in international development, and is passionate about helping those with limited access to sanitation not only gain access, but preferably leapfrog the problematic sewerage systems that are ubiquitous in high-income settings, and instead invest in sanitation systems that require few inputs and deliver valuable, safe products.
Gerry Gillespie
Gerry has been involved in the recovery of organic materials and their reuse in soils for 30 years both in Australia and overseas, including roles in New Zealand and consultancy work in Egypt, China, Scotland, India, Wales, France, Japan, Taiwan, Canada and the US. With an emphasis on community engagement, he developed the City to Soil collection program and helped refine an inoculant-based, odour-free, no-turn compost process based on the work of M. E. Bruce and Sir Albert Howard.He has current projects involving the use of biostimulant and inoculant products in the fields of biochar, foliar fertilisers, feral animals, food waste and compost. He currently works as an Organics Consultant to local business, farmers groups and councils around the world. He launched his Acres USA published book: “The Waste Between Our Ears” in October 2020. *
11 November 2020
As a Director of the Zero Waste International Trust and manager of my own business ‘Returning Organics To Soils” I wish to endorse and acknowledge support for the Global Open Sanitation Empowerment Project in its efforts to secure financial and community support.
This project has the capacity to dramatically change the health and living conditions of many people in the world who are living in difficult circumstances. It will also recover human waste and reuse plastics in remote communities.
Gerry Gillespie
Director ZWIT
Manager ROTS
Zero Waste International Trust was established and registered in the UK as a Company Limited by Guarantee No 4647308 in 2003 to support the international Zero Waste Initiative that now operates in countless countries across the globe.
Gerry has been involved in the recovery of organic materials and their reuse in soils for 30 years both in Australia and overseas, including roles in New Zealand and consultancy work in Egypt, China, Scotland, India, Wales, France, Japan, Taiwan, Canada and the US. With an emphasis on community engagement, he developed the City to Soil collection program and helped refine an inoculant-based, odour-free, no-turn compost process based on the work of M. E. Bruce and Sir Albert Howard.He has current projects involving the use of biostimulant and inoculant products in the fields of biochar, foliar fertilisers, feral animals, food waste and compost. He currently works as an Organics Consultant to local business, farmers groups and councils around the world. He launched his Acres USA published book: “The Waste Between Our Ears” in October 2020. *
Contact us now info@gosep.org if you can led your support and credibility to GOSEP
Your name could be here!
Your name could be here!
Your name could be here!
GOSEP needs practical help now with many areas of this project. The following skill sets are urgently needed.
Statistician/Biometrician to help us finalise our trial designs and sampling protocols so that we have unambiguous results from our trials;
Sketchup wizards - to help us create clean detailed models and drawings to help with the trial installation procedure and the system approvals process;
Website design and content manager with experience in setting up; collaboration knowledge bases & workspaces for teams;
Project budgeting and financial management framework setup;
There are lots of other areas we need help too. If you want to use your skills to make the world a better place, Apply now and tell us how you can help.
