CLIFF COBBO

I'm a very proud member of the Wakka Wakka nation of southern Queensland. Being an Indigenous Australian from a large family (six boys and four girls) has had its challenges and rewards. It certainly helped to make me who I am today. I've been fortunate in my working life to have met and worked with so many passionate and dedicated people who want to improve the lives of the first peoples of this country. I've been a CES officer, developing employment and training strategies, and was a national policy manager for ATSIC, where I developed policies for the largest employer of Indigenous people in the country, the Community Development Employment Program. I've worked across government, industry, community organisations and now with WWF for the past eleven years. My role is to facilitate partnerships and build relationships with Traditional Owners and their communities to work with us in caring for this Country. I have helped to establish a number of conservation agreements with Traditional Owner groups, James Cook University, the Cairns Turtle Hospital and the Reef HQ Aquarium in north Queensland.