Derek has lived on the Sunshine Coast since the 1970s. He is an award winning environmentalist who has worked in many countries delivering community development and environmental education programs and was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study citizen science initiatives in the USA and Canada. He has many achievements under his belt. He was part of the team that developed the first Environmental Education curriculum for Queensland schools, is the designer and founder of the Maroochy Wetlands Sanctuary and was the principle author for Waterwatch Queensland and founded Maroochy Waterwatch. Recently he was a member of the Maroochy River Estuarine Consultative Group which investigated the issue of rock walling the mouth of the Maroochy River. During the early 2000’s he was part of the post tsunami recovery team from Australia focussing on community and economic rebuilding in Indonesia. He is an internationally recognised facilitator and has authored books on this subject. His current area of passion is eco music about which he is undertaking doctoral work at USC. As an adjunct to this research he performs with the Landscape Band which focusses on eco music about and for the environment.