Year

Name

Research topic

2023

(Auckland, NZ)

Senior: Bailee Woolley (University of Tasmania)

Reproductive biology of the Melbourne skate to inform fisheries management and conservation 

Junior: Lukian Adams (University of NSW) 

Modelling impacts of artificial barriers on riverine fish communities 

2022

(Gold Coast, QLD)

Senior: Hannah Calich (University of Western Australia)

Investigating animal movement and behaviour with statistical physics methods: A primer for ecologists. 

Junior: Zoë Ross (University of Queensland) 

Chronic hypoxia in the Murray-Darling basin: Can fish acclimate through physiological and behavioural plasticity? 

2021

(Adelaide, SA)

Senior: Kynan Hartog-Burnett (James Cook University)

Ecology of reef based Clupeiforms affect stock structure.

Junior: Adrienne Gooden (Flinders University)

Cagey behaviour: Using animal-borne video and machine learning to assess the effects of a non-lethal consumptive industry

Speed Presentation Senior: Mary Grace Sedanza (Nagasaki University)

The sticky story of oysters.

2020

**Runners-up were a one-off due to the 2020 COVID situation**

Senior: Alexandre Siqueira (PhD - James Cook University)

Trophic innovations fuel reef fish diversification.

Senior Runner-Up: Matthew Holland (PhD - University of NSW)

Dynamic distributions of temperate forage fish at multiple spatio-temporal scales.

Junior: Clement Ng (Hons - University of Melbourne)

Drivers of latitudinal variation in snapper growth along the east and west coasts of Australia.

Junior Runner-Up: Sophie Dolling (Hons - University of Adelaide)

Quantification of plastic-associated chemicals in commercial Australian fish.

2019

(Canberra, ACT)

Senior: Christopher Hemingson (James Cook University)

Junior: Aaron Puckeridge (University of New South Wales)

2018

(Melbourne, VIC)

Senior: Robert Streit (James Cook University)

Junior: Sinead O'Dwyer (University of Melbourne)

2017

(Albany, WA)

Senior: Marianne Nyegaard (Murdoch University)

There be Giants! How a new species of ocean sunfish managed to hoodwink the world 

Junior: Cameron Desfosses (Murdoch University) 

The significance of macroalgae to the diets of juvenile fish and ecosystem function in a tropical coral reef lagoon 

2016

(Hobart, TAS)

Senior: João Teixeira (University of Melbourne)

First excursions into the ‘black box’ period of the blackspot seabream Pagellus bogaraveo: a missing piece of a deep-sea life cycle puzzle.

Junior: Lucy Wenger (ANU) 

Microhabitat specialisation underpins coral-seaweed niche segregation in tropical reef fishes.

2015 

(Sydney, NSW)

Senior: Alexia Dubuc (James Cook U) 

Dissolved oxygen in mangrove ecosystems and impacts as productive habitat.

Junior: Garry Ogston (Murdoch U) 

Implications of climate change on aestivating fishes.

2014 

(Darwin, NT)

Senior: Kyystina Mossop (Monash University)
 

Connectivity, phylogeography and behaviour of a desert-dwelling fish: does habitat matter?

Junior: Samuel Williams (UQ)

Genetic population structure of black marlin (Istiompax indica ) within the central Indo-Pacific.

2013 

(Hamilton, N.Z)

Senior: Michael Smith (U. Melbourne)

Developing, testing and implementing an Atlantis model for the southern Benguela ecosystem.

Junior: Tansyn Noble (JCU)

Investigating the occurrence and persistence of escaped barramundi in the wild.

2012

(Adelaide, SA)

Senior: Adrian Hordyk (Murdoch University)

2011

(Townsville, Qld)

Senior: Ryan Day (U. of Q.)

Extreme pharyngognathy: Modelling the energetic cost of an hypertrophic pharyngeal mill.

Junior: Sussanah Leahy (JCU)

To fear or to feed: the effects of turbidity on perception of risk by a marine fish.

2010 

(Melbourne, VIC)

Senior: Brynn M. Devine (James Cook University, co-authors Philip L. Munday and Geoffrey P. Jones). 

Ocean acidification impairs the homing ability of adult cardinalfish to diurnal resting sites

Junior: Tyrie Starrs (ANU, co-authors Christopher Fulton and Mark Lintermans)

Swimming performance as a measure of alien fish invasion risk in the Cotter River, ACT

2009 

(Fremantle, WA)

Senior: Madhavi Colton 

A tale of two methods: comparing the performance of underwater visual census and baited remote underwater reef fish assemblages. 

2007 

(Canberra, ACT)

Senior: Cordelia Moore (University of Western Australia, WA)

The application of predictive habitat models to investigate the spatial ecology of demersal fish assemblages.

Junior: Steven Lindfield (University of Newcastle)

Spatial, temporal and depth-related variation in reef fish assemblages of the Port Stephens-Great Lakes Marine Park, detected with baited remote underwater video stations.

2006 

(Hobart, TAS)

Scott Ling and Arani Chandrapavan (University of Tasmania, Hobart)

2002

(Cairns, QLD)

Senior: Ashley Williams (CRC Reef Research Centre)

Can movement explain spatial patterns in demography of red-throat emperor?

Cameron Dixon (University of Melbourne, Vic)

Outplanting the seeds of success: abalone stock enhancement

Junior: Corey Wakefield (Curtin Univeristy of Technology)

Spawning activity and reproductive biology of snapper (Pagrus auratus) in Cockburn Sound, Western Australia.

2001 

(Bunbury, WA)

Senior: Megan Storrie (Deakin University, Warrnambool)

Observations of sperm in the oviducal gland of the gummy shark, Mustelus antarcticus.

Junior: Michael Travers (Murdoch University, Murdoch)

Fish faunas of unvegetated and vegetated habitats in shark bay, Western Australia.

2000 

(Albury, NSW)

Senior: Karina Hall

Dynamics of the mating systems of the giant Australian cuttlefish Sepia apama, Gray.

Junior: Michael Hammer

Variegated pygmy perch Nannoperca variegata in South Australia.

1999 

(Bendigo, VIC)

Senior: Janet Pritchard

Golden Perch otoliths as recorders of environmentally induced growth fluctuations

Junior: Jemma Martin

Are statolith growth bands a new ageing technique for gastropods?

1998 

(Hobart, TAS)

Senior: Suzanne Round

Diet of Juvenile Banana Prawns Penaus Merguiensis within a Subtropical Mangrove-Lined Estuary in Moreton Bay, Queensland

Senior : Dale McNeil

Behavioural Responses of Billabong Fish to Gradual Hypoxia

1997

(Darwin, NT)

Senior: Kim Smith

Links between physical oceanographic processes and larval fish distributions on the Sydney shelf

1996 

(Brisbane, QLD)

Senior & Junior: Combined with John Lake Award for the 2nd International Fisheries Congress

1995 

(Sydney, NSW)

Senior: Sophie Dove (Sydney Uni)

Incorporation of trace metals into the eye lenses and otoliths of Parma microlepis

Junior: Tim Dempster (UNSW)

Dynamics of ichthyoplankton on the Sydney Shelf

1994 

(Canberra, ACT)

Senior: Gavin Begg (U. of Q.)

Reproductive biology and management of school (Scomberomorus queenslandicus) and spotted (S. munroi) mackerel throughout Northern Australia.

Rick Officer (Melbourne University)

Sources of variation in counts of the vertebral growth increments used for age determination in school and gummy shark.

Junior: Andrew Sedger (Southern Cross University)

Age and growth of the freshwater catfish (Tandanus tandanus) in the Nymboida River, NSW.

1993

(Sorrento, WA)

Senior: Michael Lowry (UNSW)

Home range of red morwong

Junior: Mark Thomas

The foraging behaviour of Dicanthais baileyana

1992 

(Victor Harbour, SA)

Senior: Not awarded

Junior: Hui Cheng (UNSW)

Aquaculture of prawns

1991

(Hobart, TAS)

Senior: Simon Thorrold

An evaluation of light traps for sampling postlarval and pelagic juvenile fishes in coastal waters of the central Great Barrier Reef.

Junior: Gavin Begg

Comparison of the juvenile fish fauna between an estuary (Lake Macquarie, NSW) and its backwaters: preliminary results.

1990

(Lorne, VIC)

Julie de Jong (Melbourne University)

A study of shell deposition and growth in Haliotis ruber

Paul Humphries

An experimental evaluation of habitat preference in three species of goby.

1989

Colin Simpfendorfer

Embryonic diapause in the Australian sharpnose shark, Rhizoprionodon taylori.

1988

Annabel Cabanan

Numbers and diversity of ichythyoplankton caught by light traps at one tree lagoon, Great Barrier Reef, Australia.