Tea Tree Oil

Tea Tree Oil Advisory Panel

Phillip Butlin (Chair)

Main Camp Natural Extracts

Phillip is the Managing Director of Main Camp Natural Extracts (MCNE), the world’s largest tea tree oil producer with operations across 10 farms in NSW. Prior to establishing MCNE, Phillip was an executive and director of Great Southern Limited, an ASX listed managed investment scheme business. Phillip has worked at Macquarie Bank in Sydney and Hong Kong in the bank’s equity capital market division and prior to Macquarie Bank worked for the international accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, in London and Sydney. Phillip has been a qualified accountant for over 30 years; he is a board member and president of the Australian Tea Tree Industry Association.

Dee-Ann Seccombe Prather (Deputy Chair)

Down Under Enterprises International Pty Ltd

Dee-Ann is the founder and Managing Director of Down Under Enterprises International Pty Ltd., an international wholesale distributor of Australian tea tree oil and essential oils. With an expanding product portfolio, the business has a growing customer base in Asia and North America. Dee-Ann is a committee member of the Essential Oils Association of Australia and member of the Australian Tea Tree Industry Association. Career highlights include winning the 2015 Premier’s NSW Export Award for Women in International Business and Premier’s NSW Export Awards for Agribusiness, Highly Commended in 2016. Dee-Ann has a Master of Commerce from the University of NSW and Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney.

Digby Growns

Kings Park and Botanic Garden

Digby is the Senior Plant Breeder at Kings Park and Botanic Garden. He manages programs in the breeding and development of Anigozanthos, Boronia, Chamelaucium, Corymbia, Grevillea, Leptospermum and Scaevola. He has worked for many years on the development of Australian native plants for horticulture, and is responsible for the release of over 40 new varieties of native plants including the hybrid Chamelaucium ‘Pearlflower’ series and Grevillea ‘RSL Spirit of ANZAC’. He leads research into new technology developments in plant tissue culture, biotechnology and plant breeding. Digby has a Bachelor of Horticultural Science (Honours).

Associate Professor Reg Lehmann

Manufacturing Technical Services Manager – Integria Healthcare

Reg has have developed a strong experience base within the complementary medicine industry over the past 26 years, working in various roles in the manufacturing areas in senior management roles.  These roles covered Quality Assurance, Production, Technical, New Product Development and Research, his current role is Manufacturing Technical Services Manager for Integria Healthcare based in Warwick, Queensland.  This follows academic studies in Chemistry (Bachelor and PhD) and postgraduate studies in Brewing and Management.  Reg has maintained a strong connection with the University of Queensland as a resource for expertise and advice, reciprocating with input into university programs and activities such as Industry Advisory Board and student placements.

Gavin Ash

University of Southern Queensland

Gavin has had a long career in research in crop protection across a wide variety of annual (wheat, canola, rice) and perennial crops (jojoba, macadamia, grapevine). Currently, Gavin is the Executive Director of the Institute for Life Sciences and the Environment, but has also held a number of positions at USQ (Director, Centre for Crop Health) and Charles Sturt University (Acting Head of School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences) in the last five years. He has published widely in international journals, is an editor of several international journals, has held research grants valued at more than $17 million and continues to supervise post graduate students in plant disease, entomology, plant breeding and genomics.

Dr Cynthia Cliff

Technology at Work

Cynthia has worked at operational, executive and board levels in a variety of public, private and not-for-profit organisations. Her experience includes RD&E (research, development, and extension), policy, economic transformation, technology and social change across a wide range of industry sectors including mining, agriculture, health and the environment. She is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) with 10+ years’ Board and Advisory experience. A journey from family farming background via a PhD in organic chemistry, consumer product testing, and health research has provided a springboard for career-long engagement in industry development work that often crosses traditional discipline and social boundaries in a way that has useful similarities with the production, formulation, manufacturing, and marketing challenges faced by the Australian tea tree oil industry.

Peter Entwistle

North East Agricultural Services

Peter is an agronomist who has provided a respected agricultural advisory service (North East Agricultural Services) to the Australian tea tree industry for the past 20 years. Advice includes plantation development, soil nutrition, insect pest management and, weed and disease management (IPDM). Most of the industry now uses this advice. Peter has also been employed by the Australian Tea Tree Industry Association (ATTIA) and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) to carry out a range of research and extension projects to improve tea tree production. These include the ATTIA Code of Practice the industry now uses as a production standard and continual improvement to the IPDM strategy.

Glenn Donnelly

Blue Dog Agriculture

Glenn founded and has since been the contiguous Managing Director of Offco Pty Ltd (Oil Food and Fibre Company) T/A Blue Dog Agriculture, a vertically integrated Grower, Distiller, Distributor and Global Exporter of Australian Tea Tree Oil and other Botanical Derivatives. Glenn is a member of the Essential Oils Producers Association of Australia, a long-standing board member for over 25 years and is currently Vice President of the Australian Tea Tree Industry Association. Glenn is a qualified agronomist initially completing an Applied Science Diploma – Horticulture at the then Queensland Ag College in Gatton followed by a Bachelors in Agribusiness graduating in the first tranche of Agribusiness degrees in Australia from UQ Gatton.  Now with over 25 years of experience in the industry and having developed a world’s best practice distillation and distribution facility in Northern NSW, Glenn and Blue Dog Agriculture are regularly referred to as the industry’s benchmark grower and distillers. Glenn and Blue Dog Agriculture regularly conduct on-farm R&D and often in conjunction with universities including SCU Lismore.