Associate Professor Rachael Gallagher
I’m a plant ecologist and conservation scientist passionate about protecting, restoring and understanding global plant diversity.
I grew up roaming for hours along the ridgelines of our local patch of bushland on the Central Coast of New South Wales. Following my undergraduate degree in ecology, I joined the New South Wales Herbarium to digitise specimens and was instantly hooked on the possibilities of working with natural history collections in ecological research. Processing specimens, I gained a keen eye for detail about the early Australian botanists and an understanding of the taxonomic breadth in the Australian flora.
I embarked on a PhD at Macquarie University on the functional ecology of climbing plants which exposed me to the world of plant trait research. This built the foundation of my research interest into the many ways traits can be embedded into conservation science. I remain fascinated by this question and develop and apply trait-based approaches to understanding how plants will fare in a hotter, drier and more fire-prone world.
I was supported post-PhD by two fellowships which took me abroad (mainly southwestern USA) and allowed me to dip in and out of full-time academic work while parenting. After becoming a faculty member at Macquarie following my DECRA, I joined HIE in 2021. I’m increasingly interested in how we can achieve better outcomes in ecological restoration, and this is becoming the focus of large-scale experiments being set up on campus at HIE.
Since 2016, I’ve been involved in the legislative protection of Australia’s plants as a member of Threatened Species Scientific Committees for the state of New South Wales (2016-2021; Deputy Chair) and the Commonwealth of Australia (current). I see the value in using my scientific knowledge to work closely with decision makers, and sometimes be one myself.
Areas of research/teaching expertise
Bushfires (opens in a new window); Conservation biology; ecology; plant functional traits; biogeography; macroecology; species adaptation to climate change; global change biology
Awards and recognition
- NSW Premiers Prize – Early Career Researcher of the Year (Biology)
- NSW Young Tall Poppy Science Award, Australian Institute for Policy & Science
- Member, Commonwealth Threatened Species Scientific Committee (2021-current)
- Deputy Chair and member, NSW Threatened species Scientific Committee (2016-21)
- Plenary Speaker, Association for Fire Ecology Conference, Italy 2022
- Plenary Speaker, Australian Network for Plant Conservation Conference, 2022
- Plenary Speaker, International Association for Vegetation Science Conference, 2023
Grants / Current Projects
Into the wild: a safe site network to halt plant extinctions
Partner/funding body: Australian Research Council Future Fellowship - FT25
Period: 2025-2029
Monitoring, evaluation and reporting of restoration investments
Partner/funding body: NSW Department for Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water (DCEEW)
Period: 2024
Learning from past success: informing current koala habitat restoration using effective historical case studies
Partner/funding body: Department for Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water (DCEEW)
Period: 2024
Species traits and susceptibility
Partner/funding body: Department for Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water (DCEEW) Saving Native Species Grant [via Charles Darwin University
Period: 2024-2025
Integrating physiological responses to drought into plant extinction risk assessment and conservation
Co-Researcher: Ian Wright
Partner/funding body: ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture
Period: 2024-2025
Field-sampling in support of the Centre's Themeda trianda (Andropogoneae) experimental platform
Co-Researcher: Ian Wright
Partner/funding body: ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture
Period: 2024-2025
Linking field-sampling of Australian wild sorghum to accessions used in experimental work
Co-Researcher: Ian Wright
Partner/funding body: ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture
Period: 2024-2025
New era for Cycad genomics - custom cross-species marker set
Partner/Funding Body: Montgomery Botanical Centre
Period: 2023-2025
Understanding the confluence of Eucalyptus dieback and koala habitat in NSW - Stage 1
Co-Researchers: Rachael Nolan, Brendan Choat, Ben Moore, Belinda Medlyn, Matthias Boer
Partner/Funding Body: NSW Department of Planning and Environment
Period: 2023-2024
Understanding the confluence of Eucalyptus dieback and koala habitat in NSW - literature review
Co-Researchers: Rachael Nolan, Brendan Choat, Ben Moore, Belinda Medlyn, Matthias Boer
Partner/Funding Body: NSW Department of Planning and Environment
Period: 2023-2024
Considering biodiversity in natural product supply chains
Co-researchers: Ben Smith, Paul Rymer
Partner/Funding Body: Blackmores Group
Period: 2023
NSW Bushfire and Natural Hazards Research Centre
Co-researchers: Matthias Boer, Belinda Medlyn, Rachael Nolan, Ben Smith
Partner/funding body: NSW Department of Planning and Environment
Period: 2022-2026
NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust - Functional diversity metrics
Partner/Funding Body: NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust
Period: 2022
Flora assessment and nomination
Partner/Funding Body: World Wildlife Fund Australia
Period: 2022
AusTraits: a national database on the traits of Australia’s complete flora
Partner/Funding Body: Australian Research Data Commons [via The University of NSW]
Period: 2022
Lianas in a CO2-rich world
Co-Researchers: Belinda Medlyn and Matthias Boer
Partner/Funding Body: The Royal Society [via University of Nottingham]
Period: 2022
Biodiversity conservation trust functional diversity metrics via AusTraits
Funder: NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Period: 2021-2022
CSIRO/Atlas of Living Australia Bushfire Recovery Citizen Science Partnership
Funder: Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
Period: 2021-2022
Restoring diverse native vegetation with drone-based precision seeding
Co-researchers: Tetu, Mark Adams, Ian Wright, Rossetto, Cuneo and Cathy Offord
Funder: Australian Research Council Linkage
Period: 2021-2025
Resilient Landscapes Hub
Funder: National Environmental Science Program
Period: 2021-2028
ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture
Co-Researchers: Ian Wright, Christine Beveridge, Mark Cooper, Tim Brodribb, Peter Waterhouse, John Bowman, Kevin Burrage, Dianne Donovan, Eloise Foo, David Jordan, Graeme Hammer, Robert Henry, Barbara Holland, Daniel Ortiz-Barrientos, Brad Sherman and Jim Weller
Partner/Funding Body: Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence
Period: 2020-2027
Prioritisation of impacts on the Australian flora after the 2019-2020 bushfire season
Funder: Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment
Period: 2020
AusTraits: a national database on the traits of Australia’s complete flora
Co-researchers: Falster, Sauquet, Wenk
Funder: Australian Research Data Commons
Period: 2021-2023
Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture
Co-Researchers: Ian Wright
Partner/Funding body: Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence
Period: 2021-2028
Statewide risk mapping to inform strategic management of key threatening processes
Co-Researchers: Adams and Butt
Partner/Funding body: NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
Period: 2020-2021
Pushing the envelope: does range size limit eucalypt response to warming?
Co-Researchers: Mark Tjoelker and Peter Reich
Partner/Funding body: Australian Research Council Discovery
Period: 2020-2022
Eucalypt futures: using functional traits to predict species distributions and responses to environmental change
Co-Researchers: Vesk, Falster, De Kauwe, Rachael Gallagher and Guillera-Arroita
Partner/Funding body: Eucalyptus Australia
Period: 2020-2023
Australian Grasslands and Adaptation Framework
Co-researchers: Brian Atwell, Wright, Ludwig and Burton
Funder: Bioplatforms Australia
Period: 2020-2023
Review of species in the Keep Watch Management Stream of the Saving our Species program
Co-researchers: Mark Adams, Leishman, Hughes and Beaumont
Funder: NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
Period: 2018-2019
Life on the edge: how species interactions shape range boundaries
Partner/Funding body: Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award
Period: 2017-2021
Which plant where, when and why database for growing urban green space
Co-Researchers: Ian Anderson, Sally Power, Mark Tjoelker and Paul Rymer
Partner/funding body: Horticulture Australia Innovation and NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
Period: 2016-2021
People
- Professor Matthias Boer
- Associate Professor Yolima Carrillo
- Associate Professor Chris Cazzonelli
- Professor Brendan Choat
- Professor James Cook (Theme Leader - Plants Animals and Interactions)
- Doctor Eleonora Egidi
- Professor David Ellsworth
- Doctor Manuel Esperon
- Doctor Adam Frew
- Associate Professor Rachael Gallagher
- Professor Oula Ghannoum
- Doctor Christopher Gordon
- Professor Scott Johnson
- Associate Professor Catriona Macdonald
- Doctor James Makinson
- Doctor Jessica Meade
- Distinguished Professor Belinda Medlyn (Theme Leader - Ecosystem Function and Integration)
- Associate Professor Ben Moore
- Professor Uffe Nielsen (Theme Leader - Soil Biology and Genomics)
- Associate Professor Rachael Nolan
- Associate Professor Alexie Papanicolaou
- Professor Elise Pendall
- Associate Professor Jonathan Plett
- Professor Jeff Powell
- Professor Sally Power
- Doctor Renée Marchin Prokopavicius
- Professor Markus Riegler
- Associate Professor Paul Rymer
- Doctor Demi Sargent
- Associate Professor Robert Sharwood
- Distinguished Professor Brajesh Singh
- Professor Ben Smith (Director of Research)
- Distinguished Professor David Tissue
- Professor Mark Tjoelker (Interim Director)
- Doctor Bin Wang
- Doctor Jun-Tao Wang
- Professor Justin Welbergen
- Distinguished Professor Ian Wright (Chief Scientist)
Honorary and Adjunct Appointments
