City and Urban Planning

Jill Garner is an Associate Architect with the Victorian Government.

After an apprenticeship with several of Melbourne’s influential design practices, in 1990 Jill Garner co-founded Garner Davis Architects, a St Kilda-based studio. In 1995, Garner Davis won the international design competition for the Wagga Wagga Civic Centre and began to develop architectural credentials of depth and quality through a lineage of considered and articulate public and private places.

Jill has taught at both RMIT and Melbourne University in design, architectural history and contemporary theory. Over more than 25 years in practice, she has become a regularly invited contributor to architectural events, awards juries, publications and journals, seminars and local and interstate lectures.

Jill has represented the architectural profession as an advocate for the importance of architectural design and innovation in numerous forums. Her appointment as Associate Victorian Government Architect continues this role in a significant public forum.

Professor Rob Adams is currently the Director City Design and Projects at the City of Melbourne and a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization. With over 46 years' experience as an Architect and Urban Designer and 35 years at the City of Melbourne, Rob has made a significant contribution to the rejuvenation of central Melbourne. His recent focus has been on how cities could be used to accommodate and mitigate rapid population growth and the onset of climate change.

Since moving to Australia in 2004, Jane-Frances Kelly has worked as a senior adviser to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Boston Consulting Group, the Vice-Chancellor at Melbourne University, the Chief Commissioner at Victoria Police, and the Victorian and Queensland Premier’s Departments.

Since 2009, Jane-Frances has been Cities Program Director at the Grattan Institute, an independent public policy think tank.

She played a central role in the 2020 Summit, and has also spent two mid-winters working with Noel Pearson.

Previous to this, Jane-Frances worked at the UK Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, where she led the team which produced the first UK Government’s Strategic Audit. She has returned to work in the UK on several occasions, most recently from March-May 2009.

Trevor Dance has been a resident of Sunbury for the past 23 years living next to Emu Bottom Homestead. He has been a Green Wedge activist since the late 1990s.

Trevor holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Chemistry) degree, has been a board member of the Foodway Supermarket Group and has worked in finance and operations roles in retail and other sectors. His involvement has extended to community groups including The Sunbury Progress Association, The Sunbury Conservation Society, The Sunbury Community Reference Group Western Water, The Sunbury Police Community Consultative Committee, The Sunbury Residents Association, Green Wedge Coalition and Kismet Primary School. He is married with two young children.

Why is Victoria moving at great speeds to destroy our environment through poor planning decisions? I wonder why greed is getting in the way of common sense and as a consequence, our environment is suffering. Have we not learnt anything from the mistakes that have been made all over the world, I ask myself every day?