Presented at the Annual ASPAB conference, Townsville, 11th November 2009.

Professor Di Walker has led seagrass research in western Australia for over 25 years (1982-2009), making significant contributions to science in seagrass restoration and their responses to light, nutrients and human activities such as dredging. Those in the seagrass discipline recognise the world-leading contribution of Australia and specifically WA, in building this discipline.

Di originally hailed from Northern Ireland, and began her academic studies at the University of Liverpool, where her BSc (Hons) in Marine Biology was supervised by Dr Joanna Kain-Jones and involved working on the Isle of Man. During her PhD studies at the University of York, she spent 14 months at the Marine Science Station of the University of Jordan.  This must have let to an appreciation of warmer climates, as she then moved to the University of Western Australia where she was appointed as a Research Officer in 1982.

She was promoted steadily through the ranks and served as the Head of the Department of Botany, Head of School, then Associate Dean of Marine Science at the University of Western Australia.

Di was instrumental in some of the first seagrass and macrophyte surveys in WA including the Abrolhos, Ningaloo Reef and Shark Bay. She has co-edited books which describe marine flora and fauna of Albany, Dampier, and Rottnest Island and has published widely in the international literature on the ecology of coastal marine plant communities, with more than 90 papers in international refereed journals, 8 books or edited volumes, 40 technical reports, and numerous popular articles.

As evidence of her international reputation, Di has attracted many other researchers to work on WA seagrasses, convening international workshops and leading large-scale surveys, including work on Success Bank that, notably, also benefited colleagues at Murdoch and Curtin Universities.

Di is a past President of both ASPAB (1997 to 2000) and the Royal Society of WA, Chair of the Shark Bay World Heritage Area Scientific Advisory Committee, and an Inaugural Member of the WA Marine Parks and Reserves Authority.

Her legacy will be the training and development of past PhD students such as Michelle Waycott, Gary Kendrick, Anne Brearley, Vannessa Forbes, Kieryn Killminster, Kris Waddington, Tim Carruthers, and Jennifer Verduin, who now fill senior roles in government, universities and research institutions and whose work in seagrass continues to be instrumental in their conservation and management.