About BEAM
BEAM Mitchell Environment Group is an independent, membership-based and volunteer-driven environment group based in the Mitchell Shire, on Taungurung and Wurundjeri lands. Our vision is of a thriving community that is locally active for a healthy environment. BEAM supports a wide-range of skills, life stories and areas of expertise. Our members are engaged in supporting sustainable outcomes in government projects, advocating for our local region, supporting green initiatives and generally causing a fuss about protecting the environment.
Our Vision
A thriving community that is locally active for a healthy environment.
Our Principles
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Advocate and act to protect natural systems and ecologies
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Respect First Nations’ connection to this Country and be informed by their wisdom and knowledge
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Recognise our place and responsibilities in local and wider ecosystems
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Support each other and collaborate with others
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Respect each other and celebrate diversity and difference
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Be accountable for what we say and do
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Respect for every living being and their communities
Our goals and plan
1. Double BEAM’s membership and increase member commitment and action
2. Build an ongoing relationship with Taungurung and Wurundjeri
3. Protect, expand and restore natural habitat in our region
4. Champion renewable energy and emissions reduction in our region
5. Improve waste management and recycling in the Shire
6. Support local food systems
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Read BEAM's five year plan, set in June 2023
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Our Committee
Paul Macgregor
President
Paul has lived for 20 years on the eastern edge of the Tallarook Forest. With partner Jocelyn Bennett, he runs Clearview Retreat, a yoga and meditation retreat centre, where he teaches ‘nature meditation’ retreats. He is also an historian, and runs archaeology programs. Paul has been a member of BEAM since 2008, and helped in the campaign in 2012 to get planning approval and community support for the Cherry Tree Range Windfarm project. He is currently leading BEAM’s Save the Tallarook Forest campaign. Paul loves discovering more about the ecology and environmental history of the region, sharing this with people, and campaigning to protect and expand Mitchell Shire’s natural communities.
Tim Budge
Vice President
Tim’s professional career includes secondary teaching, community development and international development. He and his wife Meredith worked overseas for more than seven years, in Timor-Leste and Zambia supporting local initiatives. Tim and Meredith are now landholders for a conservation-covenanted property in Mitchell Shire and they enjoy the life-sustaining work of being on the land and seeking to nurture and support the local ecosystem there. Tim has a PhD which involved research in informal settlements (townships) in Southern Africa and he is an (honorary) Adjunct Research Fellow at La Trobe University. Recently retired, Tim’s passion remains focused on supporting community building and social movements, particularly in fostering responses to the climate crisis.
Georgia Webster
Secretary
Having grown up in Shepparton during the millennium drought, Georgia is passionate about supporting action on climate change and embracing all the opportunities that renewable energy can bring to our region. She joined BEAM to be part of a community effort to look after our region's landscapes, food-growing areas, wildlife, and climate. Georgia brings to BEAM a background in advocacy, campaigns, non-profits, and politics. She currently works in the climate movement, using a broad set of skills including project management, governance, strategy development, people & culture, and communications. Georgia and her family have a small farm in the Tallarook Ranges, where they live part-time.
Maxine Van Zuylen
Treasurer
Maxine spent much of her childhood and early adulthood outdoors in the Cape region of South Africa, where she developed a deep appreciation for the region’s diverse indigenous vegetation through hiking and school trips to the Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens. Although she once hoped to glimpse an elusive leopard, her most memorable encounter was with a Cape cobra.
Her career later took her to the UK, where she happily explored Europe’s long-distance walking paths. After emigrating to Australia 20 years ago, Maxine focused on raising her family and discovering the Australian bush - an extraordinary landscape of evolutionary uniqueness and highly specialised ecosystems that continues to inspire her commitment to protection and celebration.
In 2023 she completed the Nature Stewards program, and in 2024 she volunteered with the local council’s Gardens for Wildlife initiative. Having moved to the area in 2025, Maxine is eager to learn more about Mitchell Shire, its wild places and its challenges. She is delighted to join the BEAM committee and hopes to make a meaningful contribution.
Jane McGeorge
Committee Member
Jane relocated to High Camp
from Kyneton in 2025 with husband Graham and a large family of rescued farmed animals. Balancing care for the environment with advocating for the welfare of introduced species, Jane has a particular interest in finding solutions to the plight of native animals as their habitat is eroded and road strikes increase exponentially. A full time music teacher at a school in Melbourne, Jane is passionate about the education of girls and their development into powerful, self assured and resilient young women.
Melissa Honeydew
Committee Member
Melissa lives in Broadford, and is passionate about supporting local producers, contributing to projects that get more folks growing their own food, and caring for our local wild environment. She works part-time as a teaching associate at Monash Uni in biomedical science, while also running her own small fruit tree nursery Rigby Cottage, and managing both Tallarook Farmers' Market and the new Strath Creek Country Market. Mel has been interested in caring for the environment since her childhood and as a young teen she started an environmental group, wrote to politicians, and discovered a love of permaculture which has been lifelong. Mel has raised a family while studying and working and doing her best to live gently on the earth - always with a productive backyard! Her latest project involved getting the Broadford Community Garden up and running again as an active local space.
Marie Gerrard
Committee Member
After graduating from RMIT, Marie spent her working life as a medical laboratory scientist working first in diagnostic pathology laboratories and then in infectious diseases diagnostics. She did some consulting work with the WHO in biosafety and biosecurity. Marie also has qualifications in immunology, and holds a Master of Development studies from Deakin University. Biological sciences led to her interest in the environment. Marie’s other long term interests have been in Human Rights and public health. She is an active member of the Rotary Club of Southern Mitchell as the International Director and as the club Environmental representative. Marie is a member of Mitchell Environment Advisory Commitee, advising local Council.
Ed Kenyon
Committee Member
Ed joined the BEAM Committee in Nov 2025.
Photo and bio to come.
Emily Buchanan
Committee Member
Emily moved from Melbourne’s inner North to Seymour in 2021. Initially drawn by the Tallarook ranges, to which her family has historical ties, Emily fell in love with the land, animals, and township of Seymour. The discovery of threatened squirrel gliders and white bellied sea eagles on and near her property fired Emily with the fierce wish to ensure that the habitat of Seymour and its surrounds be preserved and strengthened. A criminal defence advocate of 20 years, Emily hopes advocacy can align pride in place with strong community investment in conservation and biodiversity.
Nicholas Hansen
Committee Member
Nicholas blends his artistic background with a regenerative farming and gardening practice east of Tallarook. Joining the BEAM committee, he aims to address issues of food security, and climate change, in some cases through media activism. Nicholas is an award-winning documentary director/producer having produced and screened his documentary films internationally. He completed a masters by research in the area of interactive documentary. Nicholas produced and directed the Greens Party TV and radio slots for the 2007 state election and has developed curriculum for, and was a sessional tutor and lecturer in Film and TV / screen and media in Melbourne.
