patrick Fahey Collecting plant specimens in the field.

Patrick Fahey

Visiting Scientist

I am primarily responsible for extending Restore and Renew to a selection of species that form part of the Cumberland Plain Woodlands, a threatened ecological community only found in the Sydney Basin region. These species range from trees such as eucalypts and Melaleuca decora to small herbs and grasses such as Einadia nutans and Themeda triandra. The genomic data generated during this work will both be made available on the Restore and Renew webtool and help inform restoration strategies of this endangered community which is under significant pressure from development in Sydney’s west.

I completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2021 during which I investigated phylogenetic and phylogeographic patterns in several box eucalypt taxa with scattered distribution across south-east Australia using genomic data. Prior to this I completed an honours degree at the University of Queensland which led to the description, along with population surveys and mapping, of a new grass taxon in the genus Chloris endemic to artesian spring systems in Central Queensland.