Introducing Chris Cumming

It’s only with 20-20 hindsight that Chris Cumming can see her entire career led to her becoming a principal at Watertrust Australia.

Three decades of roaming through increasingly senior and diverse roles in the rural sector, working alongside and within the Victorian and New South Wales state governments, encompassing community services, sustainability and environment, as well as a not-for-profit focused on including communities, and then heading up a Victorian catchment management authority. There was also the time working in agriculture itself, or in bodies dedicated to finding the best possible policy for the future of our natural environment.

The result is that Chris has arrived at Watertrust Australia with deep knowledge and relationships across many of the stakeholder groups that Watertrust engages with, as well as being actively involved in some of the complex policy discussions that Watertrust seeks to enhance and progress. Before joining the organisation in the second half of 2024, she was even one of the carefully chosen 67 water experts interviewed for Watertrust’s ambitious Equity Initiative, so she has been on both sides of the work.

“What I love about Watertrust is the bravery,” she said. “It’s exciting to me because when Watertrust gets involved, issues are generally at the frustration point, the point where things are being blocked or not working, the topics are complex and communities are exhausted or simply don’t have the resources to participate. None of it is supporting good ways to make policy decisions and that’s the niche area where Watertrust exists – and it’s such an important area.”

She believes that her many lives in the water sector offer her a strong overview when it comes to the various players in the sector and what they value.

“My time in the Holbrook Landcare Network, a landcare farming systems group, and Landcare NSW, was pivotal for me, in terms of understanding the sector,” she said. “It was all about working out what the key issues were, and the information or resources we needed, then saying let’s see what we can do together, to collectively address the challenges everybody faced. Seeing how effective and impactful it was to work as a collective made that a space that I now prefer to be in.

“I also worked in government in Victoria and New South Wales, bringing those perspectives to state agencies that are trying to achieve great environmental outcomes and good management of natural assets. Understanding all this from a policymaker’s perspective, means supporting good outcomes by bringing regional and community insights to the table,” she said. “It’s just the importance of bringing people together to have conversations, across communities and industry; all those things that need to prosper to do well together.”

Chris is excited to have joined Watertrust as she believes the organisation is gaining momentum, after several years of building foundations. “After that first stage of getting started and demonstrating that we can have impact and add value for people, I’m looking forward to being part of the Watertrust team that makes that impact scalable and applicable, while also retaining our independence,” she said.