Gareth Bramston
Director / Principal

Gareth is an environmental professional with over 17 years environmental management and approval experience. His background includes leading and managing major environmental approvals in the mining and development industries. Gareth provides strategic environmental advice to clients with projects ranging from the early planning phase through to construction and development. Gareth graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the University of Southern Queensland.

Gareth’s international experience includes environmental management and approval services to mining Projects in Thailand and Bangladesh along with environmental tourism Projects in Vanuatu. Gareth is also an accredited auditor and is experienced in environmental due diligence for resource projects. His particular strengths include government liaison throughout a project’s approval phases, and ongoing support and strategic advice to clients.

Rod Hailstone
Director / Principal

Rod brings a unique background with over 24 years of experience as an Environmental Scientist, while also being admitted as a lawyer.

Rod has spent a significant period of his career in environmental leadership roles within mining businesses, across both QLD and NSW. Since joining AARC in 2017, Rod has provided a diversity of technical and strategic advice to mining businesses, at all stages of planning and production. Rod has a depth of technical knowledge and demonstrated experience in successfully delivering a range of State and Commonwealth approvals, as well as undertaking due diligence investigations across both QLD and NSW.

To support Rod’s environmental knowledge and skill base, he has also worked as an environmental law clerk, developing an excellent understanding of environmental legislative processes.

Coupled with this, Rod also brings a background as an environmental regulator, having spent eight years working with the NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation, with three years of this spent managing investigations of water and native vegetation related breaches, and a further five years working as a Hydrographer.

Stuart Ritchie
Director / Principal

Stuart is an environmental engineer with a career spanning over 35 years’ as an environmental professional. Stuart has an extensive environmental background with expertise in environmental risk and compliance management, mine rehabilitation and closure, environmental sustainability strategies, climate change and energy policy, government and community engagement support and environmental project support.

Stuart holds a Masters of Environmental Management and brings experience in corporate environmental and sustainability roles across both national and multi-national mining and manufacturing companies including Rio Tinto, Cement Australia and the Cement Industry Federation.

Stuart’s significant industry experience and his exposure and understanding of environmental and regulatory requirements, has resulted in a high level of operational environmental performance, a strong relationship with key regulators  and a combination of skills that translate into practical and workable strategies and solutions across a broad spectrum of industry sectors, notably mining and manufacturing.

Hayden Leary
Director / Chief Operating Officer

Hayden is a natural resources engineer with a career spanning over 20 years as a approvals, environmental and operations professional in the mining industry. Hayden has a proven ability to lead organisations, set strategic directions, and drive operational excellence.

Hayden’s technical proficiency spans the entire project lifecycle, from environmental and mining lease approvals to operational optimisation and risk mitigation. Hayden has extensive experience in navigating complex joint ventures, through his executive leadership roles in the mining industry, where he managed strategic asset development and joint venture partnerships.

Hayden is also an experienced risk management practitioner from business risk to operational risk assessment. Hayden’s leadership extends to industry organisations, where he has served as a Non-Executive Director and Chair of various committees within the Queensland Resources Council, contributing to the long-term sustainability of Queensland’s minerals and energy industries.

Tyson Smalley
Principal Environmental Consultant

Tyson is an environmental scientist with a career spanning over 25 years’ as an environmental professional. Tyson has an extensive environmental background with expertise in project management for mine rehabilitation and closure, environmental approvals and compliance, environmental risk assessment and harm mitigation, indigenous community engagement, catchment and riverine management and contractor supervision.

Tyson holds a Batchelor (Hons) in Applied Environmental Science and brings experience in the application of environmental regulation and science to the resource and construction industries.  His application of the project management discipline allows for a logical and methodical approach to complex issues ensuring stakeholder awareness and knowledge builds the required outcome. Tyson’s significant industry experience and exposure to multiple disciplines and stakeholder groups has resulted in high level awareness of operational requirements matched with adaptable and practical work solutions.

Sara Cooke
Principal Environmental Consultant

Sara is a seasoned professional with a diverse background in environmental science, project management, and governance. With extensive on-site, remote, regional, and international experience, she has contributed significantly to community and resource planning. Her career spans over 16 years in the mining industry, including strategic roles at Wesfarmers, BHP, and Rio Tinto. Sara later diversified into large-scale infrastructure projects, specialising in rail, tailings, and facilities management. She excels in building science-based alliances with business partners, rural communities, and ESG programs.

Sara holds a Bachelor of Environmental Science and a Graduate Certificate in Risk and Governance. She is a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and an accredited ISO Auditor. Throughout her extensive career, Sara has continuously expanded her skill set through various qualifications.

Lucia Lopez
Principal Ecologist

Lucia is a Principal Ecologist, specialising in Botany with over 15 years of experience.  Lucia has field experience in Australia, throughout Africa and South-East Asia (Sumatra) working with various business partners, consultancies and local NGOs and Herbaria to deliver Environmental Impact Assessments.

Lucia’s experience covers from consultancy to conservation projects in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Her background includes baseline ecological assessments, vegetation mapping, environmental offsets, targeted threatened species surveys, and monitoring programs. She has a comprehensive understanding of State and Commonwealth legislation relating to impact assessment, environmental approvals, and compliance.

She has published plant species conservation assessments in the IUCN red list (119 as the main assessor) and peer-reviewed plant taxonomy research.

Stephen Pugh
Principal Noise Engineer

A Principal Engineer with over 28 years consulting experience. He is a Mechanical Engineer in the specialist field of acoustics, including noise and vibration.

Stephen has worked on a broad range of mining projects as a project manager (EIS, PRCP, EA amendments) and as an Acoustics Engineer. He has provided technical advice, noise modelling, blast analysis and reporting for operational noise and vibration issues (real-time monitoring solutions, regular surveys for EA compliance), and noise and vibration assessments for proposed projects (EIS, EA amendments, noise mitigation planning).

In addition to mining projects, he was worked on renewables, quarries, transportation infrastructure (roads, railway and airports) and development approval assessments.

Stephen has also worked as an expert witness (noise) in the Planning and Environment Court.

He is a Registered Professional Engineer Queensland (RPEQ) and a former Chairman of the Queensland Division of the Australian Acoustical Society. He has presented on noise related workshops at conferences and presented papers on noise.

Emily Brown
Principal Environmental Engineer

Emily is a seasoned environmental professional with over 14 years of experience. Emily is dedicated to pioneering sustainable solutions for a greener tomorrow. Emily, armed with a Bachelor of Environmental Engineering from Griffith University, brings a wealth of expertise spanning operational environmental management, climate change policy implementation, environmental approvals, risk management, and more.

Emily’s leadership extends beyond her comprehensive experience; she is also an accredited auditor, recognised for her meticulous environmental auditing for resource projects. At AARC, we pride ourselves on our commitment to excellence, leveraging Emily’s expertise to deliver tailored environmental solutions that exceed expectations. Join us in our mission to drive positive environmental change and create a more sustainable future for all.

Helen Wood
Principal Environmental Scientist

Helen is an Environmental Scientist with over 30 years of environmental management experience that includes environmental approvals, environmental assurance, compliance and environmental management systems (EMS). She has held corporate roles delivering large approval projects and worked for regulatory government agencies; and over 16 years’ directly supporting the resources, oil and gas, pipeline and linear infrastructure sectors. Her experience has contributed to all project stages: approvals, construction, operations and rehabilitation/mine closure; enabling her to contribute an extensive range of technical knowledge and industry experience to projects.

Helen holds a Master of Science in Tropical Ecology and a Graduate Diploma in Resource Environmental Management. She has an extensive background in biodiversity, ecology, environmental offsets, land management, land rehabilitation and stakeholder engagement; and sound operating knowledge of environmental aspects, including groundwater and surface water, water management, air, noise, and cultural heritage requirements.