Ian Sobbe

2013 Distinguished Past Student Award winner

Ian graduated in 1968 with a Queensland Certificate in Animal Husbandry (Hons) and like many before him went on to work as a JO (Junior Officer) the following year.

He returned to the family farm briefly before returning to the College, appointed to the Department of Animal Industries as a laboratory technician; a position he held for the next eight years.

Returning to the family property at Clifton, Ian and his wife Dianne settled into producing cereal crops and beef cattle.

During this time Ian has held many positions dealing with agriculture on the Darling Downs, including being a member of the Southern Downs Drought Advisory Committee, past south-eastern zone chairman and State Councillor of the Queensland Grain Growers Association and past chairman of the Central Downs Landcare.

But his big interest and lifelong hobby never left him and he continued to explore the depths of palaeontology, with his main interest being Pliestocene vertebrate faunas, taphonomy, palaeoecology and palaeoclimatology, Cretaceous faunas and fossil preparation.

With his background, experience and passion in this field he was appointed an Honorary Research Fellow/ Honorary Associate of the Queensland Museum in 1987, a position he continues in, while also being a consultant to the Cobb and Co Museum, Toowoomba.

Ian also continues to be involved in the collection, preparation and preservation of specimens which now reside in museum collections.
In recent years he has also been involved with projects undertaken by staff and students of QUT and UQ, including the most detailed stratigraphic collecting and dating program of Pleistocene sediments undertaken on the Darling Downs thus far.

Ian has written or co-written several published scientific papers, published a number of research abstracts and miscellaneous papers.
His interest and determination to not only self-educate but to also educate others certainly justifies the awarding of the DPSA to another high achieving past student.