Don is an Adjunct Research Fellow and former Research Fellow at CDU. He is an plant, animal and vegetation ecologist, conservation biologist and field naturalist. He completed his PhD at CDU on the ecology of Bambusa arnhemica (the Top End Bamboo), and his MSc and Grad Dip Sci in ornithology. Prior to studying and working at CDU his employment included being an ornithologist for the Helmeted Honeyeater and Gouldian Finch recovery programs. Don in now retired and living on the Atherton Tablelands in north-east Queensland.

Don has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers, three books including his recent Field Study of the Eucalypts of North-east Queensland, and 12 book chapters. He is a Special Editor of Natural History Field Notes for the international journal Biotropica, an editor of the North Queensland Naturalist, and a former editor for Biodiversity and Conservation. He was the 2023 Bjarne K Dahl medallist for contribution to eucalypts, and has won several other awards for his publications. Reflecting his diversity of interests, his faunal publications span birds, butterflies, flying-foxes, mosquitoes and ants, his plant publications span eucalypts, bamboo, kurrajongs and more, and conceptually his research includes conservation biology including impacts of climate change, plant and animal life histories, and savanna ecology.

Don remains an active ecological researcher and field naturalist. His current research is about eucalypt ecology and butterfly life histories.