A Better Australia Scholarship Winner 2016

by Brendan Brown | July 13, 2026, 9:40 pm

Editor’s note (July 2026): The A Better Australia Scholarship program is no longer offered by The Expert Editor. This post is kept as a historical record of Nathan’s 2016 win.

The Expert Editor would like to congratulate Nathan Anderson from the University of Notre Dame for winning the A Better Australia Scholarship prize for 2016. We loved his entry because it’s a topical issue which had some great practical ideas. You can read his entry below.

“Healthy Soil, Healthy Australians”

“The health of our soil has far reaching impacts on today’s society. We take the soil for granted, but there is a lot going on under ground. I am studying Biology and Environmental Science so I can help contribute to a greater understanding of the Australian soil ecology. There is still a wealth of untapped, useful information for us to learn from the soil.

My end goal is to help build an Australia that is truly water-wise. I want to study the soil microbiology, so we can better understand their role in the purification of water. My vision is that everyone can use simple, cost effective, natural systems to clean their grey water. If we can re-use our bath and laundry water to safely water our veggie gardens; we can save untold sums of money, improve the quality of life (especially in drought-affected rural Australia), reduce fire loads during the summer water restrictions and create a better Australia for everyone.

Rather than transporting the grey water (along with the black water) to sewerage treatment plants, we could process the grey water easily and safely in our backyards. Currently, WA transports 450 million litres of wastewater per day. Imagine if we all removed the water from the shower and laundry from that equation and instead used it to water our yards.”

Why Nathan’s Entry Stood Out

Note: Section added in 2026 for context.

Nathan’s entry connected two things that don’t always get discussed together: soil science and household water use. Rather than proposing a single big policy change, he grounded his idea in something practical and personal — his own study of biology and environmental science — and used that background to sketch out a specific, low-cost intervention that ordinary households could adopt.

What made the essay persuasive was its specificity. Instead of arguing generally that Australia should be more “water-wise,” Nathan named a concrete mechanism (grey water reuse for gardens), a concrete problem it addresses (drought-affected rural water stress and strain on sewerage infrastructure), and a rough scale of the opportunity (Western Australia’s daily wastewater transport figures). That combination of technical grounding and everyday practicality is exactly the kind of thinking the scholarship program was designed to reward.

Note: Grey water reuse on food gardens is subject to local regulations that vary by jurisdiction and crop type — most guidelines advise against applying grey water directly to root vegetables or the edible portions of food crops. Readers should check their local council or state government guidance before setting up a grey water reuse system.

Brendan Brown

Brendan Brown founded The Expert Editor in Melbourne in 2012, after completing a Bachelor of Laws at Deakin University and working as a writer. He built it into a professional editing service used by academics, authors, and businesses across Australia and beyond, and later founded its international sister company, Global English Editing. Brendan is a co-founder of Brown Brothers Media, the company behind The Expert Editor, where he oversees both editing brands. He sets the editorial standards that apply to the company's client work and this blog, and reviews articles before they are published.