This chapter reflects on my experience as the Director of the ACT Parks and Conservation Service, highlighting my involvement in the Mulligans Flat-Goorooyarroo Woodland Experiment at Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary (MFGO) from 2004 to 2022. It discusses the evolution of the Experiment, a long-term initiative aimed at woodland restoration, and its impact on the ACT Parks and Conservation Service. The experiment not only provided valuable insights into woodland management, but also fostered innovation and community engagement.

The chapter emphasises the creation of a predator-proof fence at Mulligans Flat, collaboration with academic researchers, and the integration of evidence-based management practices. Key challenges, such as reallocation of staff and developing specialised knowledge, are explored, as well as the transformation of conservation efforts in the ACT. The Experiment and MFWS has become a model for adaptive conservation, highlighting the importance of partnerships between government, researchers and the community in promoting biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management practices.

Managers are constantly making decisions around resource allocation and the most effective management strategies. For the last 20 years, various ACT Government managers have allocated resources to this Experiment to address knowledge gaps and conservation objectives. This chapter discusses some of these investments in time and resources and the benefits that have been generated from this research. This investment was triggered from the lack of knowledge to support decision-making and management of box-gum woodlands in the region. This chapter summarises four of the key successes from the managers’ perspective, which included: providing new evidence to support government strategies and priorities; providing conservation research that could be applied beyond the site; enabling research to be communicated to non-scientists; and enhanced partnerships on key conservation outcomes with staff, other stakeholders and the community.

This chapter offers a novel account of trust as a form of opening one’s mind to the autonomy of other persons. Despite a long tradition of philosophical thinking about trust, it remains unclear how (non-instrumental) trust works in close human relationships. While important strands of theorising in sociology and moral psychology recognise that trust involves accepted vulnerability, the autonomy of the trusted person is typically viewed as something to be coped with rather than embraced. By drawing on a central distinction in Husserl’s phenomenology, the chapter proposes shifting the perspective and placing the other’s autonomy at the centre of the trusting attitude in close relationships. A personalistic perspective on trust emphasises shared goals and values with the trusted individual, shaping the affective attitude towards them. To understand the affective dynamics involved in sharing and adjusting one’s goals or values in interpersonal trust, the authors suggest conceptualising attitudinal aspects of trust as a metacognitive feeling that entails a self-explorative dimension. The chapter demonstrates how this self-explorative dimension helps explain the dynamics of disclosing intimate details and adopting another’s perspective in psychotherapeutic relationships, or what is referred to as transformative trust.