Voices for wilderness

 “I think there’s a new and much happier era in front of the Wilderness Society, and all its members, myself included, can feel very reassured about that….Now it’s back on track, and I would expect we’re going to see it becoming a renewed and reinvigorated force for wild and scenic Australia and I can tell you that’s a really great thing.”

- Dr Bob Brown, founder and lifetime member of the Wilderness Society

"I’ve been involved in human rights and environmental activism for over 5 years, and have worked for the Wilderness Society since 2007. I believe our organisation is unlike any other – it’s empowering, non-hierarchical, passionate, fearless, and successful. I’m incredibly fortunate to be able to work to protect wilderness as my job.

Wilderness Society members have voted for a new management committee – and that means I can now get on with the important stuff. With threats to our precious Kimberley region from oil, gas and overdevelopment, a renewed TWS is essential if we are to stand up for our threatened marine life. It won’t be easy, but I’m up for the challenge.  Are you?"

- Renae Williams, Community Engagement Officer, Wilderness Society WA

"Let me take you back to a day in 1977 when I accepted an invitation to attend a slide night on South West Tasmania. I walked in as a curious spectator and walked out as a Wilderness Society member with a mission. In 1978 I attended my first Wilderness Society National Meeting at Bob Brown’s cottage farm at Liffey. At his bridge where platypuses frolicked, was a sign “Trespassers Welcome”. Standing on it was a gangling man with a ready smile and outstretched hand and a “G’day, I’m Bob Brown, come and join us”. The Franklin campaign was launched that day.

When the Franklin was saved, we were deluged with streams of weeping and laughing well-wishers carrying crates of champagne. As we toasted our success with that champagne, we could reflect “Were it not for us, this would never have happened”. That particular result - that anyone and everyone could make a difference in the way the world was run saved any number of psychological lives - perhaps even physical lives.

Exactly 27 years after TWS saved the Franklin River, it reinvented itself in the spirit in which it was formed and in the spirit in which it saved the Franklin.

Like the Franklin 27 years ago, TWS is running free because people cared."

- Geoff Lambert, lifetime member of the Wilderness Society

"I became a volunteer with the Wilderness Society, Sydney, in July last year. I joined the Wilderness Society because of their reputation for passion, integrity and commitment to protecting the environment. I am extremely proud to be both a volunteer and member of an organisation which has achieved such outstanding results for the environment, by working with local communities at a grass roots level. I am equally proud to have met and worked alongside such a wonderful and inspirational team of passionate activists - both campaigners and volunteers alike.
The environmental movement is at a crucial point in history, and it is so important for the Wilderness Society, as an integral part of that movement, to be operating with vigour and transparency. That is why I am so delighted that Wilderness Society members have voted to maintain grass roots activism - so that we may continue working to protect our uniquely breathtaking natural environment."

- Elizabeth Makin, Wilderness Society Sydney volunteer