“Our gift is a further commitment to supporting the conservation of wild places in a world where they have become rarer, even more precious and continue to need effective campaigners to protect them.” — Jennie Whinam

“My involvement with the Wilderness Society started in 1978/9 when I went to an audio-visual presentation by Ralph Hope-Johnson at the ANU with my partner (Russell Bauer), which was life-changing. We decided that we couldn’t let such a magnificent wilderness be destroyed by the proposed Franklin River dam. We became involved in establishing the Canberra Branch of TWS where I became Convenor, lobbying politicians, raising funds, and running publicity campaigns.

Then, in 1980, Bob Brown asked us to go down the Jane River (the Franklin’s major tributary) and take photos for the campaign (I had never been to Tasmania). It was a 2 week trip on a lilo (with camera gear) through wilderness with a 1:100,000 map. This (at times daunting) experience strengthened our commitment to protect this wild area and increased our love of Tasmania’s wild places. 

We continued campaigning in Canberra, including two High Court challenges, the successful Eden-Monaro electorate federal ‘no dams’ campaign and working with the National Liaison Officer, Chris Harris. I also spent 2 summers campaigning in Tasmania, including during the Blockade.

Our involvement with the Wilderness Society resulted in us moving to an 18 ha farm in Tasmania, where we had made many friends through the campaign. Shortly after, when Bob Brown was elected to the Tasmanian Parliament and resigned as Director, I became co-director of TWS with Lillith Waud in 2014. (Bob often stayed at our farm on nights when parliament was sitting). I have continued to be involved in conservation in both a professional and voluntary capacity since then. Our gift is a further commitment to supporting the conservation of wild places in a world where they have become rarer, even more precious and continue to need effective campaigners to protect them.”

Jennie and Russell have supported the Wilderness Society for over 47 years and are both passionate conservationists and Forever Wild members. 

“Platypus played in the waters, eagles kept watch in the skies, the great trees grew ever greater, and drifting clouds wept into the flow of it all.” — Helen Cushing

“Year 1982 age 21...

I'd completed my course, left my boyfriend and packed a jumper, even though it was summer. I was off to Tasmania for the first time, a girl from Sydney high on freedom and in need of a Mission. It was Bob Brown's audio visual presentation at the Paddington Town Hall that converted me to the cause. There was one last wild river to save: the Franklin Blockade was calling. 

In Hobart I met up with a friend. We rocked up to the TWS HQ in Davey St and hopped on a mini bus bound for Strahan. Three days of nonviolent action training prepared us to go up-river. On my 22nd birthday we boarded the trusty J. Lee M. and chugged across Macquarie Harbour, then up the Gordon River to the Blockade Base Camp. That night we joined a meeting, standing around in the rain. The camp needed someone new to run the kitchen. Our hands went up, and my friend and I spent the next two weeks feeding the masses as they came and went. 

All up I spent about one month camped and roaming in the rainforest on the banks of the Gordon River, finally being arrested when the blockade ended just before the election that brought Bob Hawke to power and ultimately stopped the dam. A few years later I rafted the Franklin, overwhelmed by the beauty, power and purity of wild nature. 

Year 2021 age 60...

For my 60th birthday, my family organised a sea kayaking expedition on the Gordon River. We searched and searched for the old base camp, to no avail. The rainforest had reclaimed its own, and the clearing at Warners Landing was dense with regrowth. Platypus played in the waters, eagles kept watch in the skies, the great trees grew ever greater, and drifting clouds wept into the flow of it all.

The Wilderness Society saved the Franklin River. That's why I'm still a member, and that's why I've left money in my will.”

Helen has been involved with the Wilderness Society for over 44 years. She is a dedicated Forever Wild member.

“I have chosen to leave a gift in my Will to the Wilderness Society because like many people, I have known what it’s like to stand in a wild place and feel both comforted and reduced by it—to feel your ego shrink, and your sense of time enlarge.”—Roger Chao 

“There is a kind of truth revealed in such places that is difficult to name but impossible to forget. It is here that the delusions of modern life begin to loosen their hold—the delusion that value begins in human preference and the delusion that power confers permission.

I have spent much of my life thinking about what human beings owe to the more-than-human world. That question has always seemed to me among the most important we can ask: are we members of a larger order of life, bound by obligations? Or are we merely clever predators, mistaking technological power for a moral right to dominate?

The modern world has been built, to an extraordinary degree, upon a falsehood—that what lies outside human purposes lies outside moral concern. From that falsehood much damage follows. Forests become timber reserves. Rivers become energy generators. Coastlines become development opportunities. Animals become units of production. The living world becomes visible chiefly under the aspect of use. And once that habit of perception hardens, destruction begins to seem normal.

Forests, rivers, coastlines, and the rich communities of life they shelter possess kinds of value that precede us and do not depend upon our recognition. To destroy the non-human world for the sake of convenience or gain shows that we have looked upon the living world and seen only material for our projects. The deepest ecological crisis is therefore within us.

My decision to leave a gift in my Will arises from a deep conviction.

It is a way of making one’s deepest convictions durable. A Will is often spoken of as though it were only an administrative document, concerned with property and practicalities. But it’s actually the last opportunity we have to put our values and beliefs into action.

This gift is my way of saying that my responsibilities do not end with my lifetime.

My support for the Wilderness Society grows from that moral outlook. What I value in the Wilderness Society is that it treats the natural world as something worthy of defence in a society that too often treats it as expendable. It gives public expression to a truth I have tried, in my own way, to articulate for many years—that there are forms of life and places whose destruction is not redeemed by profitability, and that things in nature that cannot argue their own case may still deserve our deepest care and protection.

I think many of us feel, sometimes quietly, that the world we have inherited is wounded, and that future generations may receive less than we did. I have felt that sorrow keenly. But I have also felt the opposite—that it is still possible to act in ways that are faithful to what is good.

Leaving a gift in my Will to the Wilderness Society is, for me, one such act. It is an act of hope that, even after I am gone, some part of what I have cared for most will continue to be defended.”

Roger has supported the Wilderness Society since 2020. He is an ardent lover of nature and Forever Wild member.

“Lucky enough to experience the pink sands of Lake Pedder before it was flooded, those days have shaped who I am today.” — Marian McCarter

“In my experience the Wilderness Society is one of the forerunners of the environmental movement and I've been a supporter since its inception. 

I've made life long friends joining the campaign to save the Franklin, volunteering in the offices with a toddler by my side while my husband was away closer to the action. 
Lucky enough to experience the pink sands of Lake Pedder before it was flooded, those days have shaped who I am today. 

I know that by leaving a bequest in my will the organisation will use the funds wisely in helping to preserve Lutruwita's, and beyond, magnificent natural resources to the best of their ability. 

Who knows, perhaps I'll live to see Lake Pedder restored!”

Marian has been a volunteer, supporter and committed activist for the Wilderness Society for 50 years. She is also a dedicated Forever Wild member.

“A bequest is a long game too. It's one of the final decisions you get to make. I've decided mine should sound like a river in summer and kids yelling and laughing amongst the trees.”—Jon King

“I grew up in country Victoria, Nathalia and Euroa. Wild places weren't a destination. They were just there, a bike ride away. We swam in rivers. We climbed amongst our imaginary treehouses. We played Spotlight in the bush after dark. We walked through forests with wonder, and a healthy respect for snakes.

I didn't know it at the time, but that was an inheritance. Nobody wrote it into a Will. It was handed down intact because people before us had the sense not to wreck it.

That's why I've left a gift in my Will to the Wilderness Society. I want my kids, and their kids, to inherit what I had. Rivers, bush and forests that make you feel small in the best possible way.

I also volunteer for the Wilderness Society, so I see the work from the inside. The campaigns, the meetings, the unglamorous persistence that protecting wild places actually requires. I give my time and skills now, and a gift in my Will later. It all counts.

What sets the Wilderness Society apart, for me, is that they play the long game. Fifty years and counting, as this edition celebrates. A bequest is a long game too. It's one of the final decisions you get to make. I've decided mine should sound like a river in summer and kids yelling and laughing amongst the trees.”

Jon is a Wilderness Society volunteer and Forever Wild member. His passion for nature comes from a love for his children and for them to experience the bush as he did.