Patricia Gill, Denmark Bulletin

The Denmark Environment Centre and long-standing member Geoff Evans were awarded last month for their commitment to WA’s environment.

The DEC won the Len Howard Community Group Award from the Conservation Council of WA presented to a community group while Geoff won the Bessie Rischbieth Conservation Award.

Both awards are presented at Kidogo Arthouse, Fremantle to a group or individual who have had the courage to challenge government and non-government decision-makers.

Geoff tells how in 1994 he turned up to a meeting run by the late Alex Syme to save Denmark’s forests and was surprised to see 30 people gathered.

Geoff looked around and said: “Where have you buggers been for the past 25 years?”

“It was a significant moment to be involved and I’ve never looked back,” he said of the local movement in which he has gained many friends and has guided during a long tenure as convener.

He has also developed and nurtured a sphere of influence throughout the South West.

In 1996 Geoff was involved in the Great Walk from Augusta to Black Point and gained insight into the importance of Lake Jasper in the D’Entrecasteaux National Park.

This was the start of the Great Walk protests against logging old growth forests from Denmark to Perth which culminated in the 1998 Charter presented to then Premier Peter Dowding. In 1996 Aboriginal leader Glen Kelly spoke of Lake Jasper’s underwater archeology and Aboriginal sites and how the adjacent area was being explored for mineral sands. This was finally resolved in 2021 when Premier Mark McGowan returned the area to the national park despite a 2009 promise to do so from Mines Minister Moore.

To achieve this, Geoff quoted many Hansard extracts, saying a promise made is a promise kept. “We get some occasional wins,” he said.

In recent years Geoff has served on the WA Forest Alliance committee, an involvement dating back to the blockades of the late 1990s.

He counts the Gallop Government’s 2001 creation of the Walpole Wilderness as a national park and the ceasing of logging north of Walpole as another win.

One of Geoff’s ‘heroes’ is the Alliance’s campaign director Jess Beckerling and her action which will protect 400,00ha of forest south of Pemberton to the Darling Range and Jarrahdale.

Though a date is not set, this is included in the WA Forest Management Plan 2024 when karri, jarrah and wandoo forests will become nature reserves, national parks or conservation parks. Another 300,000ha of forest is also within the scope of
the plan, meaning nearly two million hectares of native forests will be protected.

DEC also lent big support opposing an application this year to mine 120sqkm in the western section of the Denmark shire.

United Funds Pty Ltd dropped the application in May after the area had been the subject of another application in the early 2000s.

Born in Birmingham, England, Geoff studied computer engineering at Birmingham Polytechnic and Birmingham University before working in Germany and The Netherlands.
He came to WA in 1976 working at the University of WA and Curtin University before moving to Denmark in the late 1980s.

He counts fellow Lake Jasper campaigners Pibulmun Widandi Elder Dr Wayne Webb and Andy Russell as close friends.

Geoff was humbled and amazed to win the Bessie Rischbieth Award from 20 nominees.

DEC has inspired many and is a positive influence on community environmental values through work on a vast number of conservation and educational initiatives.

All this is achieved as a not-for-profit organisation that relies on donations and grants as well as some income through their shop on Strickland Street.

The DEC relies on volunteers for much of its work.

This article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 8 December 2022.