Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens) – Honourable Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the Tasmanian Greens to honour the life of a true giant of the Tasmanian conservation movement, distinguished professor, Jamie Kirkpatrick, who passed away on 22 October. Through his incredible 50‑plus year career as a lecturer in geography at the University of Tasmania, Jamie had an incredible impact on the protection of Tasmania’s wild places and on the thousands of students that had the privilege of being taught by him.
Jamie was born in Victoria and first came to Tasmania in 1972 to complete his PhD thesis on the distribution, gene ecology and taxonomy of blue gums. Those in the conservation movement will no doubt recognise the significance of that year. The proposal to flood Lake Pedder for the hydroelectric scheme was inescapable news in the geography department to which Jamie now found himself a part. A fateful visit to the lake in its final days firmed Jamie’s burgeoning commitment to the conservation of Tasmania’s wild places.
Jamie committed himself early on his career to become, in his words, a vegetation explorer; a person who used his academic pursuits to document, celebrate and protect Tasmania’s natural values, not to help industries such as forestry to exploit them. Jamie’s spirit of conservation, his curiosity, his love of blue gums and his fascination with Tasmania’s unique alpine flora was woven throughout his teaching. In his five decades at the University of Tasmania, Jamie supervised more than 70 post‑graduate students and taught thousands more through a degree program he founded, the Bachelor of Natural Environment Conservation. As a senior lecturer and distinguished professor of geography and environmental studies, Jamie had a hand in shaping the world view of generations of Tasmanian environmentalists and conservationists, including many in the Greens.
While many academics keep their political views to themselves after attaining the safety of a permanent position, Jamie remained a passionate and outspoken advocate for conservation throughout his career. So much so that he was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2003 in recognition of his lifetime contribution to the field. Restoring Lake Pedder, protecting Tasmania’s wilderness, keeping development out of national parks, keeping salmon out of Macquarie Harbour, saving giant trees, ending native forest logging and preventing cable car on kunanyi, these are just a tiny fraction of the causes to which Jamie dedicated his life, and although he did not enjoy the practice, he was happy to tame his hair and put on respectable clothing when he was called on to recount the scientific basis of these causes to the wider public.
About Tasmania, Jamie said:
As things stand, Tasmania is one of the biotic jewels of the planet, rich in plant species that are largely unchanged since the Cretaceous era tens of millions of years ago.
It is thanks to Jamie that we know so much about lutruwita and have been able to fight to conserve so much of what is special. He was a well‑known and voracious reader. His office at the university was lined wall-to-wall with books supplemented with piles all on the floor and around on the shelves. He kept a printed copy of nearly every thesis he had a hand in supervising, a testament to his dedication to his students and the future of Tasmania. Jamie was also a voracious writer of articles in scientific journals and also in books, scholarly works, essays, irreverent memoirs and treatises on the beauty of the fine details of nature.
Amidst his unique and storied career, Jamie was a devoted husband to his wife, Christina, and a beloved father to his three children, Eldon, Noni, and Alastair, as well as a grandfather. He will be remembered for his contributions to conservation, but also for his sense of humour, his iconic, unmistakable laugh, his kindness, his courage, his joy and his delight in the rest of nature, the small but wonderful things that make this island unique and magical.
He shared bylines with some of Tasmania’s most celebrated writers and photographers, including Peter Dombrovskis, Rob Blakers and Richard Flanagan, as well as hundreds, if not thousands of his scientific colleagues at research institutions across the country and the world.
I will finish with a quote from his own memoir, Jamie’s words, Conservation Warrior:
Jamie’s life learnings are meagre. He believes in being as kind as possible to other sentient beings and rocks, in being frugal in his consumption of the rest of the world, maintaining resistance to the many evils of the corporate world. The instances in which he has helped the rest of nature a bit for a while have been largely unforeseen consequences of actions he took in despair or curiosity. He tentatively concludes it may be worth acting when all seems hopeless and following your interests even if no one else has them.
Vale, Jamie.
Members – Hear, hear.
Time expired.
