Don Henry, ACF Executive Director
Don Henry, ACF Executive Director
In the 1980s Don Henry campaigned for the protection of Moreton Island, Great Barrier Reef Islands, the rainforests of north Queensland and Cape York.
As Director of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland and the editor of Wildlife Australia he succeeded in generating grassroots support for conservation among both rural and city people.
He has served as a Commissioner with the Australian Heritage Commission, President of the Australian Committee for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the Moreton Island Protection Committee.
In 1991 he was awarded a Global 500 Environment Award from the United Nations Environment Program.
From 1989-92 he was the Australian Director of the World Wide Fund for Nature.
He was then based in Washington DC with WWF, working as Director of the South Pacific program (1992-95), the Asia-Pacific program (1995-96) and the Global Forest program (1996-98).
He co-chaired a global forest initiative with the World Bank designed to conserve 250 million hectares of forests. In 1998 he returned to Australia to take up the position of Executive Director of ACF.
Most recently in 2008, Don Henry was named Equity Trustees’ Not For Profit 2008 CEO of the Year. The prestigious award recognises outstanding leadership and is the pre-eminent award for the not-for-profit sector.
The Don thing
By Wayne Sanderson
In July 1998 ACF Executive Director Don Henry found himself back on the beaches and in the forests where it all started.
Moreton Island is one of the string of great sand islands off the southern Queensland coast. Like nearby Stradbroke Island, it has long been a favourite get-away for a long weekend, particularly for students because it is close to Brisbane and cheap to visit.
Unfortunately, both islands have also been highly prized by sand miners, for whom the rich mineral deposits in their towering dunes, right beside the industrial infrastructure of a capital city, have proved irresistible.
Stradbroke Island bears innumerable scars from 50 years of mining. Moreton, on the other hand, remains untouched, thanks in large measure to a group of four university students, including Don Henry, who were regular visitors there during the 1970s.
"We used to love going there to bushwalk and fish and surf. We heard about plans to sand mine the island, and I remember thinking, 'gee I hope somebody does something about that'. Then you realise that nobody was going to, so we thought we'd better do something ourselves."
The students set up the Moreton Island Protection Society and so began the public campaign that managed to stop the previously unstoppable Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen dead in his tracks.
"I went back there for the first time in years during a visit to Queensland to meet with the environment minister, and took the week-end off to do some bushwalking and surfing."
"It's now a National Park, and just to be able to feel, walking along the beach and in the forest, that you had played some small role in saving something that will continue to inspire people who go there was a wonderful feeling."
Over the past couple of decades Don's enthusiasm and positive outlook has shifted from the dunes of Queensland to global issues with the Worldwide Fund for Nature in Washington and back to the Australian picture with ACF.
Since taking on the Executive Director's role in May '98, he has spent time meeting people around Australia - conservationists, politicians, business people, Indigenous leaders, travellers on his morning tram across Melbourne - to learn first hand the detail of Australia's environmental condition.
"I have the privilege at the ACF of leading a dedicated team of staff and volunteers, and Councillors and donors right around Australia. And it is inspiring to see their commitment to and involvement with the big issues we are facing right now."
Towards a green Budget: Don Henry's Press Club Address