Great Southern Development Commission Medal 2019

In 2002, the GSDC established the GSDC Medal to celebrate innovation and leadership in the management of the Great Southern’s natural resources. Originally an annual award, the GSDC Medal is now awarded biennially. In alternate years, the work of the medal winners is showcased at a field day.

Darryl Outhwaite

Darryl was nominated as a person who is passionate about the natural environment and determined to do what he could to improve the management of natural resources. Mr Outhwaite formerly worked for the Forest Products Commission as a forester and viewed the development of the plantation forest industry as a way of both taking the pressure off native forest trees and improving the sustainability of farms in the region. The growth of the plantation forestry industry would be supported by finding new markets for its ancillary products. Mr Outhwaite initiated the formation of WA Biofuels in Albany with the aim of developing new markets for locally grown plantation forest biomass.

Dr Harriet Paterson

Dr Paterson is a marine scientist who has been working on plastics in the marine environment for nearly five years. Dr Paterson’s nominator said she developed her passion when she realised that the apparently pristine beaches of the south west were covered in tiny plastic fragments. She has a monitoring program at Mutton Bird Beach that she runs in her own time and has mentored several university students who have investigated plastic both on beaches and in animals on the south coast. She has also developed programs with schools and the wider community. Dr Paterson’s particular interest is recording the rate at which plastic pellets, or nurdles, that were lost in South Africa arrive on our shores. To do this she has a citizen science program where people from along the coast sample the beaches and send her the pellets for analysis. She has shown that there are pellets that resemble the lost nurdles and also that a cohort of black nurdles, resembling some lost from the Swan River, is moving along the coast.   

Bill and Jane Thomson

For nearly 40 years, Bill and Jane Thompson (feature to the left in the above picture, along with Bush Heritage's Angela Sanders and Simon Smale) were orchardists in the Glasshouse Mountains in south-east Queensland. However, their property was acquired for an upgrade to the North Coast railway line. Having a lifelong interest and involvement in conservation issues, they decided to buy into a connectivity conservation project in Western Australia’s Great Southern. The Thompsons’ nomination says that their unconventional ‘retirement’ has conservation at its core. In the seven years since the Thompsons bought the 1500-hectare Yarraweyah Falls property in the middle of the connectivity pathway between the Stirling Range and Fitzgerald River National Parks, they have launched themselves with extraordinary vigour into the heart of the project, and into their local community of Ongerup. As the first resident conservation owners in the project, involved hands-on in every aspect of conservation work across their wider landscape, they are at the centre of the Fitz-Stirling operation.
 

Ian Walsh

Ian and his wife Joan, along with their son Michael and daughter-in-law Mindy, farm a 2,800-hectare property in the North Stirlings near Cranbrook. They share a strong passion for productive and sustainable farming. Mr Walsh has lived on the family farm since the late 1950s. After seeing areas become unproductive through rising groundwater and salt, he made the decision to rehabilitate rather than abandon this land. Over time, he has managed to reclaim salt land by pioneering and establishing salt tolerant plant species which have lowered the water table and provided not only a successful and sustainable business, but a healthy farm ecosystem. Mr Walsh’s nomination notes his contributions to NRM in the region and the broader WA community. He is innovative in his approach, working to address salinity and its impact and pioneering many saltland management techniques still in use today. The nomination says Mr Walsh has demonstrated leadership and inspired many with his integrity, passion, fostering research and sharing his knowledge. His willingness, enthusiasm and commitment to research have provided valuable knowledge about the complexity of saltland agronomy. His enduring philosophy is that ‘farming is natural resource management’.