Page 926 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 May 2020
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Australian Greens, as well as for the broader ACT and East Gippsland communities, of which she was such a part. As has been highlighted, some members here know Deb personally and were also here during her time in the Sixth Assembly.
I would like to acknowledge Deb’s family and friends, who, in normal times, would be able to join us here in the gallery for such an event but, unfortunately, due to coronavirus restrictions, are only able to join us via the online video stream.
Deb had a broad skill set and background. Although most people in this place would know her for her political work as a member of this Assembly, she was also known as a teacher, scholar, mother, candidate, tireless activist and campaigner. Some of her less-known talents were for being a writer, poet and philosopher and, like many former politicians, she spent her later years as a consultant. She lived to the full—selflessly, generously and inspirationally.
Deb grew up on a dairy farm in Victoria and went to Melbourne for university. Afterwards she moved to the Snowy Mountains in Victoria to forge a sustainable lifestyle. In a piece she wrote for the Mountain Journal she said:
I found my home on the Jingalala River in the mountains in the early 1970s. We were forerunners of the alternative lifestyle people, trying to build self-sufficiency and community in a cold, challenging place, far from services in a place where the greenies we became were often made to feel uncomfortable. At that time the region was dominated by forest destruction industries which accelerated their rate of consumption soon after we arrived and the Eden woodchip mill became the primary destination for our magnificent old growth forests. Not something to keep silent about.
Deb worked at building a self-sufficient community at Cabanandra, setting up the still-thriving Warm Corners Cooperative, based on the Victorian land settlement cooperatives scheme that existed at the time. As Caroline will tell you later, setting up a cooperative in the bush and being self-sufficient is hard work, and without enough money or job opportunities in the bush even harder.
She quickly got involved in campaigning to protect the forests of East Gippsland. When a mega pulp mill was mooted down along the Snowy River to be fed a million tonnes of East Gippsland forest logs a year, Deb and her then partner, Bob, were instrumental in starting up the local group Concerned Residents of East Gippsland. The inaugural meeting was held at their place in remote Cabanandra and attracted many Orbost locals and farmers opposed to such a damaging and water-guzzling industry in the area. She was pleased that 50 locals signed up in 1980, showing that it was not just city people who want native forests protected. Soon after the media attention, Errinundra National Park was declared. However, due to industry pressure, some of the richest and most valuable forests were omitted from the park, creating further decades of ongoing conflict.
In the end it was the lack of post-primary schooling that meant she moved to the ACT in the 1980s so that her children could attend school without a 2½-hour bus ride each day, and so that she could study and work.
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