Australian-Geographic-Magazine-September-Octobe..

 C

OME JOIN US at the annual

Australian Geographic

Society’s gala awards dinner,

which will be held on 29 October at

The Ivy ballroom in Sydney.

First presented in 1987, the awards

are Australia’s longest-running gongs

for adventure, and, with the addition

of the conservation awards in the

1990s, they celebrate several fields of

Australian endeavour.

The AGS is a not-for-profit

organisation supporting scientific

research, conservation and the spirit of

adventure. For more than a quarter of

AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY NEWS & INITIATIVES

114

SHERPAS IN NEED

Helping Everest’s climbing community.

115

BANDICOOT BANDITS

Donate to help city-living populations.

117

UPCOMING EXPEDITIONS

Explore far and wide with the AGS.

Patron: Dick Smith Advisory Council: Chris Bray, Ian

Connellan, Chrissie Goldrick, John Leece, Kerry Morrow,

Greg Mortimer, Jo Runciman, Todd Tai, Howard Whelan

Chairman: Gregg Haythorpe AGS Administrator:

Rebecca Baker/Tatiana Pentes

AGS CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

 I

T HARDLY SEEMS a year since our

2013 awards – that is, until we

look at what our awardees have

accomplished. In the past 12 months,

Clean Up Australia’s Kim McKay

(who, with Clean Up co-founder Ian

Kiernan, won the 2013 Lifetime of

Conservation award) became director

and CEO of Sydney’s Australian

Museum. She is the first woman to do

so in its 180-year history.

No less impressive are Jim and

Jean Thomas, who were the 2013

Conservationists of the Year for

their Tenkile Conservation Alliance

(TCA) work with tree kangaroos. We

were pleased to see Jim breaking new

ground in the PNG highlands in June,

when TCA and Deakin University

released images of three possibly new

mammal species. We’re always so

proud to watch our alumni dream on.

Our illustrious

alumni

Last year’s AGS awardees

keep soaring.

Gregg Haythorpe, AG Society Chairman

OUR BIG NIGHT

Celebrate with Australia’s finest conservationists

and explorers at this year’s Gala Awards Night.

AGS MAJOR SPONSORS

a century, we’ve urged those fighting to

preserve our environment or breaking

records of exploration to come in from

the bush, the outback or the mountain

range to mingle with and inspire our

readers for a night. Among the guests

this year will be wingsuiters Glenn

Singleman and Heather Swan, freshly

returned from the Grand Canyon leg

of their Flying Icons project (see Your

Society, AG 121).

We’ll also be raising funds for next

year’s AGS-sponsored programs. Join

us to congratulate Australians doing

extraordinary things (see page 30).

BEN HANSEN

The 2014 AGS Awards

AGS AWARDS MAJOR SPONSORS

S™š›™œž™Ÿ–O¢›£ž™Ÿ 2014 113

Local heroes. Tree-roo

champions and 2013

winners Jean and Jim

Thomas, with Dr Karl

Kruszelnicki.

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