July–August 2015 115AUSTR ALIAN GEOGR APHIC SOCIETY NEWS & INITIATIVES
MAIN PHOTO: KHANDAKER RAHMAN; INSET: COURTESY SANDY ROBSON
119
UPCOMING EXPEDITIONS
Explore far and wide with the AGS.117
VANISHING GLACIERS
Spotlight on a disappearing habitat.116
FUNDR AISING SUCCESS
Record donations for sea turtles.Patron: Dick Smith Advisory Council: Chris Bray, Ian
Connellan, Chrissie Goldrick, John Leece, Kerry Morrow,
Greg Mortimer, Jo Runciman, Todd Tai, Howard W helan
Chairman: Gregg Haythorpe AGS Administrator:
Nicola ContiAGS CHAIR MAN’S LETTERE
ACH YEAR we host the Australian
Geographic Society’s annual
awards dinner, where we revel in
bringing fantastic awardees in the fi elds
of adventure and conservation together
with our loyal readers and supporters.
Last year was our biggest event ever;
350 guests enjoyed a lovely evening
in downtown Sydney, mingling with
special guests including Bindi Irwin,
Dick Smith and wingsuit fl yers
Heather Swan and Glenn Singleman
(see page 92). Tickets are now on sale
for our 2015 dinner. This is our most
important fundraising event and we’re
hoping you’ll be there to support our
vital work, and pull out all the stops to
make this our best awards night yet!
The dinner will be held on 28 October.
Find out how to book on the opposite
page, and don’t delay, as it will sell out
fast. I look forward to seeing you there.Come dine
with us!
Come to meet our star conser-
vationists and adventurers.Gregg Haythorpe, AG Society ChairmanAGS MAJOR SPONSORSH
ER MISSION WAS inspired by
German canoeist Oskar
Speck, who, from 1932 to
1939, paddled a folding kayak from
Germany to Australia. Now in the
final stages of her epic five-year
journey, Sandy Robson has been
awarded the 2015 Nancy-Bird Walton
Sponsorship for female adventurers.
The sea kayaker is retracing Speck’s
route as best she can, and hopes that
her journey will inspire more female
adventurers and highlight the impor-
tance of taking care of our oceans.
“I have realised how lucky we are in
Australia to have such a rich and
diverse ecosystem and people who doADVENTUR E GR ANT AWAR DEEThis intrepid Australian receives the grant to help her
complete an epic paddle from Germany to Australia.
not pump plastic into the oceans,” she
says on her website. “We need to keep
working on preserving and protecting
these unique ecosystems and the
environment that is the support
system for our planet.”
Sandy is currently kayaking through
South-East Asia on the fourth stage
of her fi ve-leg journey. By the end of
her half-decade-long endeavour,
Sandy will have travelled more than
22,000km through 20 countries. By
the time she arrives home, she will
have completed a number of world
fi rsts, including being the fi rst person
to circumnavigate Sri Lanka by kayak.
JAMES O’HANLONSandy Robson awarded the 2015
Nancy-Bird Walton sponsorship
En route. Sandy poses for a
picture in the Bay of Bengal,
and (inset) shows her kayak
to fans in Bangladesh.