CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY TIM FAULKNER; COURTESY AMELIA TELFORD; COURTESY ANDREW MAFFETT; COURTESY HUW KINGSTONYOUR SOCIETY
118 Australian Geographic
AGS GALA AWAR DS
And the
winners are...
M
ANY WILL RECOGNISE this environmen-
talist from his TV show, The Wild Life
of Tim Faulkner, which airs on Channel 9 and
the National Geographic Channel, and has a
global audience of 180 million people each
series. But Tim has also led an initiative to
reverse the extinction rate of small mammals
on the Australian mainland, through the
reintroduction of Tasmanian devils to NSW.
As general manager of the Australian Reptile
Park and Devil Ark, a large conservation
breeding facility for Tasmanian devils in NSW’s
Barrington Tops, he has also played a pivotal
role in efforts to curb the extinction of the
Tasmanian devil itself (see AG 105).
A
MELIA TELFORD, a 21-year-old
Bundjalung woman who grew up
on the NSW north coast, had planned to
study medicine after high school. Instead,
she joined the Australian Youth Climate
Coalition, and in July 2014 founded Seed
(see page 33). This network of young
Aboriginal people provides access to
training and support for those keen tomake a difference in the areas of climate
change, sustainability and conservation.
In 2014 Amelia was named as the joint
NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander
Day Observance Committee) ‘youth of
the year’. Many Aboriginal communities
are facing the loss of sacred country and
culture, says Amelia, and are feeling the
effects of environmental degradation.YOUNG CONSERVATIONIST OF THE YEAR: AMELIA TELFORDCONSERVATIONIST OF
THE YEAR: TIM FAULKNERA
DVENTURER Huw Kingston under-
took an AGS-sponsored 14,000km
circumnavigation of the Mediterranean Sea
by foot, kayak, ocean rowboat and bicycle
in April 2015 (AG 125). Beginning and
ending at Gallipoli in Turkey, the 12-month,
17-country journey was planned to mark
the Anzac Centenary. Huw also used the
trip as a fundraiser for Save the Children
Australia. His efforts attracted so much
attention that he became the charity’s most
successful individual campaigner ever.SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE
HUW KINGSTONT
HESE MEN WERE all experienced sea
kayakers, but their previous expeditions
were nothing compared with their circum-
navigation of the subantarctic island of South
Georgia in January (see page 80). Their
500km paddle around this wilderness oasis,
which lies 1500km north-east of the Antarc-
tic peninsula, saw them encounter massive
icebergs, powerful ocean swells and ferociousstorms. They were fortunate to experience
some clear weather, however, and completed
their journey faster than the three teams who
had circled South Georgia previously. Having
made such good time, they then traversed the
island – following in the footsteps of Sir Ernest
Shackleton, who’d landed there in 1916 – and
are the fi rst team to have completed both a
crossing and circumnavigation of the island.ADVENTURERS OF THE YEAR
JOHN JACOBY, CHRIS PORTER, ANDREW MAFFETT AND JIM BUCIRDESOCIETY2015
AWA R D
WINNER S