Dumbo Feather – February 2019

I was 14 years old, and so I set up an environment group at school, a little club called the

Merewether Greenies. We lured people to come to our meetings with free Tim Tams.

Number one community organising tip: provide free food. And we had opposition. There was

a little club that set up to oppose us called the Merewether Industrialists.

I mean it’s Newcastle, right? Big coal industry. Biggest coal export port in the world! But we

just started very small. We set up recycling, composting, we convinced our school principal

to set up a new official school sport called “environmental activities” which involved us

emptying the recycling bins and doing the composting and also writing letters to politicians.

I know! It was really fun and we got lots of kids involved. And then we wanted to do

something bigger so we took on BHP and the New South Wales State Government.

It’s the obvious next step from recycling, right? [Laughs]. BHP wanted to build a new mine

about 40 minutes north of our school at a place called Stockton Bight which was a very

special place to the local Traditional Owners, the Worimi people. And there was a coalition of

groups, the Worimi people, a local residents’ group, the Wilderness Society and then our high

school group. And we all came together in a big campaign to stop that mine going ahead and

get the place declared a national park and conservation area managed by the Worimi people.

Which happened. We won.

Yep. In the year I finished high school the New South Wales State Government made the

announcement. It was a long campaign and many people had been involved for a long time

before our school group got involved, but we managed to raise a lot of public attention

because we were kids and good at getting media. We dressed up as koalas and bushrangers

and got in the local paper and on TV. And this is before online campaigning so we had a

petition where we literally went around and door-knocked and had community stalls. So it

was very grassroots. And I learned how to talk to people and engage people in issues in a way

that made sense to them and give them opportunities to get involved. ’Cause

I also learned a lot about coalition building because we had these really different groups

involved and everyone had their own role to play. But you know the biggest thing I learned is

actually that we live in a country where change can come from the bottom up.

Yeah. Everyone should win a campaign when they’re in high school. And

they will go on and feel like they can meaningfully participate in politics,

in democracy and have their voices heard. And sometimes you lose but

sometimes you actually win. So the fact that in my very first campaign we had a win, that was

really key. And why later on, when I had the idea for the Australian Youth Climate Coalition,

I was so passionate about making sure we had a high school program, which continues to

this day. We essentially helped students run these little mini campaigns to get solar at their

I fundamentally believe that people want to

protect the environment, our water and our

climate, so it’s a matter of helping them get

involved in a way that makes sense to them.

[Laughs].

[Laughs].

Wow!

Imagine if we all had that

foundation, right? As young people.

Really?

Oh wow. I would have loved
that as a sports activity.

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