66 Australian Geographic
Grahame Webb
Crocodiles are Grahame’s
particular passion. He’s a
world-leading authority on the
creatures and the conservation
and management of wildlife
resources through sustaina-
ble-use programs. Grahame
began full-time research into
the biology and ecology of salt-
water crocodiles in the 1970s.
His work has since shown that
conservation and farming can
successfully coexist and result
in the recovery of endangered
crocodile populations. For his
contributions to the fields of
sustainability and wildlife
conservation, Grahame was
awarded the Clunies Ross
National Science and Technol-
ogy Award in 2001, as well
as an Australian Centenary
Medal in 2003.
Nick Mooney
Few people know as much as
Nick about the Tasmanian devil,
the world’s largest surviving
marsupial carnivore. He spent
more than three decades from
the late 1970s as a Tasmanian
government wildlife biologist
working to shore up the
future of various
creatures, including
the endangered
Tasmanian
subspecies of the
wedge-tailed
eagle. But when
Tasmanian devil
numbers began to plummet due
to the deadly Devil Facial
Tumour Disease in the 1990s,
Nick turned his focus to keeping
the marsupial from going the
same way as the extinct
Tasmanian tiger.Curt and
Micheline JennerWith the help of an AG grant,
whale experts Curt and
Micheline Jenner built their
first sailing boat in 1995 and
set off to study humpbacks
along the WA coast.
Today they have
the larger
RV Whale Song,
which is the
operations base
for their
conservation
non-profit Centre for
Whale Research (CWR).
Achievements include the
discovery of a critical Exmouth
Gulf humpback nursing ground
and identifying the Perth
Canyon as an important
feeding area for endangered
pygmy blue whales.David Suzuki
Now aged nearly 80, Canadian
academic and geneticist David
Suzuki has long been an
environmentalist of interna-
tional influence. In 1990 he
co-founded the non-profit
David Suzuki Foundation, to
promote protection of the
environment, and has spent his
career communicating complex
science to the public. As a child,
David lived with his family in
Canadian internment camps for
the Japanese. Despite the
challenges, his father instilled
in him a love of nature. He went
on to study zoology at the
University of Chicago and has
now written 52 books, and
hosted many popular science
radio and TV series, including
the US-British production
The Secret of Life. THIS PAGE: AUSTRALIAN WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY; OPPOSITE: RICHARD WHITFIELD/HEADPRESS30 YEARS OF AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC
Atticus Fleming
Raised in the central-west NSW bush,
Atticus has always been obsessed with
saving endangered species. He is the
chief executive of the visionary private
conservation organisation, the
Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC),
founded by WA philanthropist Martin
Copley. The non-profit now owns and
manages 23 private reserves covering
more than 30,000sq.km of ecologically
key regions. Animals protected include
bridled nail-tail wallabies, bilbies and
Gouldian finches. Atticus is also an
advisor to Australia’s Threatened
Species Commissioner.