An enduring conservation figurehead, Bob
has fronted many big battles in the past 40
years. He rose to prominence in the 1970s
when he led the campaign to save Tasmania’s
pristine Franklin River from damming (AG
117). It attracted global attention and had
long-term political ramifications. Bob entered
Tasmanian politics in 1983, then went
federal, founding the Australian Greens in- He led the party until 2012, the year
the AGS recognised him with its Lifetime of
Conservation award. Bob also founded
private conservation group Bush Heritage in
1990, when he bought two blocks of
Tasmanian forest. He first featured in AG in
1986 (AG 3) investigating Tassie tiger
sightings. “We’ve been spending hundreds of
thousands of dollars to try and find the tiger,”
he said. “Why not use that money to save
species that are now nearly extinct?”Bob Brown
“The future will be either green or not at all.”