Interview with Tony Wales – Coordinator of the Wallabi Point Coastcare group which won the 2024 Landcare NSW Coastcare Award 2024, and is in the running for the National Award in 2025.
Hi Tony, thank you for agreeing to chat with me. So how long have you lived at
Wallabi?
Um, five years. I moved to Wallabi the week of the fire.
The 2019 summer fires?
Yeah yeah. The fire hit Wallabi the 9 th of November, 2019. About 9 o’clock in the
morning.
Wow. So how familiar were you with Wallabi before you moved in? Had you spent
much time there?
The only thing I can remember is coming up here in the 1980’s for the contest at
Saltwater Point. But I always knew that I wanted to retire to a small village on the
coast. I was looking down the south coast, but then one day I decided to go north
instead of south. I went to Wallabi and stayed in a town house and one of the
adjoining townhouses was for sale so I bought it. I had booked for one week but
ended up staying two. I would walk the headland every morning, watch the sun come
up, see the schools of salmon and tailor being attacked by the birds, saw the fins of
false killer whales. I was going fishing and catching large salmon and thought “this is
it”. And it’s totally surrounded by bushland.
So you just fell in love?
Yep.
You have a background in environmental management?
Yeah. Before that, though, I had a background in corporate management with King
Gee and Quicksilver. I spent five years in Indonesia with Quicksilver. After that I
decided I wanted to do something with the environment but didn’t want to go back to
university so I enrolled at TAFE. I enrolled at Ryde TAFE to do the Conservation and
Land Management (bush regeneration) Certificate 4 and the Diploma and got to
study under some of the best in the business, such as Robyn Buchanan and Mark
Walters.
May I ask how old you were when you did that?
Oh, I need a calculator…! 52, I think.
And then you worked in Sydney doing environmental management work?
Yeah, I joined what was then called the Georges River Combined Councils
Committee and came to be the Georges Riverkeeper. It was formed when the QX
outbreak happened which devastated the oyster industry overnight. Councils
realised their impact on the health of the river and got together to form a body to
manage the river.
Okay great. So… how and why did you get involved with Coastcare?
When I was studying in Sydney I joined Sutherland Shire Bushcare and they really
helped me with my studies. I was living in Cronulla at the time, on the esplanade,
and there were very small patches of vegetation along there and we worked in those.
So by doing that you got a good understanding of coastal vegetation management?
Yeah.
And how did you get involved in Manning Coastcare?
Well, after buying a place in Wallabi Point I could see work was being done by a
local group, and when I ran into them working on a Thursday morning I introduced
myself. The group was being run by Dave Brunner-Evans, who was doing a fantastic
job, and it was a great group of people. I started working with the group after I moved
in, and they started to look to me a bit with my knowledge about how to do things.
You’re also now on the Manning Coastcare Committee as Vice President. Why did
you decide to get involved at that level?
I could see myself being effective in an education and skill sets area. Because,
having learnt from the best in the industry, I see things a bit different from the way
most people do, and I think that’s the most effective way to manage ecosystems.
And I see Manning Coastcare as being an effective organisation that do that work on
the ground.
What do you get out of working with the Wallabi Point Coastcare group?
Coffee!!
Haha! I did actually assume that that would be at least part of your answer…
Well, let me put it this way… As a group we recently got together to answer a
questionnaire sent by MidCoast 2 Tops. The first question was about the biggest
learnings for the group in the past year, and what they came up with was “Being
adaptable”. There wouldn’t be many volunteer groups thinking about ecosystem
management in that way. I enjoy all the social aspects of the group, but it’s so great
seeing them embrace all the learnings and really getting it. Sometimes when I’m with
them I think I tend to talk too much, but it does seem to sink in.
And then we go for coffee for three hours after two hours work!!
Haha, yep, that’s always a plus. So, you feel like you’re making a real difference.
Yeah yeah.
Manning Coastcare is celebrating their 30 th year this year. What do you think will be
the focus for the next 30 years?
The focus should be on being adaptable. Good and bad things will happen in
ecosystems, and we need to be able to positively respond to them. So, in the event
of the loss of foredunes, and oceanic winds and salt scalding that badly impacts the
vegetation, we’ve got to be focussed on ensuring the survival of littoral rainforest and
its species by whatever means possible.
That will include rainforest retreat, where we aid the movement of rainforest inland in
response to changing climatic conditions, encouraging the growth of more salt-
resistant plants. It’s a great challenge, and it’s a decades-long challenge.
So, although we might feel a little bit depressed about what’s going to happen over
the next hundred years, we’re setting it up for the next generations to be able to
continue the work and be able to adapt to whatever rainforest is going to need to be
able to survive into the future.
That’s great, thank you so much Tony!
