Silver Bilby award

Since 1980, ALEC has recognised major contributions by individuals and groups through Life Membership or Silver Bilby awards, albeit intermittently. In the wake of its 40th year celebrations, ALEC is retrospectively awarding and acknowledging the individuals and groups that have contributed strategic, impactful input to one or more of ALEC’s focus areas.

Below are recipients of the Silver Bilby award.  Click here to see the Life Members page. 

Ilan Warchivker

1998

Ilan is one of ALEC’s behind-the-scenes heroes, steadying the organisation’s financial systems in the mid-1990s. Like all NGOS, ALEC occasionally teeters on a financial cliff. It is people like Ilan who step up and stabilise things so ALEC fights on.

Ilan joined the management committee as Treasurer in 1995, coerced by the eternally optimistic convenor Terry Mahney with ‘Ilan it’s just a couple of hours a week …’. Ilan was (and remains) an economist in his day job, and soon discovered that deciphering the finances of ALEC at that time was ‘like hunting for treasure in quicksand’. He installed MYOB (accounting software) on one ALEC computer and trained others how to use it, particularly project managers so they could see how much money they had left. He unravelled multiple grants that had used up all their budgets (and more) and got them acquitted to funders. He changed ALEC’s auditors and ALEC became more careful with what grants they applied for. They better-assessed the financial implications of initiatives before starting them. By that time, the ALEC shopfront in Gregory Terrace was beginning to undermine ALEC’s finances and the decision was made in 1997 to close it. By 1997, after a lot of hard work by Ilan and colleagues, ALEC was back on top of its finances. In 1998 Ilan left the Treasurer’s role, leaving ALEC in a much sounder financial position.

Aside from finances, Ilan reflects fondly on ALEC projects he was involved with including a major land management report for Ilparpa Commonage (the claypans and valley) that resulted in a big clean-up of old cars and the subsequent incorporation of the Ilparpa Valley Landcare Group in 1998. ALEC also interviewed tourists at the airport and confirmed visitors sought more engagement with Aboriginal people. A follow-up meeting with the director of the Central Land Council prompted the creation of a tourism officer at CLC.

Rosalie Breen

2003

Rosalie epitomises the quiet and determined cohort of volunteers who are the backbone of Landcare activities in Alice Springs. She is chuffed to be recognised with a Silver Bilby award ‘as long as I don’t have to make a speech’.

Since the early 1990s Rosalie has been actively involved in the Spencer Valley, Coolabah Swamp and Ilparpa Valley Landcare groups. Her focus since 2011 has been Spencer Valley removing cactus and buffel grass but says she is slowing down a bit now at age 81 (in 2021).  Rosalie first reported a small outbreak of cactus at the Telegraph Station in the late 1990s, but not much was done until Andy Vinter from Greening Australia arranged volunteers to remove it, including Rosalie.

Rosalie says she always enjoys Landcare and ALEC events because “they are friendly community activities, everybody is welcome, together we make a difference and we learn a lot”. Rosalie was a volunteer at the Greening Australia Nursery from the late 90s to 2011 (when it closed). She worked with them and Land for Wildlife on re-vegetation works in Coolabah Swamp including at the OLSH College Sadadeen campus and near the old Verdi Club (now the Desert Life Church). For ALEC, Rosalie has routinely attended and/or helped at Eco-fairs, Cool Communities / CoolMob events, ALEC demonstration houses and the Save Bowerbird Tip Shop rallies in 2004 and 2007.

Rosalie was made a life member of the Alice Springs Field Naturalists Club in 2021 (“they had to hurry up before I kicked the bucket” she reckons).

Rosalie was a regular Waterwatch volunteer from 1996 to 2002 when ALEC ran a funded program. She initially worked with WW coordinator Jacinta Reeves monitoring Wigley’s Waterhole, and other sites, then with Robbie Henderson monitoring Ilparpa swamp and Heavitree Gap waterhole during wet years in the early 2000s. Rosalie often assisted school groups who did monitoring.

In Ilparpa swamp they found and eradicated gambusia mosquito fish that could have spread into the Todd and Finke River systems. Robbie remembers “Rosalie discovered blue green algae in St Mary’s creek when Ilparpa swamp overflowed for 18 months in 2000-01. This was back when the sewage ponds were allowed to overflow to the swamp each year. ALEC and Waterwatch ran a campaign which ultimately resulted in Power Water installing a treatment and reuse plant at the ponds that stopped overflows altogether”.

We salute Rosalie and all those like her – quiet determined champions.

Families For A Nuclear Free Future

Angela Pamela campaign 2010

In 2008 uranium mining leases at Angela Pamela, 24 kms south of Alice Springs, were picked up for exploration and development by Cameco Paladin.

Local community members sprang into action and Families for A Nuclear Free Future, affectionally known as FFANFF, was formed and led by Isabelle Kirkbride and Tanya Howard (both are Silver Bilby recipients in their own right, see ALEC’s website).

Between 2008-2011, FFANFF ran a grass roots community campaign to oppose the Angela Pamela project, driven by concerns about the proximity of this toxic industry to town.

The main organisers were parents with young kids, squeezing meetings and actions around the daily pressures of child care and part time work. The FFANFF campaign was organised from the backyards and verandas of Alice Springs. Key players included Isabelle Kirkbride, Tanya Howard, Harriet Gaffney, Lisa Russanen, Alison Hittman, Elissa Pernu, Julia Hengstler, Sasha Kiessling, Suzie Ciavatta, Rachel O’Leary, Sarah Holder, Katy Allen, Lucy Stewart, Margaret Carew, Tammy Brennan, Mel Darr and Ruth Apelt. The network grew. The Ning site had 400 people signed up in weeks.

Over 3 years, FFANFF generated media stories, community petitions, and worked with ALEC, the NT Greens, Friends of the Earth and ACF to keep attention on the danger of uranium mining. Spokespeople addressed rallies, community meetings and council.

Key to the success of FFANFF was the creativity of actions such as the regular Friday ‘Pram Jams’, where parents took to the streets with their kids and staged ‘sit ins’ at Cameco’s office, the Alice Springs Council Chambers and MP’s offices. These colourful and peaceful protests drew a lot of attention.

FFANFF raised funds with regular cake and chai stalls, where community members showed their support by baking amazing treats and donating time and money to the cause. Local businesses also donated to the campaign, supplying resources like banners, stickers, balloons and other supplies that gave FFANFF a strong public profile.

Who could forget the brave volunteers who handed out the memorable “FINKE ABOUT IT” sticker to campers at the Finke Desert Race. The Finke trail was meant to run straight through the Angela Pamela site.

FFANFF and ALEC worked together in the lead up to the 2010 Territory election and the 2011 Federal election to put pressure on candidates. All this hard work paid off when community pressure secured a moratorium on the exploration license!

FFANFF was innovative, being early adopters of digital campaigning, a legacy website can be found here: https://ffanff.wordpress.com/

So many people volunteered their time in so many different ways and this was why the campaign was a success.

Founder Isabelle Kirkbride accepted the Silver Bilby award on behalf of all these amazing people – too many to mention! You know who you are -respect.

Isabelle Kirkbride

2011

Campaign leader - Angela Pamela Uranium Mine campaign

From 2008 to 2011, Isabelle inspired and led an incredibly successful grassroots campaign by FFANFF against the proposed Angela Pamela Uranium Mine. Her story is very important and ALEC is proud to have supported it. We let Isabelle tell it:

“Families For A Nuclear Free Future (FFANFF) sprang to life after a heated discussion on a starry night around a fire in an Alice Springs backyard. Arlo, my second born son was asleep in my arms and I was being challenged by a friend of a friend about my opposition to the uranium mining industry. I was horrified about the recent granting of the Cameco exploration license at ‘Angela Pamela’, only 23 kms from town and was appalled by this person’s opinion that the U-mine industry should be welcomed in Alice.

“So, what are you gonna do about it?”

My experience and action of opposing the nuclear industry began at the Jabiluka blockade in 1998 where I spent 8 months. I threw myself then fresh from the city, along with the many, many other driven and selfless individuals, into the fight for the security and safety of Mirrar land from uranium mining. So, this fiery conversation really riled me up! The challenge was on, and thanks to that conversation FFANFF took over my life for the next 4 years and I became part of a fantastic, simple and effective community campaign driven by mothers, which really made a difference.

I went home that night, put the children to bed and couldn’t sleep. The next day I rang my close friend Tanya Howard who also had young children and said – “I’ve got an idea, let’s do this!”. We started sharing, friends joined us. Website, social networking site (before Facebook we used Ning), Solar not Nuclear family picnics, flyers, screen-printing T-shirts, banners, friends, kids, community, we can do this! We can stop Cameco from mining uranium in Alice Springs. Why can’t we?

We had meetings in the park pushing children on swings, sitting under trees eating fruit and in backyards with the children crawling all over us and many late-night phone conversations whispering next to sleeping babies, scheming. Harriet Gaffney, Lisa Russanen, Alison Hittman, Elissa Pernu, Julia Hengstler, Sasha Kiessling, Suzie Ciavatta, Rachel O’Leary, Sarah Holder, Katy Allen, Lucy Stewart, Margaret Carew, Tammy Brennan, Mel Darr, Ruth Apelt. The network grew. The Ning site had 400 people signed up in weeks. Tanya was an excellent media spokesperson and wrote the best media releases. She was also my most encouraging and supportive FFANFF sister during this time who was truly dedicated to the campaign.

We ran a Chai stall at the first Wide Open Space Festival and sold a lot of cake raising funds for the campaign. With babies on our backs, we served chai into the night behind our painted banner. The first Pram Jam, only weeks after the network started, was on Arlo’s 1st birthday, 14.11.2008. I cried. What a way to celebrate a child’s first birthday. But we were spurred on by the little lives of our children, by the dust rolling in from the old south road potentially carrying radiation, and by the real, big, dirty threat of Alice Springs becoming a uranium mining town.

I breast fed late into the nights while working on the computer, searching out Cameco uranium mine workers in Ontario Canada, listening to their stories, trying to connect, emailing Helen Caldicott, updating the Ning site and talking to FFANFF’ers online, setting up petitions.

We dressed up and smiled radiantly down the mall in the Desert Festival parades with gold tiaras and children in ‘Solar Not Nuclear’ wheelbarrows.

If ALEC campaigned, if Alice Action actioned, if local Doctors spoke up, if the Greens opposed, if the Super Raelene Bros sang out, if FFANFF spoke out! If we all mobilised, we would be heard!

We went to public meetings; I cut my hair into a bob and wore pearls to meet Minister Kon Vatskalis and my knees shook behind the microphone as I spoke.

Then at last we were heard. The Labour govt, due to community opposition, would not continue to approve the Cameco uranium exploration at Angela Pamela. It had become an election promise. A similar opposition govt announcement followed. Cameco left town.

[On 29 Sept 2010 the Financial Review reported “NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson cited strong opposition to the mine from the Alice Springs community and the adverse effect on tourism for his decision”].

We did it. Exhausted and elated after 4 years, we rolled up the FFANFF Stop Ang Pam banner. Thankyou to all who campaigned during this time and to the children who came along with us. It wasn’t possible without you all”.

Sunil Dhanji

Landcare Champion 2018

Sunil has been a key driver of the Landcare movement in Alice Springs since 1999. He never seeks the limelight, but if you ask anyone about Landcare in Alice Springs then Sunil’s name springs forward as the torch-bearer.

Sunil has always worked in the NGO sector, first for Greening Australia (1999-2007), then Landcare (2008- ongoing as of 2021), Desert Smart Coolmob in 2008 and ALEC’s Arid Edge Environmental Services (2015-ongoing as of 2021).

In the early 2000s Greening Australia set up a nursery at CDU and a joint community Landcare hub with the Centralian Land Management Association on Leichhardt Tce. Sunil was integral in delivering numerous revegetation and restoration projects, particularly in the Todd River, along with Michelle Rodrigo, Andy Vinter, Audrey Tate, Karina Menkhorst and Geoff Miers.

Sunil’s passion for grubbing out offensive weeds goes well beyond buffel grass and cactus.  In 2009, he authored the field guide Weeds of Central Australia, now popular with other dedicated weed warriors and land managers across the region. Sunil says, “I knew we needed a book when I gave a briefing to a group of trainees and sent them out to hunt for Mexican poppy in the Todd River. They came back reporting that they’d found and pulled out the biggest poppy ever, at least a metre high and dripping in flowers, and were really pleased with themselves. ‘Was it really prickly?’, I asked, fairly sure I hadn’t seen any of that size. ‘Not really’ came the reply, so we went to check it out and found that they’d mistaken a large native Senecio magnificus for the weedy poppy, proving that sometimes words aren’t enough and you need a picture as well.”

Within Landcare, Sunil has been there for the formation and operation of the Ilparpa Valley, Spencer Valley, Lower Todd and Coolabah Swamp Landcare groups, and has been president of the umbrella organisation, Alice Springs Landcare, for almost a decade. Sunil ‘leads from the back’. He tirelessly provides tools, equipment, coordination, promotion and encouragement to the hundreds of volunteers who have come and gone over the years. Glenn Marshall says “You can spot his tall slim frame from a mile away at working bees, mattock in hand, encouraging the troops. His laconic, laid back style has been consistent for decades”.

Sunil acknowledges Ken Johnson, Col Stanton, Dave Albrecht, Sue Morrish, Peter Latz, Tim Collins, Andy Vinter, Jude Prichard, Rosalie Breen, Valmai MacDonald, Glenn Marshall, Doris Stuart and her brother, Rod Cramer, Colleen O’Malley, Mike Gillam and many others as the key drivers of Landcare over the years.

In 2015, Sunil was recruited by Alex McClean as a team leader for ALEC’s newly-formed Arid Edge Environmental Services business arm. Sunil has contributed to water audit and conservation programs, transformed lawned school yards into functional arid zone landscapes and supported the development of food gardens on bush communities, town camps and at the Eastside and Westside community gardens.

Sunil has collaborated with Arrernte custodians for many years, co-managing the protection of mature gums in the Todd River corridor from fires. Prison crews have been his friends for years doing so much of the hard work clearing buffel from the Todd and Charles River corridors. Sue Morrish of the Spencer Valley Landcare Group reflects “Sunil succeeds the same way fighting weeds succeeds - by ongoing persistence. Despite everyone’s assumption that it’s too difficult, that you have to be big and tough to win - you don’t. You can change things for the better by being thoughtful, by being kind and by sheer ongoing persistence”.

Sunil has been a tireless supporter and member of ALEC. He has had stints on the ALEC management committee and readily lends a hand at events. He coordinated the planting of ALEC’s side yard at the Old Hartley St School in 2000, transforming it from a compacted bare plot to a beautiful native garden that put a smile on the face of the resident bearded dragon. It is symbolic of his outputs over the years.

Sunil was gifted a bonus from his Greening Australia days – his partner Michelle Rodrigo. They have raised a lovely son Tynan and are wonderful friends for so many people in Alice Springs. Thanks Sunil for being one of our (quiet) environmental giants.