The Cassowary Awards - 2004

Each year the Wet Tropics Management Authority recognises individuals and groups who have made outstanding contributions to the conservation and presentation of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

The sixth annual Cassowary Awards were held at Paronella Park in Mena Creek on 4 December 2004. The awards were presented by the Queensland Minister for Environment, the Hon Desley Boyle.

The Cassowary Award recipients were:

Terry and Cathy Maloney (Nature Based Tourism)
As proprietors of Daintree Village, Terry and Cathy provide accommodation and services to visitors in a manner which properly recognises World Heritage values and is an example to all rainforest tourist resorts.

Mike Hopkins (Science)
Mike is a world authority on succession and change in rainforest. He has made an outstanding contribution to the delineation of the World Heritage boundary. Long-term he has worked to have World Heritage values incorporated into management using science. Mike was one of the few scientists who spoke out against logging during the listing years.

Maise Barlow (Arts)
Maisie wrote “Jirrabul Dreamtime Stories” and gives cultural talks about her life and the rainforest to school students. She assisted Jirrabul members to put together a display for the Ravenshoe Visitor Centre and volunteers weekly at the centre.

Milton Brim (Rainforest Aboriginal Culture)
Milton is an ambassador for indigenous culture, a former forester who knows rainforest well, and a respected elder. Milton contributed to the book Djabugay Country. He has freely imparted his knowledge and experiences to everyone from the Queen of England to Kuranda school children through his role as Aboriginal Guide at Skyrail.

Bill Sokolich (Government)
Bill’s contributions to conservation and restoration of the Wet Tropics, particularly in the Cairns area, are numerous. His work in community education, forest and stream bank restoration and development of propagation techniques deserves recognition. Bill was a pioneer in conservation in Cape Tribulation in the late 1970s and played a key role in achieving national park status and World Heritage listing for the region. In recent years he has played a major role in helping farmers, landcare groups, catchment management groups, and conservation groups with revegetation projects in his role as coordinator for the Cairns City Council’s tree planting scheme.

Russell Fry (Neighbour)
Russell is a dairy farmer who has been extremely active within the industry, and also in a voluntary capacity, on numerous community committees including Johnstone River Landcare Group. He has recently been recognised as a finalist in the Landcare Awards. Russell is also a member of TREAT and has worked tirelessly on many revegetation projects and school projects particularly with the Yungaburra School. Russell is very passionate about land management, water efficiency, weed control and revegetation. If there were more Russell Frys in the world, farming and the environment would be much more sustainable and healthy.

Helen Adams (Unsung Hero)
Helen is dedicated to conservation issues in a non-confrontational, farmer-friendly way. She has been a driving force in many land management projects including Landcare, TREAT, the Bat Hospital and Envirocare. She is the recently retired coordinator of the Barron River Integrated Catchment Managment group.

Margit Cianelli (Unsung Hero)
Margit is a committed wildlife carer and stalwart of the Tree Kangaroo and Mammal Group. She has worked tirelessly to reduce road kills. With boundless enthusiasm, skill and endurance as a wildlife carer, she has added much to our knowledge about wildlife diets and behaviour, especially for the Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo.

Allen Sheather (Community Conservation)
Allen has been a dedicated and enthusiastic worker with the Daintree Cassowary Care Group and Daintree Rainforest Foundation since their inception (about 10 years ago). He has spent endless hours organising and implementing revegetation works around the Daintree and Mossman areas. Allen is a strong advocate for the Daintree Rainforest Foundation. He has been involved in the Wet Tropics Community Consultative Committee for 9 years, and the Cassowary Advisory Group for 7 years. His voluntary commitment to the environment over the past 15 years has been exceptional.

Jax Bergersen (Community Conservation)
Led by Jax Bergersen since 1995, Kuranda Envirocare is an environmental organisation with particular emphasis on saving the cassowary and developing the Kuranda wildlife corridor. With Jax’s untiring enthusiasm, the group has tackled environmental issues in the area with energy. Jax has spent hundreds of hours raising awareness about World Heritage values in schools, community groups, at shows and demonstrations and lobbying all levels of government for protection of the natural environment.