John Wamsley facts for kids
John Wamsley (born in 1938) is an Australian environmentalist. He was named the Prime Minister's Environmentalist of the Year in 2003. Wamsley is famous for trying to create a network of wildlife sanctuaries all over Australia. These special places help protect native animals.
Early Life and Education
John Wamsley was born in Ourimbah, New South Wales, in 1938. When he was seven, his family moved to a large bushland area in Niagara Park. This is where his love for Australian wildlife began.
When he was 16, Wamsley started training to be a metallurgist (someone who studies metals) at a company called BHP. He didn't enjoy this job much. So, he became a labourer at BHP's Newcastle Steelworks and also worked on fixing up old houses. By the time he was 23, Wamsley had earned a lot of money.
A couple of years later, Wamsley went to the University of Newcastle. He studied Mathematics and earned his PhD when he was 30 years old. After graduating, he became a lecturer at Flinders University.
Creating Warrawong Sanctuary
In June 1969, John Wamsley bought a dairy farm in Mylor, South Australia. This farm became his very first wildlife sanctuary, which he named Warrawong.
Wamsley worked hard to make Warrawong a safe place for native animals. He removed all the plants and animals that didn't naturally belong there (called feral species). He also built a special fence around the sanctuary. This fence kept out new feral animals, like foxes and cats, which can harm native wildlife.
John Wamsley became well-known when he went to an awards ceremony wearing a hat made from the fur of a dead feral cat. This caused a lot of discussion and even led to a change in the law. The new law made it legal to kill feral cats, which are a big threat to Australia's native animals.
Earth Sanctuaries Limited (ESL)
John Wamsley wanted to create more wildlife sanctuaries like Warrawong. So, in 2000, he started a company called Earth Sanctuaries Limited (ESL). This company was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, meaning people could buy shares in it. ESL was the first company in the world focused on conservation that was publicly traded.
At its busiest, ESL had plans for 11 sanctuaries in three different states. These sanctuaries covered a huge area of 100,000 hectares (about 247,000 acres). ESL was successful in some projects to bring back native animals to areas where they had disappeared. This is called rewilding or ecosystem restoration. By using special fences that kept out feral animals, native Australian animals that were locally extinct (meaning they had died out in that area) were successfully brought back.
However, ESL did not make enough money to keep going. In 2005, the company closed down. The sanctuaries were sold, but some of them are still operating today. These include the Mount Rothwell Biodiversity Interpretation Centre and several others managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.
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