Supportive people and groups
The wonderful Margaret Robertson who deserves a medal and has our deepest appreciation for gathering the historic content for the blog. Thank you so much Margaret. Photo Keith Bradby
Over the past year a lot of work has been undertaken to collate key information on how the overall Gondwana Link effort has grown. Margaret Robertson (pictured) donated some months of her busy life to help us establish a history built around photos and short descriptions of key events from the past 14 or so years, with over 500 so far identified and at least partly recorded. Unfortunately, Margaret has been dragged off into some paid work, and the work of checking and finalising all the entries has faltered (and would derail the rest of the program if Keith or Amanda took it on).
Some of Margaret’s entries now form the Timeline for this Facebook page (and we apologise for all that has been left out). We hope to have these into a Blog page, searchable by keywords, by the end of May, and to then steadily add events as they happen. We are also looking for funding that will enable completion of a comprehensive event based record stretching back to when discussions with The Nature Conservancy started in 1999.
Building an accurate record of how Gondwana Link has grown and developed is an important task. We were the first large landscape connectivity program to establish in Australia, and are often held up as an inspiring example for others to follow. So what is that example? What have been the critical ingredients? And who was there? While there are some published papers, perhaps reflecting different views, an events based history tells it how it actually happened, and people can then form their own views as to what were the critical ingredients.
An easy on the eye history can also help us all to stay inspired and motivated in the long task we have undertaken. Being able to refresh our memories of good times and great achievement, celebrating the achievements and recognising the long line of people who have made them possible seems a worthy exercise in itself.
