Wilderness Gala raises $40,000 for Green Gully
By Carmen Welss
PR
Manager, Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife
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Wilderness Gala raises $40,000 for Green Gully |
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| An evening’s entertainment on an island fort within sight of the Sydney Opera House raised over $40,000 – enough to buy 400 hectares of wilderness stronghold for the endangered Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies.
The occasion was the Wilderness Gala on Fort Denison, the Foundation's biggest annual fund-raising event. All the money raised at the gala will go towards the $1.3 million total needed to buy the 13, 000 hectare Green Gully wilderness area in Northern NSW. ABC presenter Richard Morecroft's speech about wilderness and wildlife captured the imagination of the 159 guests who attended the gala on October 29. As the guest speaker he shared his own adventures in the wild with the audience. Among the guests were actress Wendy Hughes and The Hon. Tom Lewis, former premier of NSW and founder of the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife. Richard Morecroft described awe inspiring encounters with Leopard Seals in Antarctica and turtles off Galapagos. His personal wilderness experiences were the motivation to speak at the gala.
At $100 per hectare, Green Gully's wilderness seems a far cheaper deal than real estate in Sydney's eastern suburbs or the north shore, where most of the guests reside. Richard Morecroft urged his audience to appreciate Australia's wild natural places for the priceless value and breathtaking beauty, even if most of us will never get to visit these places. Closing
his speech Richard Morecroft put his $100 dollars down and bought a hectare
of Green Gully. The appeal will run until March 2004.
The success of the night is thanks to the volunteer committee comprising Michelle Broinowski of Parsley Bay, Fiona Wilson of Bellevue Hill, Lisa Kench of Longueville and Suzanne Maple-Brown of Edgecliff. According to guests and Foundation directors, the four volunteers have staged the best of the three Fort Denison dinners that the Foundation has hosted so far. You too can buy a
hectare or more of land for the Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies by contributing
to the Green Gully Appeal. |
