Margaret’s enduring commitment to the environment acknowledged

DR MARGARET Isabel Rowe’s recent Queen’s Birthday Honour, a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for ‘service to conservation and the environment’, reflects interests she developed early in life.

Her parents were keen on gardens and her father had a farming background, with their passions inspiring Margaret’s interests in the natural world.

That is something she began exploring while growing up on a large block of land in Melbourne that contained a number of trees.

“I took an interest in nature at that stage,” Margaret said.

That interest developed at Melbourne University where she studied science.

While her initial focus was on chemistry, Margaret discovered she enjoyed biology, having to study a number of areas in order to pursue her desire to become a teacher.
That led to her specialising in botany and zoology.

During her studies, Margaret read books on overpopulation and its effects.

“I saw the need for people to work on conservation, and I got to really like studying creatures and I was especially interested in creatures that grow by the seashore,” Margaret said.

As a science teacher at Leongatha High School, and Leongatha Secondary College, she shared that seaside world with her students.
“I used to lead excursions to the rockpool areas along the coast near Inverloch and Wonthaggi,” Margaret said.

Other community members joined coastal excursions she led for the South Gippsland Conservation Society, of which she is a founding member.

Margaret was part of a committee studying remaining local patches of public land for the government-established Land Conservation Council.

The committee’s submissions helped compile information on the land patches to enable them to be maintained as near as possible to their natural state.
Information gathered by the committee was eventually included in a booklet on places to visit in the South Gippsland area.

Margaret emphasised that conservation efforts are a team endeavour.

“Nearly everything I’ve done is as part of a group of people,” she said.

In the mid-1980s, Margaret heard of the Victorian Wader Study Group, something that suited her then primary-school-aged children.

“They’d had enough of looking at rock pool pictures,” she said, adding that her children were interested in the Wader Study Group’s activities.

The group has a focus on shore birds, many of which breed in the Arctic and spend time in Australia during our summer to escape the Arctic winter.

When contacted by the Sentinel-Times, Margaret was in the midst of another of her environmental roles dividing wetland plants for the Wonthaggi Seed Bank and Nursery, immersing herself in their natural environment.

“I’m working with plants that grow in mud,” she said, explaining her appearance when asked for a photo.

Members of the Seed Bank gather seeds locally, growing plants that are used for revegetation projects.

Through her work with the Latrobe Valley Field Naturalists Club, Margaret helps identify which areas are important to keep and look after.

That is a major focus of much of the conservation work she is involved in through the various groups to which she belongs, along with the aim of teaching people about the natural environment.
Field guides Margaret has written, such as ‘Some intertidal shrimps of Victoria’, help others to learn and to identify species.

Her textbook ‘Feathers, flyways and fast food’ taught schoolchildren about migratory shore birds.
There’s no doubt Margaret’s recent honour is well deserved and recognises her extensive and enduring commitment to the environment, flora, fauna and conservation.