Shaping the future of the Prom

PRETTY exciting, a touch embarrassing, was James “Jim” Whelan’s first response to receiving his nomination for a Public Service Medal (PSM) in today’s Australia Day Honours List.

“It’s not for me. The Prom is the big winner out of this. Because I have been able to spend so much time at the Prom you recognise what is normal, and once you recognise normal, you see the abnormal. You can’t manage that from a desk.

“It’s satisfying that what I have done is recognised and captured, a bit of a legacy I can leave for a fairly long career in one spot. There are many issues going on in the world and you can’t fix everything, but if you can have an impact on your patch that’s worthwhile.”

Today Jim has been recognised for more than 50 years of contribution to conservation with Parks Victoria. His excellence in commitment to ecological burning practises touring him domestically and internationally. Though he doesn’t take claim alone, referencing the many volunteers, universities, peers and individuals he has worked with along the way.

He was also instrumental in assuring the proclamation of the Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park in 2002.

“It was the missing bit to the Prom – to be able to protect those waters, the environment there, I think it has made the park much better, much more complete.”

As folklore would have it, a young Jim, at the tender age of 5-years-old stated to his mother that he would one day be a ranger.

“My first trip (to the Prom) was January 1953 – three months before I was born,” Jim smiled recalling his childhood adventures to the coast. Like a lot of families, we had all our school holidays down there.”

“I got to know one of the rangers, Brian, he was working at the time and said there was a job coming up on the walking tracks – too right!”

Fifty years later, Wilson’s Prom is home.

“I met my wife there – she was working at the shop in Tidal River, my kids were born down here – my mother worked there and my brother for a bit.”

From the National Parks Authority to Parks Victoria today, Jim has seen all the name changes and more importantly changes to the Prom itself.

“One of the important things about the Prom, when I started, words like conservation and ecological restoration were not part of my language.

“In the early 70s that’s when the conservation movements cranked up, flooding Lake Pedder, Gordon-below-Franklin Dam, Kakadu, saving all those joints. I got incensed – wrote letters, went to protests…

“I’d never been to those places, and I’ll bet 95 per cent of the rest of the people protesting had neither, but they’d been to the prom, and had that connection and understanding that we’ve got to save these places and preserve them. That is what’s really important about places like the Prom.”

Ecological restoration may be viewed in its infancy but there is still a lot to learn from the First Peoples of this Country.

“We’ve captured a lot of information in our management plans – to recognise and use that knowledge into the future, I’ve just glued the whole lot together,” Jim added.

Restoration of the coastal grassy woodlands, developing the techniques to deliver the right fire at the right time and managing the park how all parks should be managed make up Jim’s special moments.

“Overgrazed, an invaded by tea tree, we’re at a stage now where we’ve got grass woodland structure – the birds are coming back and the flowering plants…”

Jim’s advocacy for the environment and contribution will have an enduring effect and legacy on generations to come.

And one of his favourite places – Whisky Beach…