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Re Weaver - June 2011 |
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Initially a private ceremony amongst friends in a private home, the award has quickly grown in status to become a significant honour, expanded to include people outside the Valley, with awards presented by high-ranking government officials such as Federal member Janelle Saffin and Mayor Richie Williamson. Joan’s credentials that attracted the award include her many years of untiring work for WIRES, during which she has often topped the list of members rescuing and caring for the most animals during a twelve month period. Also recognised, though, is her work as an environmental campaigner, a compassionate community ambassador, and her efforts in helping to maintain the small Queensland population of threatened hairynosed wombat. Joan was born in Biniguy near Moree, where she spent most of her young years roaming the bush in search of the numerous species of birds that abounded in the area. After leaving school she worked on a local property for a time before taking a job with the PMD (now Telstra) in Moree. In 1970 she was transferred to Coffs Harbour, and following her marriage to Michael (Rick) O’Shea in 1973, the couple moved to the Clarence Valley, where they raised their two sons and Joan expanded her interest in the natural world through a wildlife course run by TAFE under the tutelage of Greg Clancy. Regularly she was among the groups that assembled for environmental lecture tours, also run by Greg at that time. In 1980, when the issue of rainforest logging aroused the attention and anger of the local community, Joan was an early member of the consequently formed Clarence Valley branch of the National Parks Association. Today she remains firm friends with many of the staunch campaigners of that association, whose determined opposition resulted in the preservation and creation of the awesome Washpool National Park. Celia Smith, another honoured re-weaver, says that Joan, in her quiet but determined way, added a significant contribution to the campaign. In recalling those now distant days of controversy and confrontation, Celia remembers Joan as a fantastic, down-to-earth eco-warrior, who always made her point from a practical, common-sense viewpoint, while providing a voice for the wildlife and firmly telling the Forestry Commission and timber industry representatives that they did not make good economic sense. More recently Joan’s list of achievements have included her selfless attention to the needs of distant Aboriginal communities in remote northern reaches of Western Australia, and more lately her keen volunteer work in overseeing the vital work undertaken in Queensland, in caring for and helping to maintain a stable population of the highly threatened Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat. Far from forgotten in the presentation was the ever-supportive presence of Rick, who has always worked tirelessly side-by-side with Joan at all her endeavours, and for many years has been a highly appreciated worker for WIRES, the one who operates quietly in the background churning out exactingly crafted aviaries, cages and nest-boxes that are constantly absorbed into the ever-hungry wildlife care system. Thank you Joan, and Rick, you are much loved, and greatly appreciated. Pat |
On 3 June at a celebratory dinner and award ceremony,
Clarence Valley WIRES' member Joan
O’Shea received recognition for her outstanding
work towards helping the environment, joining the
honoured few so far to receive the prestigious Reweavers
award.
The Re-weavers Award was set up 6 years ago by
the Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition, to provide
tangible recognition and the gratitude of the
group for work achieved by certain local residents in
helping to repair the tapesty of biodiversity, which is
sadly becoming badly frayed and unravelled by human
actions.