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BERNARD NEIL CLARKE OAM (1922-2018)

Conservationist dedicated to the preservation of Botany Bay

Bernard Neil Clarke was born 22 August 1922 in Christchurch, New Zealand, the son of Albert Maxwell Clarke (1900-1974) and his wife, Olive Leicester (1904-1974) nee Wright, who were both born in New South Wales.

 As a young boy, Bernie was fascinated by nature and developed a passion for Botany Bay ‘seeing the same flora and fauna that Bank’s did on Captain Cook’s famous voyage to Australia’. This passion led him to challenge officialdom and fight to protect the natural environment of Botany Bay and its surrounds.

 In World War 11, Clarke enlisted in the Australian army and saw service in New Guinea. On 17 September, 1949, he married Belle Laurine Pascoe in Christ Church of England, Dungog, They were to set up home in Papua New Guinea where Clarke was one of the first professional fisherman to work in the area. Interested in history, he travelled to remote areas where tribes people had never seen a white person before. He collected various tribal artifacts, some dating back to the 1800s, to conserve for future generations. Two of his seven children were born in Papua New Guinea.

 Returning to Australia, the family lived with Clarke’s mother, Olive, in Oyster Bay in the Sutherland Shire. Bernie soon became involved in campaigns to protect Botany Bay. His first brush with authority was when he was part of a roadblock set up to try and stop the construction of an oil refinery at Kurnell. In the 1960s, there was a campaign to stop an airport being built at Towra Point. This led, eventually, to the Federal Government acquiring 600 hectares of land in early 1975 to establish Towra Point as a nature reserve and habitat of some 66 species of migratory birds. In the 1970s he fought against the proposed development of a coal loader at Port Botany and from the 1960s to 1990s warned that the dredging of the bay for airport runways would lead to erosion of the beaches around the bay. In 2001 Bernie opposed the expansion of the port and the laying of a pipeline across the bay from the Kurnell desalination plant to Kyeemagh.

 Bernie Clarke was for many years president of the Botany Bay Planning and Protection Council and, in 1989, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to conservation. In 1990, he was awarded the Serventy Conservation Medal as a local campaigner and conservationist, patron of the Georges River Riverkeeper program and advocate for the Kurnell Peninsula. His story was featured in an episode of The 7.30 Report on the ABC.

 In 2000, Bernie and his wife Belle retired to Sussex Inlet from Oyster Bay. However Bernie continued his advocacy for the preservation and protection of the natural beauty of Botany Bay and its surrounds.

 Bernie Clarke OAM died on 26 October 2018 aged 97. His wife Belle predeceased him on 30 December 2017 aged 92. Their ashes were scattered across the waters of Botany Bay in a private ceremony and their family placed a plaque at Doughboy Point, Kurnell in their memory.

 

Click on the name BERNARD NEIL CLARKE OAM (1922-2018) at the heading of this story and you will be taken to his entry in the database.

 

Colleen Passfield 2019

 

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