1987: The Saltwater Creek Action Group (one of many PICS subcommittee over the years) holds a beach rally to protest against plans to convert the creek into a Paterson Lakes type canal development. Artist Jan Bodaan (in red cape) wrote a song – “Where do you flow to my lovely” – for the occasion. The author, Christine Grayden is to her left, and SWAG secretary Josie Allen Kent to Christine’s left. John Eddy is on guitar.
By Christine Grayden
IN MAY 2023 the Phillip Island Conservation Society turned 55 years old. If you scan briefly over that it sounds like nothing much. For the handful of us left who have lived it, it’s immense.
PICS was formed in 1968 at a meeting convened by the Phillip Island Jaycees. (I joined the year after.) In the “Year of Conservation” they knew nothing much about it, so they agreed to host a meeting to initiate a local conservation group. After formation, PICS quickly evolved into a grassroots activist group fighting against a Phillip Island Shire councillor’s multi-million-dollar proposal to turn the “useless mud” of Rhyll Inlet into a marina development.
IN MAY 2023 the Phillip Island Conservation Society turned 55 years old. If you scan briefly over that it sounds like nothing much. For the handful of us left who have lived it, it’s immense.
PICS was formed in 1968 at a meeting convened by the Phillip Island Jaycees. (I joined the year after.) In the “Year of Conservation” they knew nothing much about it, so they agreed to host a meeting to initiate a local conservation group. After formation, PICS quickly evolved into a grassroots activist group fighting against a Phillip Island Shire councillor’s multi-million-dollar proposal to turn the “useless mud” of Rhyll Inlet into a marina development.