John Wamsley

Dr John Wamsley (born 1938) is an Australian environmentalist. He was the Prime Minister's Environmentalist of the Year for 2003. Wamsley is known for his attempt to set up a network of wildlife sanctuaries across Australia. [cite web|title=John Wamsley - Prime Minister's Environmentalist of the Year 2003|work=Minister for the Environment and Heritage Media Releases|publisher=Department of the Environment and Water Resources|date=2004-07-14|url=http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/env/2003/mr31may303.html|accessdate=2007-08-29]

Wamsely was born in Ourimbah, New South Wales in 1938. His passion for Australian wildlife was born when the seven year old Wamsley's family moved to a 67 hectare bushland block at Niagara Park. At age sixteen Wamsley became a trainee metallurgist with BHP. Dissatisfied with the job he became a labourer in BHP's open-hearth furnaces and worked a second job renovating run down houses. By age 23 Wamsley was a millionaire. Approximately two years later Wamsley entered the University of Newcastle, Australia. The thirty year old Wamsley graduated with a PhD in Mathematics and moved to Flinders University to lecture.cite news|last=Radford|first=Leigh|title=John Wamsley|work=Rural Legends|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|url=http://www.abc.net.au/rural/legends/stories/7_1.htm|accessdate=2007-08-29]

June 1969 saw the purchase of Mylor, a degraded dairy farm that was to become Wamsley's first sanctuary, Warrawong. Wamsely eradicated all feral plants and animals from the sanctuary and erected a surrounding fence to preserve the sanctuary's feral free state. Wamsley entered the public eye when he attended a tourism awards ceremony wearing a hat made from the pelt of a dead feral cat. The ensuing controversy lead to a change in the law, allowing feral cats to be legally killed.cite news|last=Adams|first=Prue|title=Wamsley walks away from Earth Sanctuaries|work=Landline|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|url=http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2005/s1330004.htm|date=2005-03-27|accessdate=2007-08-29]

Warrawong was opened to the general public in 1985 with a view to generating enough money to set up more sanctuaries. A company, Earth Sanctuaries Limited, was started in 1988 with a forty year strategy to create a network of eighty sanctuaries, spanning all of Australia's habitats.The company was listed on the Australian stock exchange on 8 April 2000. The float was under subscribed leaving the company A$10 million short of funds and unable to complete its network of sanctuaries in the eastern states of Australia. During the mid 2000's Earth Sanctuaries Limited was delisted from the Australian stock exchange.

References

External links

* [http://www.felineresistance.com/international.shtml John Wamsley - Slaughter Down Under]

* [http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/sa/content/2005/s1327820.htm Cat hat man runs out of lives?] Interview on ABC radio. Retrieved on 2008-10-1.