Go Greener

Champion of the Environment

It was sad to see the passing of Olivia Newton-John last week. Not only was she a wonderful performer and an advocate for breast cancer research and treatment, but she was also a dedicated crusader for the environment.

Olivia Newton-John with her friend, Jon Dee from Planet Ark, co-founded National Tree Day in 1996. This is now celebrated each year on the first Sunday in August. Schools Tree Day is honoured on the last Friday of July.

According to the Planet Ark website 10 million tress have been planted so far and this has exceeded their original expectations.

The program concentrates on the planting of trees native to their local area.

Newton-John and Dee were also instrumental is setting up and rolling out the One Tree per Child organisation in 2017 to Australia and the world. A Hawthorne tree was the first tree planted in London’s Hyde Park. The idea behind this program was for children to get their hands dirty and to empower children into realising they can make a difference to the environment. Waverley Council are backing this program by providing support and trees for children to plant.

As an environmental campaigner, Newton-John visited Tasmania twice during the forest wars in the Styx Valley. She fought to preserve old growth forests from wood chipping.  She advocated for companies to do things differently and was always concerned that workers would not lose their jobs. Newton-John also successfully spearheaded a campaign in Tasmania to ban the use of 1080 poison which was killing native animals in tree seedling plantations.

If you would like to hear more about her environmental work, there is a short clip of Jon Dee talking to Lucy Breadon, the Drive time radio announcer in Hobart.

Sue Zipfinger
Sustainability Coordinator