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| Joye Maddison (S. Eecan, provided by Territory NRM) |
This page is
dedicated to Joye Maddison, Coordinator of Wangamaty Lower Daly Land Management
Group, who sadly passed away on June 17 2013.
Joye was involved
in landcare in the Top End for 30 years. For 22 years she worked in and around
the Kakadu region as a ranger and waterwatch coordinator. She worked tirelessly
to control mimosa in Kakadu and visited neighbouring pastoral stations to help with
their control programs. She was described as an amazing lady, completely dedicated and practical.
In 2005 Joye moved
into the role of Coordinator for Wangamaty (Lower Daly) Landcare (as it was
then known) where she worked closely with the Malak Malak Rangers. She won
several grants and coordinated or collaborated with projects aimed at
controlling a variety of weeds, pests and monitoring water quality. She helped
build the capacity of the Malak Malak Rangers who now have a dedicated
coordinator and are held in high regard.
Darwin Regional
Weeds Officer Chris Collins said ‘As
a person and a weed champion she will be sorely missed. I don’t know if we will
see the likes of her again.’
I knew her as a passionate
landcare warrior, somebody that would not be beaten by an issue, constantly on
the lookout for environmental impacts, coming up with strategies for control
and taking the lead to implement them with hours and hours of hard work. And
she was great fun to work with too.
It would be great to hear
more comments and stories about Joye and the amazing work she did over the past
30 years to commemorate her legacy. Please comment below.
I had the pleasure of working with Joye on Kakadu's mimosa data. Her dedication to the environment, her meticulous attention to detail and the pleasure she was to work with were outstanding. The scientific paper we wrote together remains one of my best cited papers. I also particularly remember and appreciate her help when I did an ultramarathon walking out from a hopelessly bogged vehicle somewhere way up on the West Alligator. She was a great person and will be greatly missed. Her legacy will live on.
ReplyDeleteSincerely Garry Cook
Joye's passion for the land and her dedication to her work and to the ladies at Malak Malak was incredible.
ReplyDeleteRIP Joye
The above photo epitomises Joye. She is holding this year's TNRM calendar, the opened page features one of her photos published in the calendar. The stunning photo is of a nest of baby pheasant coucals she found in a clump of gamba grass. Joye flagged and mapped the nest. Once the coucals had left the nest, she came back and destroyed the gamba grass. She had a deep love and understanding of top end wildlife, and a passionate commitment to our environment. We will miss her a lot. Lesley Alford and Michael Schmid.
ReplyDeleteVale Auntie Joye,
ReplyDeleteYou were an inspiration to several generations of Landcarers and dedicated to the core. Your strength will be sadly missed by all. Tough as nails, your capability was second to none. Planting native grass runners on the Melaleuca Floodplains, in the build-up, says it all. A Woman of the Bush, you epitomised all 'People of the Land'. I hope you are at peace now and still looking at Kantri that 'special way'. Condolences to the Malak malak Mob, especially the Aunties, you have lost a 'Grand Lady' that was a very special person. Tim West-Darwin
We will miss you Joye. You were a very special lady and my family and I feel privileged to have known and worked with you. When we arrived at Carmor Plains from Qld, you took us under your wing, making sure we were well aware of what Mimosa was and helping ensure we were able to keep it under control. I worked alongside you as my first job out of boarding school(actually one of only 2 "jobs" off farm!) as a mimosa control officer in Kakadu. You helped nurture in me a great respect and love for the wetlands and all that it encompasses. You were a great teacher. You hold a very special place in our hearts.
ReplyDeleteMoira Lanzarin and the O'Brien Family
I have never met a woman with such tenacity and commitment to biodiversity as Joye. As a fresh and naive university graduate I had the pleasure of meeting her in Kakadu in 1994 and have held her in high regard ever since. Joye was never happier than on a quad scanning country to follow up sites and witness the magnificent impact her attention to detail brought in the field. Her goal was simple, "to look after country" and the method "tireless commitment to finish off all that she started". Right to the end, Joye was defiant to see that her work and the programmes she helped establish continue. RIP Joyebelle I will never forget you. Rebecca Kopke-Bennett
ReplyDeleteThe first time I came across Joy was in the late 1980's when I was involved in a Top End Floodplain survey. We spotted an isolated patch of Mimosa on the East Alligator River floodplain (Kakadu side) and notified the rangers. A few days later we flew over the site again and noticed quad bike tracks and no Mimosa. The Kakadu Weed Warrior had struck! Joy was one of those very special people in the Environment world that really " GOT IT". She knew and cared about the bush, the issues, how to tackle them and then acted on it. Joy was a true lady of the bush who loved the great Top End environment and the people who looked after it. All us mob that help look after the bush are going to miss her but I reckon we have all learnt from this great lady. That is her lasting legacy. RIP Joy. Mike Clark
ReplyDeleteJoye’s passion and commitment for the environment can barely be described to people who had not met her, only recently at a field day in the Douglas Daly, Joy was dragging around her oxygen pump to help her breath and was heard to say “ it’s a good thing this pump has 12v connection, I can plug it into the quad bike and still get out and spray some weeds”.
ReplyDelete– C Collins
Thanks Joye.
ReplyDeleteJoye was one of a kind. She was a unique, determined and passionate individual who contributed as much, if not more, than many of our combined teams that battled key weeds, sometimes overlooked by others. Joye did as much as anyone to keep weeds on the priority list and to ensure government, researchers, landholders and traditional owners worked together, continued to talk to each other and persisted with their weed control efforts for long stretches of time.
She will be impossible to replace and with her loss goes a huge amount of history and local knowledge about weeds, the landscape and the people who manage the land. Weeds in the Top End will doubtless breathe a sigh of relief as they, like all of us, recognised that your passion, knowledge, and experience and enthusiasm for the environment and its protection was unsurpassed by the “experts” you have worked with and led over the years. You will be dearly missed, maybe not by the weeds, but certainly by all those you have worked with over the years.
Thanks Joye for all your help over the many years we worked with you in Kakadu, Mary River, the Daly River, and for sitting through our workshops, field days and assistance with fieldwork….and seemingly liking it all.
You were an inspiration to us all.
Keith Ferdinands, Sam Setterfield, Micahel Douglas, Chris Collins, Tom Price, Bert Lukitsch, Tomoko Okasaki, Susanne Casanova, Lou Elliott, Natasha Burrows, Phil Hickey, Vanessa Adams, Simon Townsend.