Just Think
Grose Valley in the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area
..owes its initial salvation to legendary trail blazers Alan Rigby, Myles Dunphy and others of the Sydney Bushwalkers Club in 1931,
who saved the Blue Gum Forest from the threats from farming destruction.
[Photo by Editor 20060625, free in public domain]
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“We cannot really live for commerce alone, nor will our civilisation be deemed great until we thoroughly recognise the fact that the bushlands and all they naturally contain are gifts of Nature far transcending in value all monetary and commercial considerations.
The humanising gifts of Nature are necessary for our interest, education, adventure, romance and peace of mind.
They constitute the antidote for the evils of our semi-artificial existence. As we destroy our bushland environment we destroy just so much of ourselves. The balance of Nature is finely adjusted: upset it, and there will be a desert at our doors.
All the glory of the canyons, caves and rolling plateau of our great Blue Mountains is not nearly so much a commercial asset as it is Nature’s heritage for legitimate enjoyment, and our own gift to prosperity.”
[Myles J. Dunphy, The Katoomba Daily, Friday 24th August, 1934]. .Back on Saturday 28th May 2005, the editor was privileged to participate in a special day to farewell Myles Dunphy’s son, Milo Dunphy. Made welcome by the Dunphy family and close friends, I shared a special trek into the outer Blue Mountains wilderness and celebrate scattering the ashes of Milo Dunphy back into his wilderness home of the Blue Mountains.
Despite being blown by chilling winds and under a big blue Australian sky, our dedicated group persisted along a remote, little known foot track up to Kanangra Tops. For Milo the man and the legacy, we arrived in pristine wilderness as far as the eye could see, all thanks to Milo’s life campaign to protect it.
Milo Dunphy lead an environmental cause since the 1960s, saving Colong Caves, the Kanangra, the Komung, the Boyd, the Grose. Milo was the catalyst for what we are all now thankfully able to appreciate from the many trails and lookouts throughout The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. The legacies of the life works of Myles Dunphy and his son Milo deserve recognition and celebration.
Tags: Blue Gum Forest, Grose Valley, Milo Dunphy, Myles Dunphy, Sydney Bushwalkers Club
Thank you for sharing this moving experience with us.
I fully agree with you that the legacies of life works of Myles Dunphy and his son Milo deserve recognition. Myles’s views as expressed in the quote, show that he was a very wise person whose understanding and appreciation of the value of the natural environment corresponds to those of contemporary ecologists including David Suzuki, Peter F. Sale and William Catton an of course those of Aboriginal people.
Unfortunately such people as the Dunphys are still a very small minority in our society and those who see them as a threat to their vested interests have the means to ensure that the majority continues to live under the illusion that economy and technology are all that matters for ensuring the achievement and security of their well-being.