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JESSICA van VONDEREN: Australians are being urged to make a renewed push to preserve and protect the Great Barrier Reef, 45 years after the first campaign was waged to save it from mining. A group of scientists and conservationists was behind the campaign that led to the reef getting World Heritage Protection. This week, they went back to where it began and our reporter Kathy McLeish joined them.
(FOOTAGE OF DR HEGERL GETTING INTO BOAT)
KATHY McLEISH: Dr Eddie Hegerl is heading out to Ellison Reef near Mission Beach in North Queensland with a group of scientists and environmentalists who've come to celebrate what began here 45 years ago.
DON HENRY, AUST. CONSERVATION FOUNDATION CEO: This is where the campaign for the Great Barrier Reef started.
KATHY McLEISH: In 1967, Eddie Hegerl was a penniless 22 year old Marine Scientist.
DR EDDIE HEGERL: We put what little money we had to going out every weekend and getting into reefs learning about them and doing fish surveys looking at corals and molluscs and providing a baseline sort of study for what those areas were like.
(FOOTAGE OF REEF)
KATHY McLEISH: Surveying reef systems would prove to be important work.
DR EDDIE HEGERL: We were asked by a remarkable group of people up here in the Wildlife Preservation Society who had spotted this funny little mining lease proposal in the back of a newspaper and thought that could be bad for the reef.
KATHY McLEISH: A small local action group which included noted artist and conservationist John Busst and poet Judith Wright were fighting a proposal to mine the reef for lime.
(OLD FOOTAGE OF JOH BJELKE-PETERSEN)
KATHY McLEISH: The miner and the Government of the day believed that Ellison Reef was dead.
(FOOTAGE OF REEF AREA)
DR EDDIE HEGERL: The mining lease proposal was for this reef flat area directly in front of us right up to the crest in that area
KATHY McLEISH: But those who were against it proved Ellison Reef was teeming with life.
(MORE FOOTAGE OF REEF)
DR EDDIE HEGERL: It seemed to be a test case to get lots of reefs mined. Once you had one operation going you could say oh dead reef doesn't matter they can mine these other dead reef areas on top.
SUZANNE SMITH, WILDLIFE PRESERVATION SOCIETY: There were a whole lot of other applications for mining and oil drilling on the reef had been lodged. Their applications already had been lodged and no-one knew anything about it.
KATHY McLEISH: The application to mine Ellison Reef had been stopped but it didn't stop the Queensland Government. Within twelve months it had increased its efforts to open mining on the Great Barrier Reef.
(OLD FOOTAGE OF JOH BJELKE-PETERSEN)
JOH BJELKE-PETERSEN, PREMIER: And I say it's still that is quite safe to drill and Repulse Bay the conditions were set and laid out in that particular operation.
REPORTER: Mr Premier how can you be so sure?
JOH BJELKE-PETERSEN: Well you can be as sure as possible to be sure. I can't be sure the aircraft that I am going to fly in later today is not going to crash. Neither can I be sure the motor car that you're going to drive in. But we've got to accept do the best we can and we do this and this is how we've got to accept it in everyday living.
REPORTER: You concede a risk element and think we should live with it?
JOH BJELKE-PETERSEN: Well there's a risk element in this as there is in you going across the street a very big risk element with all the traffic that's there. We've just got accept it I take it that you will.
(FOOTAGE OF CAMPAIGN SIGNS)
"DON'T SPOIL THE REEF"
"SAVE THE BARRIER REEF"
BRENDA HARVEY, FORMER 'SAVE THE REEF' CAMPAIGNER: At one stage he flew to the UK to talk to Prince Philip about saving the Great Barrier Reef
SUZANNE SMITH: They were really switched on and they knew it had to be combated and it could only be combated by community action and community pressure on to Governments and they set about doing that.
DR ADAM SMITH, GREAT BARRIER REEF MARINE PARK AUTHORITY: We can't imagine how individuals had to deal with mining companies, Governments that were focussed on development they met face to face with politicians such as Harold Holt unprecedented.
DR EDDIE HEGERL: We were always seemed to be on the edge of exhaustion for years you know it really went on it was intensive. We went up and down the coast giving lectures to every community organisation and service club and political party that would listen to us.
BOAT PASSENGER: So what's it like after 40 years out there again Ed?
(FOOTAGE OF DR EDDIE HEGERL AFTER SURVEYING REEF)
DR EDDIE HEGERL: Wonderful and this is a particularly pretty part of the reef and we surveyed it 45 years ago. It's a bit different, not quite as many species of fish, crown of thorns damage over in this area and further up that way cyclone damage but still a lot of pretty coral and quite a lot of spectacular big bombies with quite reasonable size fish. It was really nice to see that.
KATHY McLEISH: Eddie Hegerl is still involved in the management and monitoring of the reef. He fears he's been documenting its demise. A recent report, based on his work, found that half the reef's coral cover has been lost. It followed a warning by UNESCO that the Great Barrier Reef is at risk of being listed as world heritage in danger.
DR EDDIE HEGERL: When we look at the data now from this 27 years of monitoring its very depressing in that despite the fact we've got what is considered the world's by everybody around the world the best managed coral reef system in the world we've still had over half the corals have died in that time. The coral cover is half what it was.
KATHY McLEISH: The Queensland and Federal Governments will present a strategy for the future management of the reef to the World Heritage Commission by next February. Dr Hegerl says it will need to deal with development pressure, land run-off and climate change. He's calling Australians to join the push for protection once again.
DR EDDIE HEGERL: Unless we seriously deal with these issues we won't have a Barrier Reef in the future we won't have the employment we won't have the fish we won't have tourists.
BRENDA HARVEY: I feel that there's just so much more we have to do and we're all getting too old to do it.
DON HENRY: The reef is in danger. We need our politicians to listen and act and the best way to ensure that happens is just like decades ago Australians need to stand up and say we love the reef, treasure it we've got to do whatever it takes.