Felicity Jane "Flic" Wishart (4 June 1965 – 19 July 2015) was an Australian conservationist and environmental activist.

Early life

Wishart was born in the

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

suburb of

Mitcham Mitcham is an area within the London Borough of Merton in South London, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross. Originally a village in the county of Surrey, today it is mainly a residential suburb, and includes Mitcham Common. It ha ...

to parents of Scottish descent from

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, South Australia. At the age of 17, she was arrested in Tasmania during an occupation protest against the

Franklin Dam The Franklin Dam or Gordon-below-Franklin Dam project was a proposed dam on the Gordon River in Tasmania, Australia, that was never constructed. The movement that eventually led to the project's cancellation became one of the most significant e ...

, and imprisoned for several days. In Queensland, she enrolled at

Griffith University Griffith University is a public research university in South East Queensland on the east coast of Australia. Formally founded in 1971, Griffith opened its doors in 1975, introducing Australia's first degrees in environmental science and Asian s ...

where she graduated with a Bachelor of Environmental Science.

Environmental activism

After graduation, Wishart joined the

Australian Conservation Foundation The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is Australia's national environmental organisation, launched in 1965 in response to a proposal by the World Wide Fund for Nature for a more co-ordinated approach to sustainability. One high-profil ...

in Melbourne, where she was involved in the campaign to have

Queensland tropical rain forests The Queensland tropical rain forests ecoregion (WWF ID: AA0117) covers a portion of the coast of Queensland in northeastern Australia and belongs to the Australasian realm. The forest contains the world's best living record of the major stages ...

listed as

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

s. In 1989, she campaigned for conservation of the

Daintree Rainforest The Daintree Rainforest is a region on the northeast coast of Queensland, Australia, north of Mossman, Queensland, Mossman and Cairns. At around , the Daintree is a part of the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest on the Australia (co ...

for The Wilderness Society. Wishart returned to Queensland to serve as director of the

Queensland Conservation Council The Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) or Queensland Conservation is a non-governmental organisation that represents all the major conservation organisations of Queensland state in Australia. The organisation have been working to protect, cons ...

between 2000 and 2004, where she led campaigns against

land clearing Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

. She returned to The Wilderness Society in 2004, where she was behind the society's climate change and marine conservation campaigns. Wishart's last campaign was Fight for the Reef on behalf of the

Australian Marine Conservation Society The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) is an Australian environmental not-for-profit organisation. It was founded in 1965 as the Queensland Littoral Society before changing its name to the Australian Littoral Society and then finally in ...

, where she fought against

environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest reef systems, stretching along the East coast of Australia from the northern tip down to the town of Bundaberg, is composed of roughly 2,900 individual reefs and 940 islands and cays that stretch f ...

, in particular coal industry development in the

Galilee Basin The Galilee Basin is a large inland geological basin in the western Queensland region of Australia. The Galilee Basin is part of a larger Carboniferous to Mid-Triassic basin system that contains the Cooper Basin, situated towards the south-west ...

. Wishart died unexpectedly in her sleep in July 2015, aged 50. In June 2017, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority announced that Reef No. 18-022 about north-east of

Hinchinbrook Island Hinchinbrook Island (or Pouandai to the Biyaygiri people) is an island in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It lies east of Cardwell and north of Lucinda, separated from the north-eastern coast of Queensland by the narrow Hi ...

had been named Felicity Wishart Reef in her honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wishart, Felicity 1965 births 2015 deaths Australian women environmentalists Australian conservationists Griffith University alumni Australian people of Scottish descent The Wilderness Society (Australia) People from Mitcham, Victoria Activists from Melbourne