Behind the scenes – the Board of Managment
IAN ROSS is a new Board Member for Wildcare and we welcome him.
Ian grew up in Brisbane, studied Architecture at QUT, and is a Registered Building Designer in Tasmania. He worked in Papua New Guinea from 1977 to 1979, and met and married his wife in Port Moresby. Ian was introduced to bushwalking in his teens, and was a member of the Brisbane Bushwalkers Club for 25 years and Public Relations Officer for Federation Mountain Rescue for five years. He first visited Tasmania in 1971 to walk in to Lake Pedder before it was flooded, climb Frenchmans Cap, and walk the Overland Track. He developed a passion for nature and landscape photography which has continued to the present day.
Ian, with his wife and three children, moved to Tasmania in 1994. He joined the Launceston Walking Club, where he was soon involved with their “Do You Know Tasmania” wilderness slide and film shows, chairing the DYKT committee from 1997 to 2013. He was responsible for obtaining and project managing a grant from the Tasmanian Community Fund in 2005 which enabled the show to convert to digital production and presentation, and the forty-four 16mm films that had been made for the shows were digitised, and a series of DVDs produced. He was granted Life Membership of the Launceston Walking Club in 2009. Ian has also volunteered with Targa Tasmania for 21 years. As Stage Commander for the Sideling Stage for ten years, he organised a team of around sixty people to run the stage, as well as liaising with local residents and the community.
He has been a Wildcare member for many years, but has been actively involved with Friends of Tasman Island and Friends of Melaleuca in particular in recent years, taking part in working bees and using his practical building skills. Ian believes that volunteering creates social capital that enriches our community, and sees Wildcare as a significant facilitator of volunteering in Tasmania, that deserves wide support by both our State Government and the Tasmanian public.
To read more about the Wildcare Board of Management check out this page on the Wildcare website.