NPA ACT was founded in 1960 to lobby for a national park for the national capital, thanks largely to the efforts of a CSIRO botanist, the late Dr Nancy Burbidge. The dream of a national park by those early NPA members was realised in 1984 with the proclamation of Namadgi National Park.
First-hand published accounts and our Oral History Project provide a comprehensive record of the campaign to establish Namadgi National Park
Oral History Project
This Oral History Project was initiated in 1996 by founding members Reg Alder and Fiona MacDonald Brand and the Management Committee as a contribution to the 40th anniversary of the NPA ACT in 2000. Reg and Fiona conducted some initial recorded interviews between 1996 to 1998, and further interviews were recorded in late 1999 and early 2000 by Matthew Higgins, a freelance historian contracted to complete the project.
The original audio tapes and digital versions (MP3 format), and versions of the document in Word and PDF were deposited with the ACT Heritage Library in 2011.
Click on the names below to download each pdf.
Interviews
Gazettal of Namadgi National Park
In this short MP4 file produced for the 40th anniversary of the gazettal of Namadgi National Park on 3 October 1984, an early NPA campaigner for ‘a national park for the national capital, the late Fiona McDonald Brand, and the late Tom Uren, who was federal Minister for Territories and responsible for the gazettal of Namadgi, reminisce on the campaign that led to the establishment of the park.
The MP4 file was extracted from a 60-minute DVD made for ACT Parks for the 30th anniversary of Namadgi by NPA member Malo Gledhill.
Papers and publications
- Namadgi 40th anniversary supplement, This special feature celebrating the 40th anniversary of the gazettal of Namadgi National Park on 3 October 1984 was published in the September 2024 NPA Bulletin. The supplement was supported by funding from the ACT Government’s 2024 – 25 Environmental Grants Program - Namadgi 40th anniversary supplement [pdf].
- Paper by Neville Esau, published in the papers from the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Third National Wilderness Conference in 1983
- NPA policy document Caring for Namadgi Together to assist the preparation of the first Plan of Management for Namadgi in 2002
- Presentation by founding and life member Fiona McDonald Brand at the 20th anniversary of the Declaration of Namadgi National Park on her memories of those early days
- Presentation to Interim Namadgi Board 7/11/03
- NPA Bulletin, 40th anniversary issue, March 2000