WEPA is proud to announce that our Vice-President, Gay Spies, was short-listed for Nature Conservation Council’s 2024 Environment awards.

Gay was nominated for the Allen Strom Hall of Fame Award which celebrates individuals who have been actively involved in the conservation movement for many years, have made a constant and invaluable contribution to the environment and have displayed qualities of integrity, reliability and commitment. The Nature Conservation Council’s Hall of Fame was established in memory of the late Allen Strom’s untiring dedication to conservation and education in NSW.

Although Gay did not win, she was among a small group of finalists all of whom had shown the dedication and commitment worthy of the award.

Gay is a dedicated community activist, with an impressive track record. She and her husband Harold were founding members of WEPA, and Gay served as president from 1987 to 2020 and continues to be actively involved as Vice-President. In addition to her tireless work for WEPA she has participated in, founded and led many local environmental committees. These include roles on the Nature Conservation Council Executive, Total Environment Centre Management, Trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, Castlecrag Progress Association and many others, including a vast array of Willoughby Council Advisory Committees.

Gay has been integral to WEPA’s successes, with extensive achievements through environmental campaigns, including:

• Flat Rock Gully transition from waste dump to bushland haven during the 1980s
• Saving Flat Rock Gully a second time when slated as a dive site for the Northern Beaches tunnel in 2023. The project was officially cancelled in 2023
• Campaigning for a Bushland Plan of Management across Willoughby reserves, adopted by Willoughby Council – the second council in NSW to adopt a bushland POM
• The Sugarloaf Bushland regeneration project – several grants and 25 years of work uncovered a series of beautiful waterfalls and regenerated bushland
• The Foreshore Building Line Campaign, which was a hotly contested issue in the 1990s when a small number of residents sought to develop their properties in ways which would have severely damaged the bush, and diminished local amenity. WEPA campaigned hard to maintain the location of the line and to strengthen it where possible.

In addition to committees and campaigning, Gay has an extensive knowledge of native plants endemic to the area, providing valuable advice to those buying plants at WEPA native plant stalls at community events.

You can read more of WEPA’s history in this article by Gay when she stepped down as President in 2020.

Gay continues to inspire us and we celebrate this acknowledgement of her ongoing commitment to the environment and our community.