This rather quaint, reflective seven-page memo was written by Frank Gibbons (FR Gibbons), a soil conservationist with the Soil Conservation Authority of Victoria, housed in premises at Cotham Road Kew. “Quaint” by the standards of environmental assessment in 2025, but reflective of the times (1970).
The file when originally scanned was titled “FR_Gibbons_Public_Land_Use_Guidelines_Aust_Christian_Movement_1970.pdf”. The document was apparently a manuscript for a magazine article. Anyone who knows more about the eventual outcome of the essay is invited to contact PaRC.
Frank Gibbons was a quiet, quietly spoken and unassuming officer who carries no little credit for the abandonment of the land clearing scheme in the Little Desert of 1968-1970. Among other agitation, he addressed the students in Dr EHM (Tim) Ealey’s applied ecology lectures at Monash University in 1969 and the students through the Biological Society took an active part in the campaign, including handing out leaflets in the Melbourne City Square.
Many, many individuals and groups of course contributed to a momentum of that campaign. Frank Gibbons’s contribution to orderly land-use planning was another level above quiet agitation. With his colleagues at the Soil Conservation Authority, and RG Downes its Director not least, the scientists involved in land assessment lay the groundwork for the land-use studies of the Land Conservation Council established by legislation in 1970. Therein lies a tale! For more, read Libby Robin’s book on the saga!