How’s this for heritage?
BOB Brown’s beloved Liffey property has received a nod from the Heritage Council in what the green movement’s founder has described as an acknowledgment of environmentalism.
Oura Oura, about 50km from Launceston, has been provisionally listed on the state’s Heritage Register.
The Heritage Council yesterday advertised for submissions on whether Dr Brown’s former home should be permanently registered on that list.
Dr Brown, who gifted Oura Oura to Bush Heritage Australia in 2011 but still visits about once a month, said he was thrilled the farmhouse had been recognised.
The former Greens leader bought the property in 1973 while working as a GP in Launceston. Oura Oura was host to the first meeting of what would become the Wilderness Society in 1976.
The 5.6ha property remained a central feature of Dr Brown’s life in the following decades. He told the yesterday that he carried a painting of Oura Oura, his “anchor”, when travelling or working in parliament.
“I’d take it out now and then and remind myself how lucky I was,” he said. “It was a place to go and lick the wounds, but you couldn’t find a more pleasant place for picnics, get-togethers, sunshine, the swimming and the river, people wandering in the woods.”
Dr Brown also met his Mercury partner Paul Thomas at Oura Oura, named after the cry of the black cockatoo.
“It’s one big picnic, Liffey, whether it’s in the frosts of winter or the hazy swimming days of summer,” Dr Brown said. “I’m very pleased these days hundreds of people visit the property each year now and I’m looking forward to Bush Heritage putting in more public facilities.”
Tasmanians have about two months to make submissions on whether Oura Oura should be heritage listed.