Helping hand for the Reef
Seeing the Great Barrier Reef was a lifetime ambition for Brit Andy Ridle, who now lives here and is dedicated to helping save it.
SEEING the Great Barrier Reef had always been a lifelong ambition for the young Andy Ridley.
Growing up in Bramerton in rural England, it was not until a trip to Australia in 2002 that he finally got to live out his dream.
The young marketing executive had every intention of returning home but this foreign land, with its countless breathtaking natural attractions, cast its spell and Mr Ridley stayed.
Citizenship, a Townsvilleborn wife, and two sons, now thoroughly Aussie, cemented the family’s Under.
Now, a childhood dream and a deep concern for the planet has grown into an urgent race to save one of the world’s greatest natural wonders.
Mr Ridley does not have all the final details for how the Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, to which he was appointed chief executive in December last year, will work but he hopes it pricks the conscience of the world.
Initial ideas include engaging real-life tour operators in a marketing campaign, connect- ing people across the world with workers on the Reef through new software and enticing companies to make and market Reef-inspired merchandise.
It may seem like a daunting task but just like the Earth Hour initiative he launched, the 46-year-old hopes the foundation’s environmental projects rally the globe to a cause greater than themselves.
“The idea with Earth Hour was really to engage in a really different way, the bulk of society, which is essentially where change really happens, in the end,” he said.
“I never saw myself as being part of the green movement. In my job in London I ran very big campaigns around youth unemployment.
“The Great Barrier Reef is this natural icon which every- one across the world knows about. It’s on most people’s bucket list to go there and it’s a symbol of the state of the planet so it has more place in some people’s life than most things. “It inspires awe.” Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation will officially launch in July and will welcome two new staff members in coming weeks.
Mr Ridley said there was no shortage of talent lining up to take part in the project.
“There are certain ingredients in big world cities and one of the ingredients is people want to go there,” he said.
“I think what you have here in Cairns is some of these ingredients.
“I think you have a world city here. I think it is at least as attractive to live here as somewhere like Singapore or Amsterdam or London, for different reasons.
“I think you have an unusual situation where you have a city and a community which flies off the back of it natural resources.”
Starting a campaign to save the Reef at a time where news of the devastating impacts of coral bleaching has reached most of the world is tricky.
But Mr Ridley remains positive.
“The biggest danger with anything is apathy. The threat that happens is when you have black and white stories on the Reef,” he said.
“The Reef is in trouble, we have some issues, there is no doubt about it but the trouble that happens is it gets polarised and politicised and we can’t afford that.
“If you go telling the world the Reef is dead, or near dead, what starts to happen is people say ‘we’ve lost it’ and once the world says that, what else are we prepared to lose?
“But we haven’t lost it, we’ve got a lot of work to do ... we need to rally.”
A Far North resident for just 12 weeks, Mr Ridley is aware he has plenty to learn from the business owners and operators who rely on the Reef.
“It is very rare you get an opportunity to build a foundation like Citizens from scratch with the help of a powerful, well-run sector like tourism, with the support city government and under this incredible spotlight of what’s been going on the Reef,” he said.
“That’s pressure, that’s kind of interesting to do that.
“But if people grab this organisation and feel like it belongs to them we can do extraordinary things.”