Larissa Hale

Managing Director

Larissa Hale grew up at Cape Flattery, north of Cooktown on the Cape York Peninsula. “The teachers didn’t give us homework because they figured we’d never do it,” she says, smiling.

“After school, we were always at the beach or on the reef. We’d collect crayfish, crab or oysters. We’d chase each other with sea slugs and play soccer on the beach. It was a pretty good childhood.”

The Great Barrier Reef didn’t feature in class, but the elders spoke about it: “When it’s starting to get cool and the days are short, the sea urchins will be fat. The best time for fishing is when the wattle’s flowering. That’s the kind of thing the elders taught us.”

Larissa’s grandfather and a group of elders lodged a native title claim on their traditional land at Archer Point, 20 kilometres south of Cooktown. By the time the land was returned to them, Larissa had graduated from high school and become an administrative whiz, so she combined full-time work in town with voluntary work for the land trust.

Pregnant with her third child, Larissa began to wonder whether she had the stamina for all these roles. Yet her grandfather asked her to promise she would never abandon their land and she remembers saying, “‘I won’t give it up, Grand-dad, I promise you’.

“The next day, he died. I was the last one to see him. So I said to myself, ‘Okay, I made a promise.’ I’d never written a funding application, but a friend helped me apply and we got four positions.”

Today, the Yuku Baja Muliku Corporation (as the land trust is known) is a thriving concern. Larissa, now 35, is Managing Director, overseeing 13 staff. Larissa hopes to develop ecotourism, to share the culture she grew up with and teach visitors about the reef. Yuku Baja Muliku operates a Junior Ranger program, involving 55 local kids.

“We’re teaching the next generation how to care for the environment and we’re breaking down social barriers,” she says. “That’s my favourite part of the job.”