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President's Report
Once again it is my pleasure to report to the members on the state of the National Trust in Western Australia. You will find that the achievements of the Trust over the past year are well documented in the Annual Report and, for full details, I suggest you read it at your leisure.
This has been the International Year of Volunteers and as your President, with specific responsibilities for membership, I will direct my comments tonight towards that international theme and the Trust’s role within the community – remembering always that this is a role facilitated in large measure through voluntary effort with the support of professional staff.
Last year at our Annual General meeting, we launched the International Year of Volunteers with the awarding of three Life memberships. These awards to Sir Ernest Lee-Steere, Dr Philip Playford and Mr Harry Sorensen were made in recognition not only for their services to the National Trust but also for their overall contribution to community life in Western Australia.
It is noticeable that Trust volunteers are also community volunteers. Just as the National Trust promotes an holistic and inclusive approach to heritage, our volunteers seemed to be involved in a whole range of community volunteer activities in addition to their heritage and conservation interests.
At our properties and in our other committees, there are volunteers active in community ratepayers associations, P & C committees, service groups like Rotary and the Country Women’s Association, local government, arts groups and youth groups. This reinforces my perception and that of my colleagues on Council, that the Trust is just that – a trust for the whole community – looking after our heritage on behalf of future generations.
Indeed the Trust is part of the community and it is our role to encourage other members of the community to work with us towards a shared appreciation and understanding of heritage. For this reason we are expanding our partnerships and linkages with local governments. These take a number of forms. They include working together in historic towns, heritage appeals for places and precincts, partnering agreements for the more effective management of heritage places and Memoranda of Understanding such as those in place with the 12 Shires along the route of the Golden Pipeline Project. Whatever the program or project, active participation and commitment on the part of our partners in the community always remains an integral objective.
This year there is absolutely no doubt about the participation and commitment of our volunteers. Over 500 active volunteers are currently registered with the Trust! In the next few months, in addition to membership cards, they will also receive a “Volunteers Card” showing that they are active volunteers. One of the outcomes from the International Year of the Volunteer being advocated by Volunteering WA and government, is concessional fares on public transport for volunteers, we hope that our volunteers may be able to use their card in this way early next year. I believe that it reflects – at long last - a growing awareness within government of the real worth of the volunteer contribution to the community.
This year also saw the largest nomination for service awards for the National Trust since they were initiated 10 years ago. These are detailed in the Annual Report. I was overseas at the time of the Volunteer Recognition Breakfast but I understand that it was a very successful event. It was just one way of saying thank you to our many volunteers. I am also told that the Membership and Volunteer Services Committee has undertaken to review our award structure which currently tops out at 15 years of voluntary service. I know that among the awardees were many with over 25 years of membership and dedicated volunteer service.
It has also been my pleasure during the past year to visit properties and to honour volunteers in the presence of their peers. This pleasant duty reinforces the role of the Trust in the community as a responsible heritage advocate, facilitator and partner. These occasions have allowed members of Council to maintain their links with the many operational areas of the Trust – existing heritage properties and new projects like the Jarrahdale precinct, Luisini’s Winery and the Golden Pipeline. Again I refer you to the details in the annual report.
Paralleling the Trust’s links with members, volunteers and the community are the Trust’s links with agencies and government at the state and national level. During the past year our CEO, our Chair and myself, visited our Patron, His Excellency the Governor of Western Australia Lieutenant General John Sanderson AO. The discussion at this initial meeting prompted a visit to Trust Headquarters for further briefings with staff and the officers of the Trust. This was a terrific occasion, with the Governor showing special interest in our convenanting and environmental programs as well as a growing awareness (as the morning unfolded) of the impressive range and scope of our activities. His visit also coincided with a morning tea for our Honorary and Life Members – part of a series of regular briefings with whose expertise and experience forms part of the Trust’s tradition of continuity.
Ministerial contact across a range of portfolios at State level and positive professional relations with a range of State Agencies also forms part of the Trust’s engagement within the policy and practice of heritage and conservation. This extends through the Australian Council of National Trusts to similar interaction at Commonwealth level. The Trust continues to hear and be heard on a wide range of policy, advocacy and legislative issues at the state and national level. This is a role that our members and the wider community expects us to undertake. Through the National Forum: Conserving Nature on Private Land, the virtual State Heritage Convention 2001, our web pages and our publications, the Trust’s voice continues to reach out into the community playing a major role in heritage policy and practice.
As an historian, I am also tremendously pleased to announce that research for a history of the Trust is under way. Council made a decision to set aside $50,000 from Trust resources over a 10 year period and this has permitted us to engage an oral historian to begin work on interviewing past members and to begin sorting out our archives. We are also delighted to hear that Dr Joanna Sassoon has received a grant to write the history of the Trust in the context of the evolution of heritage conservation in WA. The pivotal role of the Trust as a facilitator, motivator and practitioner will be covered in this history. My own work on the history of Perth since the fifties covers some of the well known heritage battles of Perth – like the Battle for the Barracks – and it will be fascinating to have the behind-the-scenes workings of the Trust at that time revealed.
There is a lot happening isn’t there! Outside observers sometimes say that we as an organisation seem to be going in all directions at once. In one sense that is true. The Trust is an inclusive organisation fulfilling many roles for many constituencies. But whatever our backgrounds, motivations or interests, the National Trust offers us an opportunity to share a common vision of conserving and interpreting our heritage.
Our Annual Report is one means where we can try to bring it all together and to gain an overall appreciation of this mufti-faceted organisation. I therefore have great pleasure in tabling the 42nd Annual Report of the national Trust of Australia (WA) and recommending to this Annual General Meeting that it be adopted.
Dr Jenny Gregory
President
