A passion for saving the planet

Jasmine and Ed

2020 School Captains

Brian Walters AM, QC (1971) has had an impressive career as a barrister, human rights advocate, environmentalist, and, most recently, an author.

In the same year that Brian became a member of the Victorian Bar, he took part in a campaign to protect the Franklin River from damming. This was the beginning of a career dedicated to social justice, which led him to defending human rights in front of the United Nations Human Rights Committee and becoming a founding member of the Victorian Greens.

In 2017, Brian’s work was honoured as he was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), ‘for significant service to conservation through environmental protection law, and to human rights advocacy in Victoria’.

Earlier this year, Brian sat down with our 2020 School Captains, Jasmine and Ed, to talk about his journey after Carey and what advice he has for others who want to do their part to change the world for the better.

Jasmine: Please tell us a bit about your time at Carey. What did you most enjoy, and which sports did you play?

Brian: In school, I was a gymnast and I was quite good until I started to grow, so I actually dropped out and went into hockey for a while, and cross-country running. But what I enjoyed most and had a lot of passion for – although I don’t think I was very good at it – was theatre and drama. I never had major roles, but I just loved it. I also really enjoyed the camps at Toonallook and going canoeing down the Goulburn River, I think it ignited in me a real love for the outdoors.

Ed: In what ways do you think your Carey education prepared you for your life beyond school?

Brian: Being encouraged to try out different things really helped me to find my passions. Some of those were the co-curricular activities and drama, as well as a film studies course I started in Year 7. I also ran the Aboriginal Scholarship Fund at Carey, Abschol, which gave me a greater understanding of social justice issues. Along with the other prefects, I also organised the school dance – which is what we called it back then – and that was a fun leadership experience too.

I was standing there looking out on that dripping rainforest thinking that there are people actually working at the moment to destroy this. So, it was very important to me, and I think to Australia, that the river was valued enough to eventually be saved.

Jasmine: What attracted you to studying law when you finished school?

Brian: I actually wanted to be a writer, but my parents encouraged me to do law because they thought it would provide a more stable career. And I’m glad I did. I did a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws at Monash University, so I was able to do literature, and I ended up really enjoying studying law as well, in particular court advocacy.

Ed: You have had a long-term interest in the environment and the protection of the wilderness. Where did this interest in the environment come from?

Brian: My father was an expert in mycology, so he took us on family outings to the bush all the time. We were all also in Scouts, and as I mentioned, I always loved the Toonallook camps we did with school. Once I got to university, I became quite a keen and regular bushwalker and was going out into the wild country seeing very beautiful places. But I was also seeing many encroachments on those beautiful places, like often needless roads or logging and mining. And it became quite important to me. In 1980, along with a couple of friends, I set up a magazine called Wild which was a bushwalking, canoeing, climbing magazine. I was involved in that for 25 years.

Around this time, I was involved in the campaign against the Franklin River Dam. It was an important issue because the proposed series of dams would have flooded not only the beautiful gorges and cascades of that completely undammed river, but also priceless Aboriginal heritage sites. When we rafted along the Franklin, as well as seeing all the waterfalls and the wildlife, we went into Kutikina Cave which had only just been discovered in the lower reaches of the Franklin. This cave was occupied first about 20,000 years ago and last occupied about 10,000 years ago. So this was during the height of the Ice Age, and you could see stone tools scattered across the whole floor. You could still see the char of where the fireplace would have been. All of this would have been flooded if we didn’t save it. I was standing there looking out on that dripping rainforest thinking that there are people actually working at the moment to destroy this. So, it was very important to me, and I think to Australia, that the river was valued enough to eventually be saved.

Jasmine: That sounds like a significant and incredible experience. Do you have any advice for young adults interested in environmental studies and how they can go about protecting our precious land and Indigenous heritage?

Brian: The great challenge today is climate change. There’s no one single way to fight climate change, but there’s no way that can’t be used to fight climate change. So, the law won’t save the climate, but the climate probably won’t be saved without the law. And the same goes for poetry, for music and art and every human endeavour. I think the way to make a difference is by being astute enough to see what needs to happen in the world, and to use your own strengths to achieve it. Choose endeavours that are fulfilling to you personally, but which address in some way the goal of saving the world from the current spiral into destruction which climate change represents.

Ed: You’ve appeared in some significant human rights cases both in Australian courts and before the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Why is the protection of civil liberties so important to our society?

Brian: Human rights are a way of ensuring that when rules are applied or developed, governments and administrators take into account the individual needs of people in accordance with standards that have been universally recognised across the world and across cultures, religions and political systems. I think they are a way of making a society richer and fairer. We measure the value of a community based on how they treat the least powerful, because in order to have a fair and just government, the needs of all individuals must be considered.

‘I think the way to make a difference is by being astute enough to see what needs to happen in the world, and to use your own strengths to achieve it.’

Hiking along the Rawnsley Bluff escarpment in the Flinders Ranges – Brian’s passion for the natural environment led him to dedicate his life to protecting it.

‘My advice would be to keep involved in activities outside of the curriculum, and see what speaks to you. Because it may be that what comes out of it will spark interests that stay with you and encourage you over the years ahead.’

Jasmine: In 2017, you were made a Member of the Order of Australia for your work in conservation and for human rights protection. What does this award mean to you?

Brian: It was a huge surprise because I’ve been involved in nominating other people, but I never thought that I would be on the other side. I was really touched because it is a way of saying thank you, it’s an appreciation from the community for what you’ve done. So, I was very humbled to receive it.

Ed: You mentioned that you always wanted to be a writer, and in recent years you’ve written a number of books. What inspires you to write?

Brian: My first book was on human rights. It was called Slapping on the Writs. It was about the use of litigation to silence community groups. I’ve also written two books of poetry and I’ve got more coming, but the biggest project I’ve done is called Treason, about Claus von Stauffenberg and the plot to kill Hitler. He was 36 years old, married and he had four children, and his wife was pregnant with the fifth. And he knew that in attempting to end the war by killing Hitler, he was not only risking himself, but his family – but he had to try for their freedom. He came very close, it’s an inspiring story.

Jasmine: What advice would you give to current Carey students who are in their later years of study?

Brian: I guess once you get to Year 11 and 12, you’re fairly focussed on getting those results and doing what has to be done. So, the only thing I’d say is don’t neglect the other things. The things that have really stayed with me from my time at Carey were all additional to the curriculum, like the drama, the outdoor activities, the charity work, all the other things that have been offered here at Carey for so long. My advice would be to keep involved in activities outside of the curriculum, and see what speaks to you. Because it may be that what comes out of it will spark interests that stay with you and encourage you over the years ahead.

Ed: If you could go back to Carey as a student, what would be the one thing you didn’t do that you would do now?

Brian: It’s easy to say now, it’s not so easy at the time, but I think I’d care a bit less about what everybody else was thinking of me. Because most of the time, they probably weren’t thinking of me at all. And I was probably inhibited by not wanting to put a foot wrong, when really, sometimes you’ve got to take a risk.