The Cathy Gibbons Fund was established by Cathy's daughter, Carol Hurst in 2007 in tribute to Cathy, and to honour nature, biodiversity and humanity.
To give to the TLC Foundation through the Cathy Gibbons Fund, please click here. To select the Cathy Gibbons Fund, please click the drop down arrow beside the TLC Foundation in the ‘Transaction Details’. Your support enables the TLC to continue protecting and managing nature in Tasmania.
My mum was born in Manchester between the two World Wars to a family with four brothers. Mum met my dad in Oxfordshire where they spent many hours together in and around gliders, a world away from the industrial town she grew up in. It was the late sixties when, with me in tow, that we moved to Australia with the promise of a new start.
A lifetime later, mum had remarried and widowed but was the same fiercely determined and inquisitive person she had always been. The trappings of our material lives no longer (if ever) held much interest to her. Much of her life was spent travelling to the lesser known quarters of this planet, learning about the cultures and languages of many different people.
Her library hinted of her interests with a focus on who we are, why we are here and what is to be done about it. Here you could read about theories of the mind and consciousness, explanations of E = mc2, delve into the mysteries of Buddhism, die laughing at the humour of Terry Pratchett who characterises so many aspects of human nature and then pokes fun at them, or immerse yourself in the infinite range of human experience with Isabelle Allende.
Knowing mum as I do, it could be said that she believed that nature is an extension of who we are and as conscious beings with the power to manipulate it, we are responsible for its welfare.
Mum passed away in 2006 and left me with the resources to make a difference. It is with much love and fond memories of my mum and her spirit that I chose to set up a TLC Foundation fund in 2007, in her name, to help the continuance of this organisation in its role to protect the nature and biodiversity, that is so much a part of the thriving humanity she loved, in a part of the world that I love.
*Banner image: Skullbone Plains Reserve. Photo: Matthew Newton*