26 September 1946 to 15 December 2024

In December 2005, a small group of dedicated conservationists, traditional owners and land managers met to discuss the issue of weeds of significance and barriers to implementation (such as tenure). The group visited sites around the island including Bogimbah Mission and Eurong. Two days later – they formed FINIA – the natural integrity alliance for K’gari.

Two of the foundational members, alongside other giants John Sinclair and George Haddock, were Don and Lesley Bradley.

Born in Nambour on 26 September 1946, Don was brought up on a farm. He was a natural athlete and national hurdles champion. But after three successive cyclones battered the farm, the family moved to Banyo where Don attended teachers’ college before he started teaching at Chermside State School. He was, by all accounts, a gifted teacher, remembered, respected and loved by many of his students.

Don was also a good husband, meeting first-year teacher, Lesley, at Chermside. They married on 14 December 1968 – with sons Glenn and Craig born in 1972 and 1975. Life with the Bradleys was an adventure – travelling to Uluru, K’gari, the Whitsundays, and South Australia. They were always on the move, seeking new experiences and making memories together.

Not unexpectedly perhaps, retirement was never going to be a gentle exercise. Instead, Don and Lesley focussed on their passion for conservation – notably the little brown jobs (LBJs) or shorebirds, weed management on Big Woody Island, revegetation at Booral, planting trees, weeding, and watering, along with the weed management program at Sandy Cape, where Don also helped with turtle counting and nest relocation.

Don was also instrumental in ‘borrowing’ an Ergon pole on Round Island building a bird’s nest for raptors on top. The nest was used for years until the pole eventually rotted.

I first met Don and Lesley in 2003, working for the Burnett Mary Regional Group. They taught me a new respect for shorebirds and their significance for the Great Sandy Strait. Each time we caught up, I learned more, becoming a regular visitor at their home. So, it was natural to invite them along for the K’gari weed workshop in 2005.

Don was a gentle man, a gifted storyteller with a terrific sense of humour, but he was also a maverick. Strong-willed and independent (and 99% MacGyver) Don would see a problem, roll up his sleeves and solve it.

When someone foolishly told Don that he would “never eradicate the weeds at Sandy Cape,” he set out to prove them wrong. His system of monitoring was to count how many weeds of each species they removed – over the years reporting back at our FINIA meetings numbers in the tens of thousands, to hundreds, and finally after over a decade of weeding, none (whereupon he would put them ‘on watch’… just to make sure they didn’t make a sneaky reappearance).

Never one to shy away from a challenge or an opportunity. Don and Lesley also assisted with the cane toad workshop with the University of Sydney and then taught Butchulla trainee rangers how to make a cane toad tadpole trap for themselves.

Lesley told me that FINIA was their favourite group, learning so much from meetings, with everyone pulling in the same direction, helping to keep K’gari safe.

Like many of us, I will miss Don’s presence. But I can still hear his laughter and thank him for his dedication to Sandy Cape, K’gari and FINIA.

To Lesley, Glenn, Craig, Donna and Keona, and the grandchildren -Lachlan, Finn, Will, Caelan, Paige, Charlotte, Declan and step-grandkids, Mackenzie and Campbell, we offer you our grateful thanks for sharing Don with us, for his K’gari legacy and our deepest sympathy for your loss. 

Written by Sue Sargent, Chair of FINIA with the permission of the Bradley family.