STAWELL - Environmentalist Barry Clugston is of the belief that being part of any community means you pitch in when it's needed and don't ask for anything in return.
Despite all the effort he has put in supporting community initiatives and in particular the environment, it came as quite a surprise for Mr Clugston to receive an Order of Australia Medal on Australia Day.
"I was stunned about it really," he said from his property just four kilometres from Stawell.
"It came to me that you are automatically involved in your community. I suppose in some ways you don't realise how involved you really are until you sit back and look at it.
"Having said that, there are a lot of people who do a lot for their community. What I have done is in no way more significant than contributions made by others, but someone obviously felt different about it to put the nomination in."
During his working career and on a voluntary capacity, Mr Clugston has been able to involve himself in many different projects and has been involved in many organisations along the way.
He was involved in pioneering the development of the bush food industry on his Hons Road property. Mr Clugston started out harvesting wattle seed in the late 1980s, but because such an industry was not that well known, it was something he kept quiet at the start.
"I had a few trees on the property and let them grow before I considered putting sheep on it," he said.
"I decided there were more opportunities within the wattle seed industry than with sheep at the time so I started to develop markets. No-one else was doing it at the time so I kept it very quiet for the first few years at least."
Mr Clugston also established a trial plot for the CSIRO on various other native food potentials.
Everything appeared to be going well on the site until tragedy struck in 2005-06 when the plantation was completely wiped out in the bushfires. Not long after, Mr Clugston was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, ensuring in the years to come, he would be fighting a new battle.
The potential was certainly there to give up, but that was not in Mr Clugston's blood. Together with his wife Dorothy and children Alexandra and Julia, the family slowly but surely re-established the wattle seed plantation. Now Mr Clugston is busy redeveloping the markets for that product.
"Since the fires, we completely cleared the paddocks and started all over again," he said.
"We rebuilt the fences, built sheds and changed the layout of the plantation. Now you couldn't tell there was a fire through here.
"It took several months for us to recover from the fires, but luckily we had a lot of help."
Interestingly, Mr Clugston has since been told by someone within the industry, that he may be the only person in Australia growing a certain type of acacia, possibly in the world.
All of Mr Clugston's seed goes to the food industry to be trialled in various products, even ice-cream.
"The challenge is to get the formation of the tree and the processing straightened out," he said.
"It's a food product, so it needs to be handled with that in mind."
As well as his bush food, Mr Clugston has enjoyed his involvement in landcare and the development of environmental policies, both water based and with biodiversity.
He was chairman of Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water for 11 years and said he thoroughly enjoyed his involvement with the organisation.
"I suppose I was drawn into water politics, because I was interested in discussions early on," he said.
"Having input into water policy was definitely a fascinating journey."
Mr Clugston described the commissioning of the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline as a definite highlight, although he admitted the project was completed too late for northern farmers.
"In many ways it was too late for a lot of northern farmers, because they couldn't spread their enterprise," he said.
"Had the pipeline been finished in the 1990s we would have had a different drought, but it hadn't even started yet.
"As it turned out the pipeline is still very significant now. Getting water back into the natural river system, was an important component of that project."
Mr Clugston said receiving the OAM last Thursday would in no way change him. He will still continue giving to his community and to the environment.
"There is still so much work to be done and new things to be learnt," he said.
"I'm not sure what new challenges lie ahead, but I will be making sure I'm staying fit and ready to meet those challenges.
"Awards like this to me are a little unusual, because where I was raised, near Warracknabeal, it was just natural that you got in and helped out in the community.
"I suppose it's part of your rent for living on the planet."
Email a friend