Vale Distinguished Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick AM 12/10/1946 – 21/10/2024

Written By Susanna Venn

The Australian alpine research community is deeply saddened by the loss of Jamie Kirkpatrick, who passed away peacefully on the 21st of October 2024.

Jamie had just recently presented his research at the 2024 AIAS meeting in Hobart, just a few weeks prior to his passing. He gave a talk “Predicting spatial variation in the upper limit of trees on the alpine mountains of lutruwita (Tasmania)”. Jamie also just launched three books on his 78th birthday on the 12th of October in the company of many past students, colleagues friends and family; Ecology Underfoot, Phantasms and the Family and The Rest of Nature, Place and People in the Plague Years.

Bob Parsons supervised Jamie’s Honours and PhD years (1973) in the Geography Department at the University of Melbourne.

“At his suggestion, it was on geographic variation of Blue Gums and involved lots of field work including many steep boggy and dangerous logging tracks. Jamie loved that sort of thing. He was a lively and very intelligent field companion and of course his excellent PhD thesis led onto his amazingly productive career, always underpinned by his profound love of Australia's vegetation. His speed of production of journal papers was the envy of his peers. These included very high standard research, for example, his iterative method for reserve selection, which was very influential and recognised as the first objective a logarithm for reserve selection” says Bob.

This paper and later work have him an international profile in conservation planning. He has advised government and non-government organisations on policies and strategies that have contributed to improving the Australian Reserve System, Protected Area Management practices and species conservation.
He loved Australian flora, and threatened species were a passion. He cared for the smallest plant (even cryptogams!) through to the tallest tree. His research loves included gardens, coasts, grasslands, woodlands and forests, and the Australian Alps.

Jennie Whinam noted,

“Among the extraordinary diversity of his research interests, Tasmanian mountains held a special place in Jamie’s heart, which is reflected in the number of publications describing, comparing and monitoring changes in these mountains.  From early forays into the remote mountains of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (Eldon Range, Mt Norold), to less remote but challenging accessibility (Mt Sprent, Southern Ranges), tourism icons (Cradle Mountain, Mt Field) and kunanyi/Mt Wellington at Jamie’s back door.”

John Morgan’s summary of Jamie, which was entered into the Visitor’s Book at the recent book launch describes him as the,

“giant of good conservation science, its advocacy, and making it accessible to all. His willingness to share his stories, and listen to those of others. Nothing is too mundane for Jamie to get enthused about. He is really enthused!  And a kind word has made many a budding botanist and ecologist feel like they've been embraced into the disciplines. His prodigious outputs in the scientific literature have provided insight into many a landscape, often over long timescales.”

Jamie has published hundreds of academic papers; sat on numerous state and Commonwealth Advisory Committees, and his influence, since the publication of his groundbreaking work in 1984, has been global in changing the way people think about priorities in designing Protected Areas. He has supervised a record number of postgraduate students who are now ‘slowing down the loss of the bush’, species and ecosystems from one end of the planet to the other.

Jamie was awarded the Eureka Prize for Environmental Research and an Order of Australia for service to forest and World Heritage conservation.

“If human beings had not started burning fossil fuels, and destroying the forests of the world, the earth would be sliding into yet another glacial period. The warmth, wetness and acidity we have created through this clearance and combustion is one of the many ways we threaten the rest of nature. Yet our numbers and our impact continue to increase. How can we ensure that natural diversity outlasts fossil fuels to enrich the future?”

Christine Milne noted at the book launch on October 12th 2024, that his answers are in these new books:

Slow down the loss of the bush;

Laugh a lot;

Crawl quickly if you want to avoid leeches;

Maintain other species on the planet until the human species becomes a harmonious component of the global ecosystem or does itself in;

It may be worth acting when all seems hopeless..there are often unseen consequences for the good. (There have been changes in societal attitudes in our lifetime- Women’s rights, Gay rights, Communism, Conservation of Nature);

There is lots to be done and meaning in the doing.

Meaning in the doing, is so important in a world where young people are struggling to find hope.

Jamie has now taught and influenced a whole movement to that effect. He has empowered several generations of students and people in the community here and around the world to take action themselves; to be self-motivated and courageous.

A towering figure in Tasmania, an anchor in academia and a fellow activist on the front line of nature conservation in Tasmania for the past half century.

What a legacy. What a legend.

Susanna Venn
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AIAS Symposium 2024