5/8/45 - 7/6/98
Artist, Builder, Beekeeper, Botanist, Dinosaur Tracker, Environmentalist, Bushwalk Guide, Naturalist
He was an ordinary man who was extraordinary in his concern and efforts for the community. He was passionately committed to the preservation of the local natural environs and to educating himself and others about Broome’s unique natural environment and the need to protect it. Paul arrived in Broome with his wife Joyce and son Keven in 1974 when the road in from the south was unsealed. He was looking for the "best place in the world" and found here what he described as a "chocolate box". He liked this rich cultural mix of peoples living in apparent harmony. Encouraged by Joyce’s desire to become involved in the community, Paul helped her to re-establish a Girl Guides Association which mostly involved taking local people on trips up the coast and exchanges with the Karratha Guides. Paul was a painter himself and began conducting art classes in the Broome prison. He encouraged the prisoners by selling their artworks and using the funds to purchase more materials so that they could continue painting. In 1976 he assisted in establishing the Broome Arts and Crafts centre. At this time he also began instructing some of the young locals in martial arts. Up to 150 kids would gather on the school oval on Friday evenings for exercises and games. Things were getting out of hand! Paul was invited to join a steering committee to establish a Police and Citizens Youth Club. Through major fundraising efforts they were able to attract further Shire and Government funding for land, a building and outdoor sporting facilities. Paul was one of three people who were awarded life membership in 1983 and he watched PCYC flourish to keep Broome’s increasing youth population involved in supervised sport and recreation. Paul’s love of the bush and inquisitive mind motivated him to pursue his own study of the flora and fauna communities of the Kimberley region. He spent time with local aboriginal people trying to understand their view of the bush; identifying bush fruits, birds, insects and animals and studying the medicinal uses of native plant species. He was as good as illiterate when he migrated with his family from England under the migrant assistance scheme but overcame this obstacle with characteristic determination and learnt all the botanical and local names for the species he encountered. Paul was a founding member of the Kimberley Field Naturalists Club, an informal group involved in practical recreational pursuits such as taking kids bushwalking and exploring reefs up the coast. A notable achievement of the Field Nats was in securing gazettal of Riddell Beach as a shell closure which prohibits the collecting of molluscs. Paul assisted in a count of the Ruby Murex seashell (Chicoreus Rubiginosus - Reeves 1845) which led the group to believe that it only appeared in significant numbers along this small patch of coast. The species does however occur in other areas. Paul walked much of the coast from Broome to Crab Creek and Manari.
He undertook many expeditions with other like-minded people who
became the core group of the Broome Botanical Society Inc. The society’s
earliest aim was "to design, construct, and operate a perpetual
Botanical Garden for educational and recreational purposes."
The Shire of the day however, was not supportive of such a venture
within the Broome townsite. It was Paul’s suggestion for a
proposed garden site between Buckley’s outcamp up to and including
the old gravel leases on Waterbank Station, that has been included
in the current planning for this area. This site is appropriate
as it contains within a relatively small area; sea, mangrove and
salt marsh, dune system, saltwater paperbark forest, vine
thicket, gravel and pindan and its vegetation as well as sites
of significance to the aboriginal community. |
| In 1983 the Botanical
Society was able to establish gardens at the Broome Courthouse
with the help of Commonwealth Employment Project funds. They laid
paths, constructed pergolas, removed the old tennis court, planted,
and laid reticulation. The gardens provide an oasis in the town
centre and later became a practical and attractive site for the
Saturday morning markets. |
 Broome Courthouse Gardens |
Paul became President of the Botanical Society
in 1984. At this time its aims were broadened to include: …"and
to protect fragile ecosystems in the Broome environs." Vine
thickets between Barred Creek and Price’s Point on the
Dampier Peninsula, contain plant species occurring at their extreme
southern limit, for example, Mimusops elengi, or, Mamajen
and these areas became a major focus of Botanical Society research.
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| Photo's:
Broome and Beyond, CALM. |
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| Broome town contains the southernmost occurring vine thicket in Western Australia, between Gubinge Road and Cable Beach. Paul saw a great need to protect these areas. He referred to the vine thickets as "remnant rainforest" because he believed this term was more easily identifiable in people’s imaginations and would help them to understand the value of conserving these areas. In 1986 the Botanical Society met with Lord Alistair McAlpine
to try to convince him to halt his plans to build a golf course
along the 7 kilometres of coast from Cable Beach to the Turf Club.
Paul really took this challenge on board; he created a grid map
of the area and enlisted the help of volunteers to mark out every
rainforest tree, medicinal and bush tucker plant and collected
bird and reptile lists which he then presented to Lord McAlpine
as an impassioned plea. The bid was successful and the golf club
plans abandoned. |
| Paul continuously
lobbied the Shire and State Government to have these areas protected.
Eventually, on the recommendation of State Planning advisers,
the State Government accepted the idea of a coastal park which
now exists between Hill 22 and the racecourse and includes the
Gubinge Rd. vine thicket. Negotiations between the Shire, Rubibi
and CALM continue as to the best ways to manage the park. |
 Paul Foulkes at the Gubinge Road nature trail. Photo: Broome and Beyond, CALM. |
| Paul and others from the Broome Botanical Society were founding members of the Kimberley Conservation Group which really was forced to form in 1985, in order to deal with the broad range of environmental issues arising in Broome at the time.The group became involved in disputes with mining companies when they lodged objections to mineral exploration in vine thickets and coastal sand dune systems. They attracted support from aboriginal groups for the first time, as this was also an issue of aboriginal heritage, and secured a landmark court ruling in 1991 which prevented sand mineral exploration between Cape Frazier and Cape Leveque.
THE HONEY MAN Paul had maintained a childhood interest in drawing plants and flowers and in 1984 started writing monthly articles on local flora and fauna with accompanying hand drawings for the now extinct but well-remembered Broome News magazine, enlisting the help of colleagues Tim Willing and John Martin to overcome his difficulty with the written word! Paul’s grandfather and father had kept bees and as a child
Paul had kept some in cardboard boxes. Bee-keeping seems like
a natural occupation for a flower lover and Paul became well known
for his honey stall at the Broome Courthouse Markets. Toothpicks
were supplied for sampling an amazing array of honeys with names
like: Desert Rose, Kimberley Gold, Red River Gum and his unique
Mangrove honey. You could fill a 500g jar, if you brought your
own, with whatever variety was on tap for about $1.50! Paul also
sold his own blend of bush tea and fresh pancakes with honey,
banana and cream served in enamel cups and plates; a favourite
Saturday morning breakfast for many stall-holders and visitors.
His stall exhibited a huge poster of a feral cat and provided
another avenue for Paul to raise awareness of the need to care
for our environment. A BLAST FROM THE PAST |
| In 1987 Paul made
a discovery that became what he described as "the most important
thing in [his] life; more spectacular than the Bungle Bungle."
He was aware of a dozen or so dinosaur
footprints at Gantheaume Point that had been known to local
people for a long time and form part of an aboriginal dreamtime
story about Marella the emu. This story belongs to the Djugun-Yawuru
group. |
 Gantheaume Point, Broome |
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His fascination led him along 100 kilometres of the Broome coastline from Cape Frazier to Manari where he discovered one of Broome’s "ancient secrets". What was originally scoffed at as a flight of fancy, became reality when Dr John Long from the West Australian Museum and Dr Tony Thulborn from Queensland University authenticated Paul’s claim. Together they were able to positively identify over twelve types of dinosaur footprints, including a number of previously unknown species’, and many fossil plants. Paul, with his fertile imagination, created some of his own ideas about the lifestyles of these great creatures. This area is now recognized worldwide as a major palaentological site, due largely to Paul’s work and he suggests that people walk carefully around Broome as it is a fossil record containing imprints of our history. Paul was an honorary Shire Ranger. He assisted in the construction of the original buildings at the Broome Bird Observatory and designed the original bushwalking trail there in 1988. He also designed and helped to construct walking trails at Kimberley Camp School, and the mangroves opposite Matso’s store. Paul liked to keep nature’s "precious secrets" close to his heart, alerting only a trusted few to the whereabouts of treasures such as a bush bee nest and its heavenly nectar or freshwater springs on the coast. He feared that if people knew about these hidden treasures they would destroy them. In 1990 he established a business, Broome Bush Walks - five casual semi-scientific guided walks in and around the Broome area including Hidden Valley, a Remnant Rainforest walk, Dinosaur Footprints Excursion, and a Mangrove and Historical walk that included a comprehensive teacher resource kit. He made educating people his business and in this way, was able to share his love of nature and enhance people’s awareness and appreciation of the unique ecosystems that exist in and around Broome. Paul was a man to whom every individual plant counted. He went
out of his way, always willing to go the extra mile, to look for
rare plants and in the process made many botanical discoveries.
His sons Keven, Ian and Troy all contributed to this field work.His
extensive knowledge of the region has been invaluable in assisting
government bodies such as the WA Herbarium and the Department
of Conservation and Land Management. He made great contribution
to the book, BROOME AND BEYOND. PLANTS AND PEOPLE OF THE DAMPIER
PENINSULA, KIMBERLEY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA [Kevin F. Kenneally,
Daphne Choules Edinger and Tim Willing with the assistance of
the Broome Botanical Society Inc., especially Brian Carter, David
Dureau, Paul Foulkes and John Martin, and Aboriginal communities
of the Dampier Peninsula. Pub., Dr Syd Shea, Executive Director,
CALM]. This publication was the result of twenty years of
information gathered and offered for the love of it and received
the CSIRO Research Medal in 1996. |
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Paul passed away on the 7th June 1998, aged 53. A memorial service was performed at the site of his honey stall in the Broome Courthouse gardens that he had so lovingly helped to create. His ashes were spread by his family at Riddell Beach; one place he felt was home. |
 Riddell Beach, Broome |
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As the demands of tourism and development grow, so does the need to preserve the precious and fragile natural environment that people come here to admire and enjoy.The responsibility for its care must pass out of the hands of a few and into the wider local and even global community! © Josephine Mellick Last edited 13-12-98 |