The Wilderness Society

At a general meeting of 267 members of the Wilderness Society, the incumbent management committee was dismissed and a new and trusted committee was elected by the membership. Following a period of turmoil, members met in Canberra to determine the future of the organisation and resolved that a change of leadership was the first step in restoring the reputation and effectiveness of the Wilderness Society.

"The new management committee of the Wilderness Society will be straight to work to heal the rifts and restore our members' confidence in the organisation," said David Mackenzie, the new convenor of the Wilderness Society Inc management committee.

"It is time for the Wilderness Society to get back to its core business of protecting our wild places," said Mr Mackenzie.

"We apologise to our supporters across the country for what has been an unfortunate public stoush but ask that they stay with us as we work to stabilise the organisation and take steps to ensure this can never happen again."

There was initial confusion as the incumbent management committee opened a meeting it had called, a meeting that had no official business after the Tasmanian Supreme Court ruled its proposed constitutional changes could not be heard. A meeting requisitioned by members then convened to dismiss the incumbent management committee and elect a new one.

The new committee consists of David Mackenzie (Convenor), Stephen Porter (Secretary), Hilton Sentinella (Treasurer), Stephen Lodge, Linda Siddall, Debbie Dunn, Daniel Beaver and Coral Robinson.

"This recent period has been damaging for the Wilderness Society but today's outcome represents a fresh new start."

Members, staff and volunteers all want to put this behind us and get on with the challenge of protecting Australia's wild places," concluded Mr Mackenzie.