Vale Joan Vickers 1943 – 2023
(Adapted from Sheena Gillman’s eulogy at Joan’s funeral)
The Bimblebox Alliance acknowledges the significant part Joan Vickers played since our foundation in 2014. She was a true environmental warrior with an amazing brain and a determination that we must all care better for our protected areas, and that our beloved Bimblebox would not succumb to being a weeping chancre on the landscape of Queensland.
Joan held different roles on the TBA management committee, particularly as the Treasurer, but also in the updating of the website. We valued her contributions of her knowledge in science and legislation until 2020, when her health started to fail her.
We admired her optimism about her various surgeries gone wrong; she would always insist that she would soon recover. Her tenacity was evident in many ways, and as photographer Greg Harm, a participant in the 2015 Art Camp, said: ‘I remember Joan as one who could not be stopped.’
It is evidenced in this story of Paola’s from that Camp:
‘It was already dark she arrived, with one eye sunken and bloodshot; a wrong turn on her way in and she’d had to wrestle with a particularly tight and difficult cockie’s gate, the like of which she possibly had never met in her life.
‘As she battled the gate, the handle flew into her eye, and her glasses, though flung in the dust nearby, saved the eye from a worse fate. Yet the next day she wanted to go for long walks, carrying backpack and water bottle. “What about the eye?” It was still sore and blue all round, but she insisted she could see well from the other eye.
‘Joan was up for anything going on – from riding on the back of the ute to a remote site of the nature refuge, to walking for miles with a heavy backpack full of flora and fauna books, while others were on mountain bikes. She felt invincible, while everyone was worried about this thin elderly woman who ‘could not be stopped’.
‘I too was challenged by her frailty – we joked together that I being of heavier girth had 3 children – how on earth did she give birth to 4? Soon after, the conversation might switch to her conquests in rock climbing and orienteering, while carrying a weight most would of us could not bear.
‘This weight upon Joan was the arthritis she suffered – the endless operations – her pain, her disappointment when things went wrong, and latterly – the most miserable of wrongs as she lost her wonderfully clever brain – a head full of knowledge, of life experiences, her canny dry wit, her love for her family and the environment.’
Whilalloo NR – Joan Vickers & endangered Macrozamia carei
Sheena said: This was Joan in her element as we knew and respected her as a member of The Bimblebox Alliance committee.
On behalf of our Bimblebox Alliance – to each one of us Joan was a dear friend – we are sorry to lose her from our kin. I say to Joan – go well, dear woman, know that you made a difference because we won against Palmer – we did it, and you were an integral part of that win, for which Bimblebox will be eternally grateful.
Joan Vickers – died 14th October 2023.