Myles Dunphy and Milo Dunphy were Australian conservationists who played an important role in creating the Australian wilderness movement.
Myles Dunphy
Myles Joseph DunphyOBE (1891-1985) was an Australian conservationist best known for the protection of parts of the Blue Mountains National Park.
Biography
Myles Dunphy lived in Oatley, a southern suburb of Sydney, and started his wilderness publicity work in 1910. He compiled detailed maps of a number of areas of conservation interest in New South Wales. His original maps of the Blue Mountains, in particular the Coxs River and Kowmung River catchments, featured imaginative and original naming systems. Throughout his life he campaigned for wilderness areas throughout New South Wales.
His interest in bushwalking led to the foundation of the Mountain Trails Club of New South Wales, and was influential in the formation of the Sydney Bushwalkers and the Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs in 1932. He also formed the National Parks and Primitive Areas Council, and took steps to establish a professional parks service.
He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1976 in recognition of service to conservation,[1] and was awarded an IUCN Packer Award for Long Merit in National Parks.
Milo Kanangra DunphyAM (1928-1996), the son of Myles Dunphy, was an Australian conservationist best known for the reinvigoration of the Australian Conservation Foundation and his political activism to preserve wilderness areas in New South Wales.
Biography
Milo Dunphy was an activist who campaigned on several fronts. He was known for his work in the preservation of the Colong Caves, which were being targeted for limestone mining, and also for his contribution to the preservation of the Boyd Plateau, which was to be planted with lime trees. He helped to double the area of national park space in New South Wales from 2 to 4.5 percent.
He accompanied his parents, Myles and Margaret, as an infant in 1930–31 on bushwalks in the Blue Mountains. A special perambulator with an iron frame, a wicker basket with hood and rubber-tyred wheels, nicknamed 'the Kanangra Express', was used to wheel him through rough terrain.[2]
The work of the Dunphy family continues through the Dunphy Wilderness Fund, which purchases leasehold and privately held areas of natural significance, spending A$1 million per annum (since September 1996).[8]
The Australian Foundation for Wilderness, known until 2022 as the Colong Foundation for Wilderness, the successor to Myles Dunphy's National Parks and Primitive Areas Council, is Australia's longest-serving community advocate for wilderness.[9]
Corkhill, Anna. "Love is All"(PDF). SL Magazine (Summer 2019-20) pp26-29.
Meredith, Peter, Myles and Milo, St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1999
Myles Dunphy papers mainly relating to the bushwalking conservation movement, 1905-1984, State Library of New South Wales, MLMSS 4457
Richard Gowers (2007), "Dunphy, Myles Joseph (1891–1985)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 6 April 2015