Message from the new chair of the ACNT, Pat Comben

Most human societies benefit from an appreciation of their past informing current values, hopes and aspirations.

Australia is no different. Our rich aboriginal heritage, the ideas brought by Irish immigrants in the 1840s potato famine, the protests at the Eureka Stockade, the courage exhibited at Gallipoli and the constant challenges brought about by droughts, floods and bush fires have all shaped the Australian psyche.

Whilst the individuals who shaped us may have passed into history their ideas and their creations and places are still with us, providing an opportunity for us to feel the life forces which flow from the past to enliven us today.

The National Trust movement over the past sixty or more years has sought to protect the places which illustrate and continue our history and meaning as a diverse people.

Not always the grand and stately, but also the local, the humble and the intangible.

To reflect on Australia while looking at Western Australian petroglyphs depicting the oldest known representations of the human form, or standing in the shade of Queensland’s Dig Tree where Bourke and Wills died, or walking where Cook landed in NSW or sitting on the rusting remnants of Victoria’s mining heritage can each produce deep emotion.

These are the matters and the places which concern the individuals which make up the National Trusts in each state and territory.

I hope that you will look at the work of the various National Trusts through this journal and access their web sites and consider giving a hand. Support in the form of visits to the properties, gifts or a bequest are also all appreciated.

More than 80,000 people Australia wide are members which make the Trusts a force for good and the protection of that which makes us uniquely Australian.

Patrick Comben

Chairman
Australian Council of National Trusts

The new chair of the ACNT is Patrick Comben. Pat has had a long association with the National Trust in Queensland, having also been a senior Minister in the Goss State government in Queensland in the 1990s, where he had portfolio responsibilities that spanned environment, heritage and, later, education. He is now an ordained Anglican minister working in a senior position in the Grafton diocese in New South Wales.

Pat comes to the position following a 5 year period when Simon Molesworth from Victoria held the position of ACNT chair. Under the provisions of the ACNT constitution, Simon was obliged to stand down as chair after serving 5 consecutive terms.

Pat and the other members of the ACNT board paid tribute to the dedication and commitment that Simon had shown to the work of the ACNT at the annual general meeting of the Council, held in Darwin on 29 October 2006. Pat indicated that Simon had set a very high standard in carrying out the many facets of the work of the ACNT during his time and had ensured that the Trust movement remained a strong voice for heritage protection at both the national and international level’