Vale – Alex Colley – Bushwalker and Conservationist

Alex Colley 1909 – 2014

Alex Colley lived a long life. He recently passed away at the age of 104.

I had met Alex a few times, the latest being in 2006, when I went to the office of the Colong Foundation to pick up a copy of the excellent book he wrote on the Blue Mountains – Blue Mountains World Heritage. The text Alex wrote is accompanied by very fine photographs taken by Henry Gold. At that time, Alex was still working as a volunteer in the Colong office.

Alex was a bushwaker. A Tiger Walker. One of an elite group of The Sydney Bushwalkers, who in the 1930’s would complete very long walks in very short times. With very limited maps and information being available, many of the walks he went on would have been exploratory.

Later in his life, he devoted a lot of time to protecting those wild lands that he loved. In particular, he worked on two major projects involving the Blue Mountains – realising the dream of Myles Dunphy for a Greater Blue Mountains National Park and then later, having the National Parks that covered the Greater Blue Mountains dedicated as World Heritage. We owe Alex a lot for this work.

You can read more at this page on the Colong Foundation’s Website. It has their tribute, as well as a tribute from the Sydney Bushwalkers. The Sydney Morning Herald has an obituary here.

Caro Ryan, from The Sydney Bushwalkers has posted this video of Alex –

A celebration of Alex’s life will be held in June 2014. Check the Colong Foundation’s Website for details.