About the New Bush Tele editor
— Pat Thompson
Hat acquired
at a Bicentennial event
of a different kind, 2001
Pat left school to become a teacher, promptly, as was often the case in the 1960's.
He taught for some years at St Leo's, Wahroonga (Sydney) and later for a year at St Joseph's, Hunters Hill.
Pat's engagement with environmental matters – leave aside an interest in and experience of the bush since school days– became earnest when he attended a meeting of the Colong Foundation in 1970.
It happened to be an Annual General Meeting and Pat promptly became a committee member. Except for a brief break in the late 1970s, Pat remained on the committee. He was chairperson of the Colong Foundation from 1994 to 2007.
You can read about the Colong Foundation and its remarkable and effective history here.
In 1973, Pat gave up teaching to establish Trekaway, conducting group tours in national parks, mainly in Australia and NewZealand. This was a pioneering business of its kind, in Australia, which he ran for about twelve years.
In 1986, Pat published "Myles Dunphy, Selected Writings, compiled and annotated by Patrick Thompson." .. and, indeed, he decided to self-publish, initially selling via Paddy Pallin and similar shops.
This evolved into a business called Envirobook, specialising in distributing books of all kinds to all sorts of outlets other than bookshops. Which business continues... and the 1986 book Myles Dunphy, Selected Writings is still available from Envirobook for $39.90.
In the 1990s Pat estabished the Green Bookshop in the city in Sydney, providing space on floors above for volunteers to run an environment centre, eventually passing the bookshop over to them.
For many years Pat had come camping at Swan Haven, near Sussex Inlet, "the most beautiful lake in the world." Then one day strolled 'to town' to discover it had a most remarkable 'common' along the water's edge. And this in turn led to a move to Sussex, where Pat lives with his younger daughter Charlotte, though spending time also on publishing business in Sydney.
With neighbours, Sussex Inlet
The criminal element, Sussex Inlet... can't they read?
