Vale: Tim Ealey OAM
The community paid tribute to “Dr Mangrove” Tim Ealey, who died last month, aged 93.
There has been an outpouring of condolences across the community after the passing of “Dr Mangrove” Tim Ealey, who died last month, aged 93.
A post on the Phillip Island Conservation Society Facebook page paid tribute to Dr Eric Mitchell “Tim” Ealey, for his work through the Western Port Seagrass Partnership, of which he was a director with Phillip Island residents the late Professor John Swan and satirist John Clarke.
Dr Ealey worked with local schools and community groups to plant mangroves in Western Port, which were “frequently sabotaged by ignorant people and rough weather”, according to PICS.
The local school children referred to him affectionately as “Dr Mangrove”and loved going out on foreshore planting excursions with him.
“Tim knew that the removal of mangroves by humans had been a grave error which we must work to redress if we are to save many parts of our coastline,” the PICS post said.
“He was many years ahead with this thinking.”
Dr Ealey worked as a marine biologist in Antarctica for several years and was the first Australian to circumnavigate Antarctica.
He later studied kangaroos in Australia’s desert interior, working with indigenous tribes.
In 1999 he retired to Coronet Bay, a decade later kickstarting a community mangrove seedling propagating and planting program to stop coastal erosion along waterline communities.
He celebrated his 90th birthday in the Coronet Bay hall in 2017, after which he and his wife Laura moved to South Australia to be near family.
Bass Coast Shire councillor candidate Clare Le Serve wrote: “RIP Tim, your life long work won't be forgotten”.
Lisa Brassington wrote: “Tim was an absolute treasure to our world”.
“I hope we can have a permanent memorial to his work and passions,” Lisa said.
“He was a guardian of so much that we have in our natural environment.”
He was our Dr Mangrove
Bass Valley Primary School paid tribute to Dr Ealey.
"Dr Tim Ealey worked with Bass Valley Primary School from 2004, supporting an environmental project with Western Port Seagrass Partnership.
Our teachers, and parents joined Dr Ealey in shared ideas of building future stewardship for the environment in young people and giving them knowledge about their own local ecology. This work was awarded a Victorian Coastal Award in 2006.
Our project began with a trip to Reef Island to gain an understanding of the values of mangrove habitat. We counted the number of mangrove seedlings in quadrants, measured the height of seedlings in each quadrant and their spacing. We developed the skills of wading in mud and remaining upright!
We weren’t always successful, but Dr Mangrove had it down to a fine art.
At school in our mangrove nursery, Dr Ealey would carefully sort out the healthy mangrove seedlings as we got them ready for planting.
The students referred to him as the ‘mangrove doctor’, as he described the reasons why some of the plants might fail and what they needed to grow well.
In our time with Dr Mangrove we waded in mud, picked seed to propagate, nurtured seedlings and planted them to restore stands of mangrove along our waterline.
We gazed out over the water and listened as Dr Ealey explained the links and connections of life in Western Port.
No question phased Tim. He stood in the mud with us leaning on his stick with children coming and going with their stories of discovery and questions.
Someone once asked, “Who’s that old guy at our school?”
“That’s Dr Mangrove, he’s got a really big brain,” was the reply.
The teachers and staff of Bass Valley Primary School, past and present, express their condolences to Tim Ealey’s family and to all who held him dear."
