Ted Fleming has won the Environment category of the 2008 ACT NRMA Volunteer of the Year Awards.

Ted Fleming is an 83 year old widower who has contributed significantly to the maintenance and ecology of the Mugga Mugga Reserve in the Canberra suburb of O’Malley over the last ten years. Born in Melbourne in 1925, Ted was a Lancaster bomber pilot during the war. After the war Ted decided to study medicine and became a GP in Traralgon in Victoria. He then travelled to England to study surgery and returned to Australia qualified as a General Surgeon. Ted moved to Canberra in 1965 where he would practise general surgery for the next 25 years. Ted’s wife passed away six years ago. They have 4 children, three of whom now live in Melbourne and one in Adelaide. Ted and his family lived in a number of locations in Canberra and at one stage owned a small farm near Yass. Ted has lived in O’Malley for the last 13 years. For many years Ted has been a long-distance bush walker and has walked all the great walks in Australia, including the Alps Trail and the Hume and Hovell walk. This hobby has contributed to Ted's love and appreciation of the Australian bush.

Ted Fleming at Mugga Mugga Reserve.

Over ten years ago Ted began to notice the apparent neglect of the Mugga Mugga Reserve, particularly regarding the invasion of weed species, so he initially started "scratching around myself" removing hawthorn, pyrocantha, cottoneaster and brior rose. Eventually Ted, upon advice from a Park Care volunteer approached Environment ACT for assistance. Environment ACT (now Parks Conservation and Lands) were able to assist Ted with herbicide and some tools. At this stage, Ted started keeping records of the hours spent in 'his' nature reserve and now has over 1500 recorded hours. Ted believes he could add 500 unrecorded hours.

Just about every morning just before sunrise, "because this is when you can better see the weeds", Ted starts work in the Mugga Mugga Reserve. Ted’s work includes woody weed control and picking up and removing litter including car parts, tyres and builders rubbish from the adjacent East O'Malley development. Ted is also a trapper of the pest bird, the Indian Myna working with the Canberra Indian Myna Action Group Inc (CIMAG). CIMAG is a community group formed in April 2006 to reduce the impact of this exotic invader on our native birds and animals.

Ted is also an active Southern ACT Catchment Group member and is currently serving on the Executive Committee of the Southern ACT Catchment Group as Treasurer.

Ted's other volunteering life is his involvement with the on-line gallery of the Australian War Memorial. Ted declares that most people, except for a few regular walkers within Mugga Mugga Reserve would be unaware of the impact of his work. This may indeed be the case, but without the Ted Fleming's of this world, quietly working away at protecting our native biodiversity the future may be a rather bleak place. There is a range of community groups working in our parks and reserves and in urban and rural areas on local environmental issues such as conservation and rehabilitation of river systems, water quality monitoring and urban remnant native vegetation areas.

Ted is keen to enlist some support for the Mugga Mugga and Isaacs Ridge Park Care activities but has no desire to be an organiser, "I’m not getting any younger and I know I cannot keep doing this work indefinitely". The Southern ACT Catchment Group is looking at strategies to promote the development of a Mugga Mugga/Isaacs Ridge Park Care group.

Most mornings will see Ted Fleming in the gullies or on the ridgelines of his favourite ACT Nature Reserve. Many an early morning walker would be greatly surprised to see this sprightly 83 year old, rolling up disused fence wire (a danger to wildlife and the public) or cutting out three metre high hawthorn plants even as the sun rises.Ted has recorded over 1500 hours in his voluntary Park Carer capacity and may have worked another 500 hours before he started filling out his Government supplied Volunteer worksheets ( example attached). Amazingly, Ted has also clocked up over 1000 hours at the Australian War Memorial.

Asked what obstacles he encountered, Ted replied "Distance is definitely not a problem, just a five minute walk. Time is of no worry, since I've long been retired" I did find things hard when my wife was so sick and after she passed away I did have back surgery (that I'd been putting off while she was sick). I find that as age progresses, the work gets harder and there are some things now that I simply cannot do."