Annie Wyatt (Evans, 1902) OBE Annie Forsyth Wyatt (Evans, 1902), a pioneering conservationist, is celebrated as the founder of the National Trust movement in Australia. Sydney’s historic natural and built sites remain today due to her efforts in setting up a national trust in 1945 to protect historically significant places. Annie Evans enrolled as a Boarder at Â鶹ÊÓƵ School in 1896 at the age of 11 and graduated with the Leaving Certificate in approximately 1902. She was a great admirer of our founding Principal, Rev Charles Prescott, and said later in life that she always tried to abide by his dictum to ‘be concise’. In the 1920s, Annie began speaking out about public issues. Believing women had a part to play, her voice was often heard at various local meetings asking the question ‘What about the women?’. In 1929 she became an early supporter of the United Associations of Women. Annie first became an active advocate of conservation in 1927 when, as a mother of two small children, she established the Ku-ring-gai Tree Lovers’ Civic League. This small group, consisting mainly of women, protested against the destruction of Sydney’s natural areas. Campaigns against rubbish dumping in bushland, clearing newly subdivided blocks of all trees, and the sale of public bushland were on the agenda. The group was also asked to intervene in problems outside their local area. Balls Head was retained as a reafforested public area in 1931, and bushland at Palm Beach was retained with the help of the Ku-ring-gai Tree Lovers’ Civic League. As a member of the Dalrymple Hay Forest Preservation Committee in the 1930s, Annie Wyatt helped to preserve a small area of Sydney’s remaining bluegum and blackbutt forests. In 1946, Annie’s newly established National Trust compiled a list of Sydney’s historic buildings and places, established a program of education and public campaigns against demolition and unsuitable development in historic areas, and launched its first battle against plans to remodel Macquarie Street that would have meant the demolition of Hyde Park Barracks, the Mint and Parliament House. As a result of Annie’s efforts, public apathy towards the preservation of old buildings turned to support and the fledgling Trust won its inaugural campaign. This victory resulted in the compilation of a list of significant buildings and places within NSW. Listed were: Sydney’s Hyde Park Barracks, the Mint, St James Church, the 1815 Military Hospital at Observatory Hill, Cadman’s Cottage, Old Government House at Parramatta, John Macarthur’s Elizabeth Farm House, Lennox Bridge, and the cemeteries at Camperdown and Parramatta. These all remain today due to Annie’s efforts. Over her lifetime she worked for many causes apart from the National Trust, including the Red Cross and the NSW Prisoners’ Aid Association for 20 years, of which she was President (1938 – 1941) of the women’s section. In 1941 she published a historical romance novel, ‘Doors that Slam’, and donated the proceeds to the Prisoners’ Aid Association and Red Cross. Annie was considered ‘odd’ at the time: a housewife who struggled to awaken public interest in conservation. She skilfully combined her work—in which her husband took great pride—with her marriage and raising her children. Sydney’s remaining heritage buildings and places today owe much to Annie Wyatt and her legacy has been celebrated in many ways. She was awarded an OBE1 in 1960. The SH Ervin Gallery on Observatory Hill – the main National Trust building – has a room name the Annie Wyatt Room. An azalea and a stone seat in the Swain Reserve have been named in her memory. And the Annie Wyatt Reserve, located in Palm Beach overlooking the ocean, conserves a small sample of bushland in a similar condition to that when the area was first settled. Annie is remembered as a conservationist, a lover of colonial history, and a humanitarian. She had great vision and determination and would quietly but consistently discussed issues with an infectious enthusiasm, an enthusiasm which attracted sympathisers to her cause. 1. OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) is now an AO (Officer of the Order of Australia) for ‘Distinguished service of a high degree to Australia or to humanity at large’.