Percy Trezise; painter, writer, conservationist
Hyfler/Rosner
May 11, 2005, Wednesday 3:27 AM Eastern Time
BYLINE: By John Sheed
DATELINE: BRISBANE, May 11
A man who led one of the first great conservation fights in
Australia, painter and author Percy Trezise (Trezise), has
died.
Mr Trezise, 82, died at a nursing home at Cairns in far
north Queensland last night.
During his life he produced many landscape paintings, wrote
dozens of children's books and encouraged north Queensland
Aboriginal artists and writers.
Mr Trezise was born at Tallangatta in north-eastern Victoria
in 1923 and fell in love with the north Queensland tropics
while flying Bristol freighter aircraft across northern
Australia.
He moved to Cairns in 1956.
He began flying for Ansett and the Aerial Ambulance, and at
Cairns airport met author Xavier Herbert, who introduced him
to the local artistic community.
He later made an extensive record of paintings and drawings
of the landscapes of Cape York Peninsula, many of which he
donated to James Cook University in Cairns.
"Apart from being a great landscape painter he was
instrumental in encouraging a lot of Aboriginal artists,
painters and potters," his son Matthew told AAP today.
"These included Thancoupie, the great potter from Weipa, and
author Dick Roughsey, whose Aboriginal name is
Goobalathaldin, from Mornington Island."
Matthew said he believed one of his father's greatest
achievements was leading the fight in the mid 1970s to stop
woodchipping of north Queensland rainforests.
"The Fraser government had granted the export permits for
woodchips, and when dad and others rallied together that was
one of the first significant conservation battles in far
north Queensland," he said.
Mr Trezise was also instrumental in the cataloguing of the
Quinkan rock art galleries near Laura on Cape York
Peninsula, one of the largest collections of Aboriginal
ochre art.
He wrote several books on Aboriginal art and culture,
including Quinkan Country and Last Days of Wilderness, and
many children's books with a conservation theme.
"There's something like three dozen children's picture
books, probably about half of them co-authored with Dick
Roughsey," Matthew said.
"They thrashed out the storyline together, then they both
worked on the paintings."
The books dealt with the legends and lore of the area and
later, in a traditional ceremony, Mr Trezise became Dick's
brother and was given the Aboriginal name Warrenby.
Dick Roughsey died in 1985.
In his book Dream Road, published in 1993, Mr Trezise paid
tribute to the Aborigines of north Queensland. "Their
wisdom, mythology and art have vastly enriched my life and I
dedicate this book to them," he wrote.
Matthew Trezise said funeral arrangements were not finalised
but his father would be buried on the family property
Jowalbinna, south-west of Laura, in the same valley as the
Quinkan galleries.
A memorial service would also be held in Cairns.
Mr Trezise is survived by his wife Beverley, sons Matthew
and Stephen, daughters Victoria, Anna and Patty, and 16
grandchildren.