OBITUARY Paul Robert Foulkes By KEVIN F. KENNEALLY Science Publications Unit, Department of Conservation and Land Management, Locked Bag 29, Bentley Delivery Centre, WA 6983 Broome and the Kimberley lost one of born. It was during this time in Cairns its most passionate advocates for the that Paul developed an interest in shell environment with the death of Paul collecting. Foulkes, on Sunday 7 June 1998, aged In 1974 the family drove from Cairns to 52, after a short illness. During his life Broome via Melbourne and Perth. Paul Paul had been an artist, builder, had decided that Broome offered the beekeeper, naturalist, discoverer of family a new future. The harshness and dinosaur footprints, and bush walk the raw beauty of Broome appealed to guide. These accomplishments are even him. For the first time in his life he felt more remarkable given that Paul was at home. The early 1970s had attracted dyslexic and had difficulty reading and to Broome a number of people seeking writing. alternative lifestyles. Paul connected Paul was born on 5 August 1945 in with these people and the local Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, Aboriginal people. In his words “he England. For much of his childhood he invested in the environment”. lived in a caravan at Shirlet Forest, near On arrival in Broome the family were Much Wenlock, Shropshire, where his accommodated at the Bali Hai Caravan grandfather was the gamekeeper. As a Park in a tent After their third son, child he had a bad speech impediment Troy, was born Joyce insisted that a (he stuttered) and attended speech caravan be purchased to accommodate therapy classes. As a result his education the growing needs of the family. During suffered and he was very shy. He these early days in Broome, Paul did developed an abiding interest in natural building work for Dr Peter Reid and history and began to sketch birds and Kim Male of Pearls Proprietary Limited. flowers. The forest workers encouraged Later he established his own building his talents and taught him about wild business. fruits and medicinal plants In 1976 Paul began keeping bees and On leaving school Paul was apprenticed collecting the honey. He was fascinated as a plasterer. In 1966 he met Joyce Hull by the number of plants his bees were and in 1968 they married. The first of visiting and wanted to find out their their three sons, Keven, was born in scientific names. Paul made contact 1968. In 1970, under the Federal with Tim Willing, the then Broome Government’s migrant assistant scheme, Shire gardener, and they began they arrived in Melbourne aboard the collecting plant specimens. These were “Fairstar”. They stayed in Melbourne sent to me at the Western Australian for three years before travelling north to Herbarium for identification and thus Cairns where their second son lan was began a long-term collaboration 289 between the three of us, culminating Table 1. Plant illustrations by Paul Foulkes in many-shared plant collecting published in the "Broome News”. expeditions. There are 428 P.R. Foulkes specimens lodged in the WA Date Species Herbarium. Over many years, Paul June 1986 Hakea macrocarfxi assisted many interstate botanists when July 1986 Acacia tumida they visited Broome on plant collecting August 1986 Lysiphyllum cunninghamii expeditions September 1986 Persoonia falcata The 1980s in Broome was an era of October 1986 Ptilotus exaltatus unprecedented development, to a large November 1986 Capparis lasiantha extent initiated by Lord Alistair March 1987 Terminalia ferdinandiana McAlpine. As a response to this, in April 1987 Terminalia petiolaris 1982, the Broome Botanical Society was May 1987 Hypoestes jl oribunda formed. The objectives of the Society May/June 1987 Acacia bivenosa were published in the "Broome News" June 1987 Exocarpus latifolius of March 1988. Paul was an inaugural July 1987 M yoporum acuminatum member and later, after 1984, served as August 1987 Trichodesma zeylanicum the society's president. Paul was also a September 1987 Acacia holosericea founding member of the Kimberley Field October 1987 Velleia panduriformis Naturalists' club and an active member November 1987 Mallotis nesophilus of the Kimberley Conservation Group. December 1987 Ehretia saligna January 1988 Pouter ia sericea The Botanical Society undertook a February/ series of projects in and around Broome March 1988 Gyrocarpus americanus to raise community awareness of the March 1988 Grewia breviflora importance of local vegetation April 1988 Terminalia petiolaris x communities. One of these was the ferdinandiana protection of the deciduous vine June 1988 Hybanthus aurantiacus thickets and gubinge (Terminalia July 1988 Caesalpinia major ferdinandiana) groves behind Cable August 1988 Acacia monticola Beach. This was achieved by the September 1988 Atalaya hemiglauca Society in 1992, when a vine thicket October 1988 Ventilago viminalis nature trail, funded through a grant February 1989 Flueggia virosa from the National Rainforest Conservation Program, was opened at Gubinge Road near Cable Beach. funding for its production from the As part of raising community awareness Gordon Reid Foundation for Paul began a series of detailed drawings Conservation and the Lotteries of local plants and these first appeared Commission. Paul was President of the in the June 1986 edition of the "Broome Society and a contributor to the book. News" and continued through to This project took ten years to complete February 1989 (see Table I for species and culminated in the publishing of illustrated). Botanical Society members "Broome and Beyond - Plants and Tim Willing and John Martin assisted people of the Dampier Peninsula” Paul with the text preparation. (Kenneally et ai, 1996). A major project of the Botanical In February 1987 Paul discovered a Society was to prepare a publication on series of large round dinosaur footprints the plants of the Broome area and seek forming a trackway in the Broome 290 Figure 1. Paul Foulkes at Gantheaume Point (July 1996). Figure 2. Paul Foulkes at Gantheaume Point with dinosaur sketches (July 1996). 291 Figure 3. Paul Foulkes (left) in Broome with Ian Brooker, botanist and eucalypt specialist, Australian National Herbarium, Canberra (June 1988). Figure 4. Paul Foulkes with Helen Aston, botanist and aquatic plant specialist, National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne at Yarp Lakes, Dampier Peninsula Oune 1988). 292 Figure 5. Paul Foulkes with well-known club member Kath Stewart in Broome during a WA Naturalists excursion to the Dampier Peninsula (|une 1988). Figure 6. Paul Foulkes (left), Kevin Kenneally and Daphne Edinger examining specimens of Eucalyptus dampieri (Broome 1988). Photo: K. Coate. 293 Sandstone near Gantheaume Point. Paul’s life was an inspiration to many This prompted him to initiate a major people and he was an uncompromising coastal search for further footprints. So advocate for the environment. He successful was his search that the fought for what he loved and believed Broome coastline can now claim to have in and had no time for “those bloody a rich dinosaurian ichnofauna, the most developers” who destroyed the bush. He varied collection of dinosaur footprints spoke out against mining companies known worldwide. In 1994 Paul’s whose activities threatened the coastal discoveries were authenticated in a dunes and dinosaur footprints. His paper on sauropod dinosaur tracks that vision of a Coastal Park for Broome, for he co-authored with scientists from the which he tirelessly lobbied politicians University of Queensland (Thulborn ef and Council, became a reality in his a/. 1994). The need to preserve these lifetime. He tried to make Broome a sites is now universally acknowledged better place for everybody and in that he succeeded. In 1994 Paul began his Broome Bush Walks Tours using the Gubinge Road Nature Trail. He led numerous school groups through coastal rainforest ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS patches and mangroves, as well as 1 thank Joyce, Keven, lan and Troy hundreds of tourists, teaching them the Foulkes for sharing with me information importance of the area to native on Paul’s childhood in England and wildlife. His knowledge astounded many background material on a family of his audience and they left with a growing up in Broome Tim Willing and greater understanding of the traditional Dave Dureau provided valuable insights value of bush tucker to local Aboriginal to Paul's role in the development of people. Paul had a particular interest in environmental awareness in Broome. the nutritional value of bushfood and The Broome Botanical Society (Inc.) had assisted Vic Cherikoff at the contributed to the cost of printing the University of Sydney by sending f rozen figures in colour as recognition of Paul’s samples of magabala (Marsdenia achievements and as a mark of respect viridi flora)and gubinge (Terminalia to his family. ferdinandlana) for chemical analysis. Cherikoff acknowledged his contribution to the research into the nutritional composition of Australian REFERENCES Aboriginal bushfoods in his book “The KENNEALLY, K.F., EDINGER, D., and Bushfood Handbook" published in 1989. WILLING, T. 1996. Broome and Beyond In November 1997 Paul was diagnosed - Plants and people of the Dampier with terminal cancer. His passion for Peninsula. Conservation & Land life did not diminish and he never gave Management, Perth. up the fight, retaining his dignity until THULBORN,T., HAMLEY, T. and the end Paul died peacefully at home in his beloved Broome on 7 June 1998. A FOULKES, P. 1994. Preliminary memorial service was held in the report on sauropod dinosaur tracks in Broome Courthouse gardens where for the Broome Sandstone (Lower many years he sold his honey at the Cretaceous) of Western Australia. weekend markets. Gaia No.10:85-94. 294