Simon Baltais’s rise to one of the top branches of the environment movement tree is a result of hard work, persistence and absolute dedication. Not bad for an ex-cop and soldier, who is now the Queensland president of the Wildlife Preservation Society and the secretary of Queensland Conservation.
Simon Baltais busy doing some field work
There has been a series of important stepping stones that have led Simon Baltais to his position as one of Queensland’s leading and most passionate environmentalists.
His early life was spent with his brothers and a sister in the Adelaide Hills, which back in the 60s was ‘very much in the sticks’, according to Simon.
“I was lucky to grow up in a unique environment in South Australia, with lots of trees,” he said..
“I spent a great deal of my time wandering through the scrub just outside Hahndorf.”
The stepfather and mother of his father, a refugee from World War II, had set up the property which had an orchard. The house backed on to creeks and the property had open paddocks and forest.
His mother’s father, a bushie, also captivated Simon. He told his grandsons of his life in the bush; stories about camping and trapping. But most significantly it was a book grandfather treasured that spurred the young Simon to think more about the environment and eventually to have a love of rainforests and a deep care for Australia’s diverse species.
That book was Green Mountains written by Bernard O’Reilly, the farmer and bushie who famously found and brought out survivors of the Stinson airliner crash back in 1937 in what is now the Gold Coast hinterland.
“I used to flick through that book, fascinated by the description of the rainforest, because we had nothing like that in South Australia,” said Simon.
He also said his interest in the environment, which came from being part of a family that valued social justice, was reinforced by his primary school teacher ‘who was very much a greenie’.
“He used to take the whole school – only 60 kids all up – each year to places around South Australia such as Cooper Creek. He was even talking about climate change back then,” said Simon.
“He also used to take us bushwalking once a week. I was lucky, we had scrub next to the school and used to talk about the animals and plants we used to see.
“Our teacher was environmentally focused and so was my grandfather who also liked going out into the open space. I guess I lived in the perfect environment. I could walk out of my back door and there would be a host of bushland birds and animals.”
When Simon left senior school he joined the army and, rather than picking a trade such as surveying, he decided to go into the infantry. After a year of intensive training he got his first posting, to Townsville. Most of the training in north Queensland was in jungle warfare and the keen-eyed Simon found his skill as a sniper with the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment. It was in the ranges behind Ingham, Tully and Cairns that he was drawn even closer to the rainforest he loves so much.
“I loved the rainforest. It was great coming across cassowaries and the like. I wouldn’t say I was a raving greenie, but I did have a passion for the environment,” he said.
“But you can only live in the mud for so long, so I looked to advance my career and joined the Queensland Police Force where I stayed for six years.”
That time covered much of the term of the Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen government in Queensland through to the Fitzgerald Inquiry. While Simon spent much time in Brisbane he did get posted back up to Innisfail where he was reunited with the spectacular northern rainforests.
“It was fantastic. My first job was to chase horses back to East Innisfail while driving a police car; my second job was chasing cassowaries out of people’s backyards,” he laughed.
But it wasn’t all fun. It was where he first came upon green activists and he had to arrest or serve summonses on some of them. He soon realised it was all very political.
“They were all quite peaceful; it was a nice community and I almost felt ashamed at what I was duty-bound to do. They were only trying to do the right thing and save the rainforest – which I totally agreed with,” said Simon.
So was that a moment of epiphany?
“It was I guess. I certainly started questioning some of the things we were doing. I wasn’t terribly happy with some of the things I saw. Policing then was like this – if you were a good copper you got more paperwork and got bogged down; if you just took it as a bit of a joke then you’d probably have a wonderful time not doing much at all.
“You either did the job or gave it away – which I did. After six years I had had enough, so I put myself through external university studies, initially in business then into computers.”
It wasn’t long before seniors officers in the police computer branch noticed Simon’s interest and brought him back to Brisbane to work in their computer centre. It was there that he discovered that public servants were looking after the computers – and in those days it was for security and to make sure the public servants were doing the right thing that they brought in police officers.
“Part of our job was to put up tapes, and process emails and files during the Fitzgerald Inquiry,” he said.
A lot of valuable information was stripped off the tapes by the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC), revealing communication between some people in authority ‘doing their own thing’.
“Many police at that stage didn’t really understand what computing was all about and didn’t have any computer skills – they didn’t understand that emails were kept forever,” said Simon.
Simon was soon able to broaden his skills. Some government computer specialists working at the same centre encouraged him to apply for a job in their section. This he did successfully and it was at a time when he and his family moved house to the Redlands.
It was this move that finally led him to his true passion.
Firstly, the new home sat next to a creek with a koala habit alongside. Secondly, after reading about a forthcoming talk on squirrel gliders, he found that only a couple of blocks away was the meeting place for the Wildlife Preservation Society Bayside branch.
“So I wandered off for the night to have a listen and found these amazing people,” said Simon.
“I soon thought, Gee – these guys are doing an incredible amount of work.”
And guess who was sucked in? So Simon took his first steps into the environment movement.
“They were asking for help. I said I lived locally and I knew bureaucracy quite well and perhaps I could help out with submissions. That was the start of it – it was a very steep learning curve,” he said.
Simon’s expertise in moving easily through the bureaucratic maze of political processes has been invaluable and he is now Queensland’s state president of the Wildlife Preservation Society as well as secretary of Queensland Conservation.
And like the well-trained sniper that he used to be, he still has several targets in the metaphorical cross-hairs, but this time to help save life rather than kill and to make sure the environment we live in is sustainable.
When it comes to the planning battlefield, Simon is certainly the man who knows how to fire the telling shot.
And that’s why has the population issue right in his sights.
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