my story (so far)

So it was a Thursday night in Paddington and my soon to be parents locked eyes across the pub… just kidding. 

Here’s a brief overview of my 24 years on this planet

Growing up in Cronulla, south of Sydney my childhood was filled with days at the beach, surfing, doing nippers and eventually playing water polo.

Primary School

My dad was working during my early childhood for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) so our household conversations were always about the initiatives and projects he was working on. Notably I remember dad heading to an expedition to an Antarctic island, Macquarie Island to spearhead a push to eradicate rabbits on the island - which was very full circle meeting with Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek early 2023 to help promote the plans to increase the national marine park there.


I always had a natural inclination towards the environment, joining my primary school environmental group in Year 3 but was much more interested in playing footy and soccer during lunch time in later primary school years so gave that up!

I eventually found the sport that I would play till this day - water polo.

High School - Introduction to Climate Change & Taking Action

Never losing my love for the natural environment it wasn’t until a science class in Year 10 that watching Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was my first real introduction to the serious nature of climate change.

Looking for a way to take action realised a major opportunity that schools can play through reducing emissions by installing solar panels. 

I wrote a proposal about why the school should get solar panels & sent it to the captains at the time as well as the Assistant Principal. Didn’t get a response back.

2 years on I joined the school’s Student Representative Council.

Once elected I met with the principal who said it was too hard to get these installed, too expensive. I reached out to the Department of Education (DoE) a body that heads up public schools in NSW and after a few back & forth emails during the school holidays of 2017/18 we had a proposal on our hands. 

The first day back my Principal brought me into his office (Feb 2018) and I thought.. Oh no! 

But he was excited, costs had come down and the process was easier than ever all we had to do was raise funds & the NSW State Government would match it with 50% funding.

So he arranged for me to pitch to the P&C for funding. I made the economic, social and environmental case for solar and we had a 93kw, roughly $100,000 solar panel system.

After this was successful news got around what I achieved at Caringbah High and I was approached by other school leaders in Sydney. Developing a template with how to go about the process to get solar I helped schools from as regional as Tamworth as well as the Inner West, shared in the ABC, RenewEconomy & our local paper to name a few. The Inner West Council, pushed by those school leaders I presented to adopted a Solar My School program that has seen nearly 20 schools have solar installed.

It was a year ticking a lot of goals, making the Australian Youth Water Polo team competing in Hungary at the Youth World Champs & getting a good enough ATAR to get into my dream course of B. Commerce B. Advance Studies at the University of Sydney.

University - Tackling Plastic at the Source.

Year 12 ends and me and my mates head up to Noosa for ‘schoolies’. I noticed at a lot of the cafés that there were no plastic straws, cutlery and containers. Much less than compared back home in Cronulla.

My water polo team train in the local bay, Gunnamatta Bay and one notable training session we had to get out because there was so much plastic in the water that we had to get out.

This made me sick that our bay was this polluted.

I thought the best way to take action was to turn the tap off plastics and stop it at the source so I co-founded Plastic Free Cronulla with the local Chamber of Commerce helping drive a business movement based on gamification and positivity through our Plastic Free Champion program - business by business, school by school we built up a movement that changed the narrative of plastic in the Sutherland Shire.

The largest business we worked with was the Cronulla RSL (which I am now a life honorary member of) who we helped them remove 120,000 plastic straws per year and encourage them to install infrastructure to reduce their landfill such as a glass crusher & plastic bailers.

Once we reached that tipping point it was clear that these ‘sustainable’ changes were no longer feared by business owners nor were they only desirable for the ‘greenies’, we provided commercial benefits for switching out plastic - local media attention, social media promotion and a sticker and certificate that was displayed proud on the store-front to show shoppers that they were a Plastic Free Champion.

We worked with all levels of government, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, NSW Government and the local council. We wrote letters on behalf of 300+ businesses and lobbied NSW cabinet to push legislation banning the single-use plastic items we were targeting. Alongside a lot of other campaigns and organisation we were collectively successful in seeing the largest state in Australia bring about a historic ban of single-use plastics in 2022.

I was selected onto the World Ocean Day Youth Advisory council and this is where the story I believe starts..

Think Global | Act Local

Let’s Solve these Crises

Joining the World Ocean Day Youth Advisory Council and subsequently being invited as a delegate to United Nations COP27 (2022) in Egypt opened my eyes that the local problems I was facing with plastic, angst of climate change are faced by humans all across the world.

I came back from Sharm El Sheik with a burning fire in my belly. As an Australian, one from Cronulla, I felt guilt.

I felt like I owed it to all the young activists, friends to do everything I can about this crisis. Yes we still face the impacts of climate change in Australia and will continue to, when you speak with someone your own age from the Marshall Islands and they tell you they won’t be able to live in their home in the next 5 years. It made me sick.

If you want to change the world.. start by changing your world

One of my friends said this to me over coffee and it all made sense, in our own lives we have so many touch points, so many opportunities for positive impact that we can all do something.

Over 2023, whilst balancing full-time work (General Manager of an international swimwear company) I tried to find as many opportunities as possible in my own world to make a difference:

  • Switching materials, packaging and processes at my work

  • Filmed a documentary series exploring solutions to the climate & plastic crises

  • Co-founded the Youth Ocean Carnival, taking ocean leaders to schools across NSW to inspire ocean action

  • Part of Water Polo Australia Climate Advisory Panel, bringing a Climate Strategy together

  • Helped organise the Sutherland Shire’s first Youth Climate Forum

  • Keynotes and speaking - spoke to 3000+ people over 2023

  • Joined Australian Museum Youth Climate Advisory Panel, Youthtopia Circle of Youth & became an ambassador for Take 3 For the Sea.

Then was invited back to UN COP28 in Dubai and had the biggest revelation..

Going all in.

Being back at COP felt like déjà vu.

Things weren’t getting better. Instead they were heading the other direction.

This realisation drove me to work as hard as I could outside of my full-time job, hustling with my documentary, speaking at events but I realised that no matter how much I did outside of my 45+hr work weeks for the ocean.. there still could’ve been more I could give.

I’m very close with my grandparents & think a lot of what advice I would tell them 40-50 years ago (buying shares in Apple is near the top of my list!) and I think a lot about what questions my own grandkids will ask me.

Will they say, ‘oh it’s great you knew all the science and could’ve done something, but you spent the crucial years making money selling swimwear’. I don’t want to have any regrets

So… after nearly 7 years growing from an intern to General Manager in the company of my dreams.. I quit my job and went all in.

I didn’t have anything really ready to go, I had started building a name for myself in the ocean space, had my documentary Rising Up successfully released and was ready for the first Youth Ocean Carnival event for World Ocean Day (ended up with 700+ students in Luna Park for one of the coolest events I’ve ever been involved in. See pic).

After getting a lot of advice from different people as to what the world needs right now I sat down, if I had a magic wand, want would I do?

With a few months of savings I had a few months to give it a crack.

From the amazing young people I’ve met in my journey so far from filming the documentary or going to COP I know the power my generation has to turn the tide on the biggest problems we face today. In the 2028 Australian Federal Election we will be (Gen Z) 1/4 of the vote.

We are an absolute force of a generation that is currently not activated.

Why is that?

You could distill it down to the statistic that 67% of young Australians mental health is suffering from eco-anxiety, fears of the environment, fears that I know all too well. And this resulting in nihilism and a lack of empowerment means that my generation often switch off to the amazing work done by so many youth organisations in the climate space.

So I have set off on a mission to tackle eco-anxiety, with my good friend Cooper Chapman (founder of Good Human Factory & has spoken with 50,000+ students) and the team at Surfers for Climate we created Blue Minds and after a successful pilot delivering free school workshops to 3,500+ youth in QLD we are now scaling the initiative across the country.

At the same time, looking at the trends of the environment in my local area of the Sutherland Shire I decided to run as an independent in the 2024 Local Council elections… and got in! The youngest Councillor in the Sutherland Shire. It’s been a real privilege being able to be at the decision making table overseeing such a large organisation (over $300M budget) & making positive change for my community.

Rising Up my documentary has been extremely well received as its toured the country and is about to go live on streaming platforms for schools and the broader public (& I’ve started work on a follow up film!)

—

Could not have predicted at all how 2024 would pan out & am so grateful for the opportunities and support to help me on my mission to empower young Australians to look after our ocean.

Overall in 2024 I delivered keynotes, presented workshops or panel discussions with over 13,000 people including doing my first TEDx which was another highlight.

The thing that gives me so much energy is hearing one week, one month or one year later from someone I’ve spoken with, the changes they’ve made in their own lives - starting environment clubs, changing their plastic habits, changing professions or backing their own idea. Everyone taking one step differently.

That’s my magic wand ask.. to get everyone to take one step.

Excited for 2025 !

(written Dec 2024)