Phil Lewis

Project Officer, Healthy Bushland.

The call of the country runs strong in Phil. He has worked with livestock on distant sheep stations, in market gardens, on mines far out in the wilds of West Australia and in the rural back blocks with the Water Corporation. But Phil has always been drawn to wildlife and has a keen hands-on understanding of the species that remain in the wheatbelt region. Phil lives on a bush block just outside of the central Wheatbelt town of Wyalkatchem near the old Korrelocking town site. Together with his wife they’ve single handedly identified most of the birds and plants that inhabitat their remnant bush. Having lived in the central Wheatbelt now for over 10 years, Phil’s existing networks and and pragmatic down-to-earth approach to conservation have made him a key WWF asset in establishing conservation covenants in the Southwest Australia Ecoregion.

“I know I’m not going to change the world but I feel great sense of achievement when I am able to support and encourage landholders to fence off and manage their well-loved bushland. It makes you feel you’re doing something worthwhile,” Phil said.

In his spare time, when Phil isn’t bird-watching, capturing rare images of equally rare small marsupials, or investigating cryptic trapdoor spider burrow entrances, you can find Phil out the back tending his weird breeds of chickens or talking them up at the local Ag Show.