Founded in 1967, the Conservation Council of WA has been at the forefront of our fight to protect nature across our state for more than 50 years.
CCWA was created out of a number of groups – namely the Tree Society (founded 1956); the Western Australian Naturalists Club (founded 1924); the WA Wildflower Society (founded 1958) and the Kings Park and Swan River Society (founded 1954). Other groups and associations soon joined with early campaigns focussed on protecting Kings Park from development and convincing the state government to adopt a nature conservation policy and create a relevant authority to implement it. This was successfully realised in 1971 following a year-long campaign by CCWA which resulted in the formation of WA’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).
Concerns over pollution and energy became part of CCWA’s focus early in its life, alongside land clearing and destruction of habitat as suburban Perth continued to encroach on untouched native bushland. Within eight years of its formation, CCWA’s membership had grown from just four founding groups and societies to over 20. Today, our membership sits at nearly 100 from across Western Australia.
During that time, CCWA has sparked the creation of a number of campaigns, initiatives and even new organisations united in their desire to see WA’s unique and vulnerable natural places protected. We’re proud of our history our achievements, which are too numerous to list in their entirety. Here are just a few of which we’re particularly proud:
- As of 2023, we have kept WA’s four uranium proposals at bay for over 50 years
- In 2022, we took Woodside to the Supreme Court to challenge their new oil and gas facilities on the Burrup Peninsula
- We successfully helped campaign for the Native Forest Logging ban
- Our Frack Free Future campaign achieved significant outcomes to prevent fracking in the Kimberley
- We were instrumental in the establishment of the Container Deposit Scheme
- Our 1970 Conservation Campaign triggered the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency and a Ministry of Conservation
