TRIBUTE from Dr Tony Gregson AM FTSE

I would like to touch on Tim Fischer’s contributions in three areas where I have been involved – the Crawford Fund, the Crop Trust (previously the Global Crop Diversity Trust) and the Country Education Foundation.

Tim was appointed Crawford Chairman in 1999 for a five-year term, was Patron for several years, and was appointed an Honorary Academy Fellow in 2000.

He was persuaded by the then Crawford Fund CEO, Dr Bob Clements AO FTSE, to convince the Australian Government to support the fledgling Global Crop Diversity Trust, with its aim to conserve plant genetic resources.

Tim’s appointment as Ambassador to the Holy See in 2008 brought him close to FAO (the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation) and the headquarters of the Trust, and my own Bioversity International.

Tim was Vice-Chair of the Crop Trust from 2013 – 2017 and subsequently Chair in 2018. He visited the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in February 2014 to help the Australian contingent deposit Australia’s second tranche of seeds – 15 boxes containing 10,069 samples, including one from his Boree Creek farm.

Finally Tim was Patron of the Country Education Foundation (CEF), based in NSW. This organisation is community-based and helps rural youth to improve their education and career prospects.

I last saw Tim at the May meeting of the Academy’s Victorian Division meeting, where I was talking about the future of agriculture and Svalbard. He had called to say that the doctors wouldn’t let him out of hospital. Five minutes into the talk he snuck into the back of the room.

A very fine, passionate and generous person whose passing will be a terrible blow to all Australians and especially to his family. I for one will miss him terribly – no more phone calls about the rain, or crops, or an obscure railway branch line near Murtoa, or Mark Twain visiting Horsham!