Community
3 July, 2024
End of an era as Southern Gulf’s long-serving officer calls it a day
Charles Curry has dedicated the last 25 years to weed management in the region.
A walking encyclopedia of the North West and its weeds is just one day away from retirement.
Southern Gulf NRM’s Charles Curry will finish with the natural resource management organisation tomorrow (Friday) after 25 years of dedicated service.
Originally from Victoria, he has spent the last two decades in Mount Isa after first landing a job in Richmond with what was then-called Southern Gulf Catchments.
“I think we changed the name in the early 2000s,” he told North West Weekly.
“I was a forester in Victoria and then worked for the Melbourne Water Corporation – a sensational job but it ended in 1995.
“I had four years of travel and pleasure but I needed some money so I was able to get a job with Southern Gulf based in Richmond as a project officer.”
That was in June, 1999.
The 77-year-old said there was a sense of symmetry when picking his retirement date, ensuring he had served the full 25 years.
“I mean 50-something years in the workforce, I thought that was enough,” he said.
“Also, the funding for prickly acacia ran out, so that was another fairly important factor.”
When looking back on his time with Southern Gulf NRM, Charles said he was most proud of his weed management achievements.
“The state government was doing great weed management in the 1990s and the NRM groups were able to take on a lot of that role when the government stopped doing it – with funding from the state and federal governments, of course,” he said.
“We’ve still got a massive problem with prickly acacia and I think that rubber vine is probably Australia’s, or at least Queensland’s worst weed. I just hope it doesn’t get into the Northern Territory.”
Charles said he wouldn’t be lost to the region and plans to spend his retirement in Mount Isa and maintain his links to the local Landcare group, although he soon plans to travel to the Netherlands to visit his son and see some of the sights around Europe.