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UNSUNG HEROES – Kirstine Lumb-McKay Passion, Purpose and Personality… that’s what I say all my members have in common. In this delightful account of the beautiful Kirstine Lumb-McKay you will see all those qualities demonstrated superbly. She is as beautiful in spirit as she is in appearance. In her own words, Kirstine takes you on a whirlwind journey from forming an environmental protection group when she was only seven years old, through to her eco-friendly life at ‘Greenlaw’ today… with an impressive international, multi-lingual, award-winning life as a Nine Network reporter in between. The Passion begins

I'm not sure I really know what a Turtle Dove is, or where one might find one... so I really don't know why or how as a seven-year old I came up with that as a name for my 'environmental club' – 'The Turtle Doves'. I guess to a seven-year old it sounded romantic and beautiful... a rather misleading tag line for my unsuspecting members! This club consisted of a couple of friends I rounded up in my tiny rural Aussie town to fish rusting metal and drowned gumboots out of our rather overgrown and garbage laden local creek. Whether our endeavours were in vain, as I rather suspect they were, or not... for me it is my first recollection of pursuing my passion, Environmental Protection. During my childhood, thanks to equally impassioned parents, my drive to live lightly on our world and do all I could to share this message continued; I was involved in peaceful protests, wrote letters to the powers that be, plotted to start my own environmental store at age 12 (this is yet to eventuate) and bred thousands of mosquitos in my many failed attempts at making my own recycled paper!

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What path to take? In choosing a career I knew I wanted to make an impact on the world I loved. I dabbled with the thought of marine biology to help protect the creatures and ecosystems that I had fallen in love with in my later childhood when our family moved to the sea. But it turns out you have to be good at science to do that. So what was I good at? I loved creating art, I loved to act and perform and I loved to talk.... I was a story teller. I come from a long line of wonderful story tellers. I cherish memories of my dear Nanna reciting 'The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner' as we sat on sandy beaches, or 'I Love a Sunburnt Country' as we watched a magical sunset over a chilly lake in Canada. Echoes of my Pop's cheeky and cheerful yarns swaddle my memories of him and a multitude of family anecdotes. My parents are educators who still today fondly foster a story telling ethos at our family gatherings... my brother is a wonderful wordsmith, my sister, like me, a journo... is it no wonder I chose a life of words. My mission was to make these words mean something, to tell stories that would make a difference and to help those in need... whether it be a child, someone wronged, a beautiful creature or indeed a majestic mountain. Oh, and I wanted to do it beautifully. Journalism After a few years of wandering our wonderful world, falling deeper in love with our wilderness, soaking up colourful cultures and luscious languages I eventually drifted back to Aussie shores and embarked on some serious journalism. In my early 20s working on the Nine Network Sunday Program was an unexpected gift. Surrounded by so many highly experienced, talented and generous journalists, I had an incredible education in television news and current affairs. I swiftly travelled through the ranks from Unit Assistant to Researcher, Producer, Reporter. Our investigations were lengthy and deep and really made differences to people's lives. Stories I worked on resulted in international paedophile rings being broken open, stolen children being re-united with desperate families and dangerous drugs being highlighted to communities. I was fortunate to be able to profile individuals striving to save endangered species and showcase how architecture could be more sustainable. Special stories A few of the stories most dear to my heart I will share with you today... possibly the most difficult of all the stories was 'The Children of the Disappeared'. Difficult because of the subject matter, but also because I travelled to Argentina and it was my first time filming solo - as in I was the camera and audio operator as well as researcher, producer and reporter, plus I conducted all the interviews in Spanish. The story told of the babies who were stolen from women who gave birth in horrifically brutal conditions in secret concentration camps during the coup in the late 1970s and were then adopted out into military families while their birth mothers were 'disappeared'. It is a story that deeply effects me to this day. Meeting Lynn The following year, ever passionate about conservation and preservation of our planet and all its beautiful creatures and always eager to give a voice to these issues, I received an interesting call from a

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lady by the name of Lynn Santer. Lynn claimed she had undercover footage of unethical hunting practices being carried out in Africa and asked if I would be interested in breaking the story internationally. I'd be stating the obvious to give you my answer, but work soon began on producing a story on unethical, illegal and barbaric hunting practices around the world. For various reasons, it took five years from the day I first heard from Lynn until we were able to break the story. We exposed the Safari Club International who claimed that hunting is a form of conservation, that it helps manage the animals. That was TWELVE years ago. What has changed? Very little. We still see, year after year, pictures of hunters posing proudly in front of a majestic beast that they have just killed. And they call it sport. What kind of sport seeks to extinguish a life? It is time we say enough and as a global community unite to protect these precious creatures. As most of you know, Lynn has been on this crusade going into the 18th year now… and she doesn’t look as though she’s slowing down any time soon. I have in the past year assisted Lynn to further her commitment to stopping these barbaric practices through assistance in her Land of the Free documentary, and I hope to continue to be a part of the dynamic team to bring this abomination to an end. Lynn I am at your service. For those that don't know Lynn personally, she is a bit of an animal whisperer. She seems to be able to connect with animals on a level where they see no threat, and they trust and love her. I'm not exactly sure what she says to them when she's whispering away, but I have no doubt that she's promising to do whatever it takes to care for them and protect them, and to be their advocate in a world that gives them no voice. Lynn and I have worked together on numerous television yarns over the years. Her novel 'Professor Midnight' was the catalyst for a story the Sunday Program and I ran on Paganism in Australia, a truly fascinating investigation (particularly behind the scenes... I'm saving those anecdotes for my memoirs!). Lynn also introduced me to one of her clients and Passion for Peace Ambassadors, an incredible man who I profiled for Sunday called Ali Al Wahabi. Ali was once Saddam Hussein's personal pilot and told his incredible story of surviving the Saddam regime and of his brave escape. I have now joined Lynn's list of authors and have recently had the privilege of penning the fascinating memoirs of a great intellect and powerhouse of a man whose life morphs from Jewish post war migrant to Kibbutz doctor to the Nostradamus of modern medicine. Living my passion Privately my life these days is somewhat distant to the fast and furious world of current affairs journalism. I am happily ensconced in my own little piece of eco paradise complete with a solar powered heritage home in the country.... a wonderful husband, two trusty push bikes, three beautiful sons, four humming bee hives, six heritage chooks (no this is not some wholesome Christmas carol!) and an extensive garden dripping with edible delights.

Kirstine and Lynn during

the filming of a report with Nine Network on

unethical hunting

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I still enjoy writing, in whatever form that takes for a myriad of clients, but I'm also telling different stories these days. I'm taking people on journeys into nature, into my garden, to teach them gardening and green living practices that will help us all live more sustainable lives. My workshops are run at our beautiful property in the Southern Highlands of NSW- 'Greenlaw'. Green in name and in nature. As a family living at Greenlaw we are passionate about living lightly on the planet and in looking after our own health and happiness and do all we can to reduce our impact on the environment. Passing on my passion During workshops attendees dine on delicious homemade meals made from much of the produce picked on the property. Whether it's a long lunch on the wisteria wrapped verandah, a high tea in the gardens, or a dainty vintage cup of tea and scones in the sun, they are treated to my much loved recipes, preserves and hospitality. Workshops cover growing your own food, seed saving and propagation, preserving, keeping chickens and bees, sustainable living and some speciality days including 'Girls Days Out' and 'Everything Roses'. Time is also allocated for private reflection and mindfulness, yoga, meditation, drawing / painting, perusal of my extensive library of gardening, sustainability, cooking, preserving, crafting, interiors, homesteading, art and poetry books... or perhaps you'd just like to have a quiet cuppa in your favourite spot in our beautiful 150 year old garden. Life is meant to be shared and I'd like to invite you to join me for a country escape. You can find me at: www.lifeatgreenlaw.com and follow me on Instagram: @lifeatgreenlaw The future Like every wonderfully passionate person reading this.... I have plans, so watch this space! I really feel like my work here on this wonderful world has only just begun. I see climate change as the greatest challenge of our species and of all species on the planet. We need dramatic action taken by governments, corporations and individuals globally to curb the dramatic temperature rises that scientist have proven to be catastrophic to life as we know it. We can all make a difference. We need to turn this ship around to protect the future of this planet and the future of all our passions.