The Nature Conservancy in Australia - Dr. Geoff Lipsett-Moore

Get Involved:

Australia

Close Calls and Clothes Catalogs

Dr. Geoff Lipsett-Moore has been a force for conservation throughout Asia-Pacific.

Geoffrey Lipsett-Moore, (TNC Senior Conservation Planner for the Pacific Islands Countries) with local villagers during a traditional singsing welcoming ceremony for TNC staff and Asia Pacific Council members at Tarobi village on the Kimbe Bay coast in West New Britain, Papua New Guinea. The village is a participant in the Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) plan which is part of the Marine Protected Area network supported by the work of The Nature Conservancy in Papua New Guinea. © Mark Godfrey

North Australia Program Director Geoff Lipsett-Moore is no stranger to danger — learn about the sacrifices he’s made for science.

“I was once flipped out of a Zodiac inflatable boat in 4m seas in 0.5° C water in the Southern Ocean in the middle of winter, had a large Leopard seal surface close to me and spent 20 minutes being pummeled and dragged down the coastline before finally being washed ashore.”

Dr. Geoff Lipsett-Moore

Nature.org:

How did you develop your interest in science?

Geoff Lipsett-Moore:

I lived close to bushland in western Sydney as a child, and I’d often go exploring. By the time I was 10 years old I was catching lizards, and by the time I was 12 I was capturing poisonous snakes. My father decided he needed to support this rabid herpetological addiction and built some large cages for my rapidly expanding collection of pets. Bearded dragons, blue tongued lizards, green tree snakes — the list goes on. It’s an easy step towards being a scientist if you’re already obsessed with wildlife.

Nature.org:

Beyond the poisonous snakes of your youth, have you encountered danger out in the field?

Geoff Lipsett-Moore:

My entire field career has always involved risk. I abseiled out of a helicopter to collect field gear from a rainforest-clad mountain, then clipped myself to the rope to be plucked from the forest. I’ve had a number of close calls catching cassowaries. I’ve fallen into a crevasse and found myself dangling into an abyss unsecured on a remote mountain. And I was once flipped out of a Zodiac inflatable boat in 4m seas in 0.5° C water in the Southern Ocean in the middle of winter, had a large Leopard seal surface close to me and spent 20 minutes being pummeled and dragged down the coastline before finally being washed ashore. Those are just a few of my more dramatic encounters. In my work, they’re par for the course.

Nature.org:

But there are upsides, too, right?

Geoff Lipsett-Moore:

Once, I patrolled the beaches of Heard Island, one of the most remote islands in the world, for an entire winter through appalling conditions. I was waiting for adult king penguins that I had fitted with TDRs [time-depth recorders] to return. At 160 days, in a blizzard, I found one of my adults with its TDR intact. I wept and hugged that bird like a long lost friend. It was the first ever winter dive data for King Penguins.

Nature.org:

You’ve worked a lot with indigenous cultures. Have cultural differences ever been a factor?

Geoff Lipsett-Moore:

One of my most profound and memorable experiences in the field was traveling with a hunter and his wife, daughter and son across a remote part of the Adelbert Mountains in Papua New Guinea. Our team members didn’t speak the hunter’s language but he conveyed to us where the hunting was good — you could see cassowary tracks, where fruits on the ground were eaten by bandicoots, where Echidnas would hide. He showed us how and where he climbed for cuscus. He and his family were healthy and athletic. There were no real trails, but he knew the terrain. He and his family provided us shelter for the night, fed us, took care of us and were incredibly generous. Before leaving him, he came to us with an item wrapped in many layers of plastic, bearing it like it was a sacred scroll. When he opened it, it contained a Myer Catalog [Myer is an Australian department store]. It was a bizarre collision of two opposing worlds.

About the Interviewee

Dr. Geoff Lipsett-Moore has been a force for conservation throughout Asia-Pacific. As the Director of Conservation Strategies in Melanesia, Geoff led marine conservation efforts in Coral Triangle sites such as Choiseul, where he celebrated after local government agreed to the creation of a significant marine protected network. Now, Geoff is guiding a wide range of projects across north Australia in partnership with other conservation groups and indigenous communities.