Jack Beale

Who was Jack Beale?

Jack Gordon Beale AO was an Australian politician who championed the need for Australia to conserve and develop its water resources. He was also Australia's first environment minister. In his obituary in The Sydney Morning Herald, he was described as "a visionary, one of the first to realize what would become vital issues in Australia: the potential of water resources and the limited capacity of the environment to sustain abuse." Known as the 'Water Man,' he was quoted as saying:

"Australia is the lowest, flattest, hottest and driest continent on the earth and we have to manage it accordingly."

Most of Australia's rivers flow relatively short distances to the sea. As early as 1963, Jack Beale called for water from Australia's rivers to be diverted to the arid inland.