Dr Jerry Leech AM. Picture: The Border Watch
Mount Gambier’s Dr Jerry Leech has been made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen’s Birthday honours list released on Monday for his significant service to the forestry industry, tertiary education, and to the community. Source: The Border Watch
“It was a surprise,” Dr Leech told The Border Watch.
He said it was a trip to the region when Dr Leech was a young boy in grade six that first triggered his forestry passions.
“I grew up in Adelaide, and I came down with my father when he was building houses in Padthaway,” he said.
“Someone took me out to the bush while we were waiting to load up the semi [trailer], and I fell in love.
“I decided then that I wanted to become a forester.
“Unlike a lot of young people who do not know what they want to do, I always knew.”
Dr Leech first got his start in the industry as a Woods and Forests Department cadet in 1959.
After his cadetship, he continued to work for the department as a forester and assistant working plans officer, then as a systems officer, before eventually becoming their Principal Scientist in 1993.
After three and a half decades at the department, Dr Leech decided to focus on his consultancy work which was underway with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Between 1986 and 1998 he consulted on eight different projects across the globe, in Myanmar, China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Italy.
“I did 29 missions over 13 years, and spent five years out of the country,” he said.
“The great experience of working with professionals, who in many cases were good, they just had not had the right experience yet.
“I had experience in forest management planning but not in computing and statistics, so I could not bluff someone in one of those.”
Dr Leech would spend stretches away internationally while consulting, but also spent a long time in Mount Gambier, where he would focus on his community work in the Rotary Club and later Ryder Cheshire.
“I would be back for weeks, with not a lot to do,” he said.
“So, I could help out Rotary during the day when everyone else was at work.”
He also served as Adjunct Professor at Southern Cross University and as Principal Fellow and Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne.
Dr Leech also received a prestigious industry award recently being the NW Jolly Medal which is the Institute of Foresters of Australia’s highest and most prestigious honour for outstanding service to the profession of forestry in Australia.
“Back in October I received the Jolly Medal from the institute of forestry, and to me that was probably more important,” he said.
“Over 60 years there have only been 50 Jolly Medals awarded, and my three mentors are all Jolly Medallists. I lucked out.
“I could not have done any of it without the support of my mentors, and of course my wife.”
