About The Author
Dr Chrissy Sharp was an experienced and respected environmentalist and political scientist.
Chrissy was born in England in 1947 and, after extensive travelling, settled in Western Australia in 1973 where she soon became a prominent activist for forest conservation.
She attained a PhD in politics from Murdoch University and authored two publications:
Illusive Sustainability (2004) and Using the Forests (1995)
Chrissy spent two terms on the State’s watchdog Environmental Protection Authority. She was the first ever woman appointed to the State EPA.
Soon after being elected to the Upper House of the Western Australian Parliament for the Greens (WA) in 1997, she was appointed to chair a new Standing Committee on Ecologically Sustainable Development. This was a double first, as both the first time a woman had been appointed to chair a Standing Committee and also the first time a WA Parliamentary committee was set up to deliberate on environmental issues. After eight years in the balance of power, she stood down in 2005.
Post-parliament she pursued her political interests through advocating bioregionalism and was very active in pressing for restoration forestry, in particular for the thinning of disturbed forest for its ecological health.
In 1980, she co-founded, together with her partner Andrew Thamo, the heritage listed Golden Valley Tree Park, the State’s largest arboretum and continued her involvement in that project. In the same year, the couple established The Small Tree Farm, a family farm with a tree nursery as the main enterprise, and experimented with the greater integration of tree crops with conventional agriculture.
Chrissy passed away in 2021. She is survived by partner Andrew, daughter Lara and son, Tosh.