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LEAD Action News Volume 22 Number 4 December 2024 Page 66 of 131

Roger Green 30 Dec 1955 - 4 Dec 2024 OBITUARY

Roger Green acquired meningoencephalitis from fungal spores released when he chain-sawed, by

order of the local Council, a Eucalyptus baileyi (red gum) on his property just outside Canberra in

2002.

Before that, Roger had run a very successful editing and printing business called Green Words and, as

I found out after the last time I saw him at the end of November 2024, five days before he died, Roger

Green had written three books, two of which were published: “Battle for the Franklin” in 1984 and

“Good Business, Bad Business” in 2002.

I’m certain that if Roger had been able to use a computer in the final month of his life, he would have

signed my Circular Economy for Lead Petition to the Australian Federal Government (see above),

which closed for signatures the day Roger died, 4th December 2024.

Indeed, if he’d been able to talk on

the phone and use a computer for the

last two decades of his life, I feel

certain I could have learned so much

more from him about how to run a truly successful environmental

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LEAD Action News Volume 22 Number 4 December 2024 Page 67 of 131

I will be forever grateful to have known Roger, and that his legacy – compassion, love of beauty,

brilliance - lives on in his beautiful wife Monika and sons Ned and Will.

Photo: Monika Binder and Roger Green

In the last issue – LEAD Action News vol 22 no 3 – I

included a hastily put-together obituary of another

member of Roger’s friendship group from three of his

schools, Lembit Salasoo, so I’m adding in here some

photos of Lembit that have been found since. This one

was taken a month before Lembit had to retire sick

from General Electric, USA. Photo: (L to R) Philip Wallis,

Botanical Gardens, gardening shows like Gardening Australia on ABC

TV, and government agencies, especially OHS and Councils, in all the

areas in Australia where red gums grow, need to be warning people

not to allow sawdust from red gums or other Cryptococcus-affected

gums to alight on their skin. When creating sawdust during trimming

or cutting down fungus-bearing gums, people should be wearing a

headshield and be fully covered by overalls, socks, boots, gloves, in

order to stop the fungal spores from for example Eucalyptus baileyi

sawdust entering tiny cuts in the skin and eventually making their way

to the brain (which took two years to become evident in Roger’s case).

Photo: Lizzie beside trimmed Eucalyptus baileyi at Australian

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LEAD Action News Volume 22 Number 4 December 2024 Page 68 of 131

contracted

Cryptococcus, a

disease that kills half

a million people

globally each year

and, in Australia,

tends to come from

the Cryptococcus

gattii fungus that

grows in and around

less privileged countries … these tend to target people who are immuno-

compromised.”

Below you will find “In memory of Roger Green” by fellow Franklin-campaigner Vince Mahon, and

then Roger’s very philosophical Introduction to his book about the successful “Battle for the Franklin”,

but first I’ve included here a page about what is beauty? from Roger’s unpublished book on

philosophy, written for his children and titled: “The Bad Life — Beauty 1, Fear 0”; and I’ve added

photos to the Classmates Eulogy some of us wrote and read at his funeral.

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LEAD Action News Volume 22 Number 4 December 2024 Page 69 of 131

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LEAD Action News Volume 22 Number 4 December 2024 Page 70 of 131

I’m not here just to speak on my own behalf but on behalf of several of Roger’s school and

university friends, and those who could not be here: Howard Jacobs, Philip Wallis and

Geraldine Brooks.

Roger attended two primary schools, two high schools and two universities. That much we all

agree on, but it all happened so long ago that when a few of us got together recently to discuss

what we would say, it became clear that memory is a very tricky thing.

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LEAD Action News Volume 22 Number 4 December 2024 Page 71 of 131

of place in a Jean-Luc Goddard movie, especially during his shorter

hair/wire-rimmed glasses days.

Roger was intelligent, serious, funny, romantic, contemplative, curious, intellectual, witty,

someone with a rich inner life – a Renaissance man growing up on Sydney’s conservative,

middle-class North Shore. Like many of us, he escaped as soon as possible, first to the

progressive International School and then to University and the inner-city.

show some of the many sides of our friend.

[Read by Michael Maratea]: Good morning. Roger was my friend. We knew each other since

we were five at Lindfield Public School. He meant a lot to me. He was thoughtful, and the

world fascinated him. Roger saw the connection between opposites and was always trying to

reconcile them. There was never too little to know or too much to understand. He had a huge

appetite for knowledge.

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LEAD Action News Volume 22 Number 4 December 2024 Page 72 of 131

At Chatswood High, we had a wonderful English

teacher called Mr Gordon. He loved Shakespeare. We

Gordon’s beautiful reply was, ‘only boring people get

bored’. Well Roger definitely wasn’t bored! He

computer, storing everything away in his memory,

putting it into files, in alphabetical order, waiting for

the day he could retrieve in and use it.

Labor government.

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LEAD Action News Volume 22 Number 4 December 2024 Page 73 of 131

Roger’s love of

nature and the

of justice led him to

come to Canberra to

preservation of the

Franklin River, one

of the most

battles ever fought in

Australia. And that

led Roger to the

beautiful Monika

and his loving boys

[Read by Lizzie O’Brien] And from Philip Wallis: Although I first met Roger at Lindfield Public

School, most of my memories of Roger go back to

when I met him at Artarmon Public School in the

Opportunity Class and we had notable musicians

Lembit Salasoo - who became a brilliant electrical

engineer (but passed away in

August this year) – and Geoffrey

Collins who began his illustrious

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LEAD Action News Volume 22 Number 4 December 2024 Page 74 of 131

Also at the same school was Anthony Spencer who, now, like me, is also a

barrister, and Jeff Lewis who became a music entrepreneur, as well as

Roger and I [that’s Philip Wallis] played soccer together for Lindfield Soccer

Club where he was a striker. Photo: classmate Anthony Spencer

agronomist for the Department of Agriculture. Roger’s little brother Warwick was in the same

class as my little brother Mark. My later memory of Roger was that Roger’s girlfriend Jane

Carrick [who is here today] was part of the reason that he studied Medicine at the University

At the Chatswood High School 10-year reunion, we were all impressed that Roger was writing

his first book: “Battle for the Franklin”. And I’m so glad Lizzie and I saw Warwick again and

of course Roger on his last trip to Sydney at their mother’s funeral.

Lizzie O’Brien (that’s me!): after

Roger Green, Howard Jacobs, Michael

Maratea, Lembit Salasoo and Jeff

Lewis. I studied English, Maths and

Science in Roger’s classes.