Protect Australia's Ocean for Good

Wednesday

,

November

08

Protect Australia's Ocean for Good

Join host Dave Rastovich and ocean loving friends for an evening of films, live music and conversations about how people can work together to protect Australia's ocean for good.

Australia was once a global champion of ocean conservation. In 2012 our network of marine protected areas covered over 3,000,000 square kilometres of ocean, right around the country.

But in 2018, the Australian government downgraded the protection of these marine ecosystems by more than 1,000,000 square kilometres, opening up huge areas to offshore oil and gas and to destructive industrial trawling. This included an area in the Coral Sea three times the size of Victoria — the single greatest downgrade of a protected marine area anywhere in the world.

It's time to change course. We’re rallying our ocean community to call for full protection for 30 per cent of Australia’s ocean by 2030.

To learn more about Patagonia's Protect the Ocean campaign, click here.

What to Expect

Join us on November 9th at 6:30pm at the Harbord Hotel.

29 Moore Road

Freshwater

6:30pm: Doors open

7:15pm: Event commences

Light refreshments will be served.

This event is FREE, family friendly and open to the public.

If you have any access or support requirements in order to attend this event, please reach out to contact@patagonia.com.au to ensure that we can make reasonable arrangements.

This event will take place on Guringai country. Patagonia acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of this land and sea Country. We pay our respect to their elders, past, present and future.

Host

Dave Rastovich

A renowned freesurfer and leader of campaigns against fish farms, offshore oil drilling, and other threats to our oceans, Dave Rastovich and his family live near the water in regional New South Wales, growing their own food, keeping bees, surfing and advocating for the planet.

He co-founded Surfers for Cetaceans, focusing on the protection of whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and appeared in the documentary on this topic, The Cove (2009).

Other films projects include Minds in the Water (2012), El Mar, Mi Alma (2012), The Church of the Open Sky (2018), Patagonia’s Never Town (2018) alongside Wayne Lynch and more recently, Inside This Soft World (2020) and In The Family of Things (2023).

Speakers

Lauren Hill

Lauren L. Hill is a surfer, writer, mother, podcaster, activist, and surf ambassador.

She is the co-host of the Waterpeople podcast, the author of She Surf: The Rise of Female Surfing and the filmmaker behind The Physics of Noseriding (2022).

Lauren writes for a variety of publications, ranging from academic to mainstream media in the US, Europe, and Australia.

She has appeared in award-winning documentary films including Bella Vita (2013), and Transparent Sea Voyage (2013), Beyond the Surface (2014), The Heart & The Sea (2015), The Church of the Open Sky (2018).

Belinda Baggs

Belinda ‘Bindy’ Baggs’ is a passionate all-around surfer, best known for her graceful and technically accomplished longboard style.

Her career highlights include becoming the Australian Professional Longboard Circuit Champion in 2000, and placing third in the Women's World Longboard Championship in Costa Rica that same year.

She was the first female surfer to grace the cover of ‘Surfers Journal’ and has featured in surf films, including ‘Never Town’ (2018), ‘The Reef Beneath’ (2018), and ‘South Fish’ (2019).

In 2019, Bindy visited the Heron Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef and following this formative trip, she co-founded the not-for-profit group Surfers for Climate.

Tishiko King

Tishiko King is a proud Kulkalaig woman from the Island of Masig and Badugal of Themu Clan in the Torres Strait Islands.

As a saltwater woman and marine biologist, she feels a deep connection and sense of belonging to the ocean. Her island home and community is on the frontlines of climate impacts, and she is a staunch advocate for systemic reform for a just and equitable future for First Nations people.

Tish participated in the COP28 UAE, COP27 Sharm El Sheik and the UN COP26 Glasgow in her role Campaigns Director for Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network and as a representative for Our Islands Our Home.

She has worked with several prominent NGOs and charities and will deliver the keynote address of the evening.

Nathan Oldfield

Nathan is a surfer, photographer, filmmaker, and sea gazer from the North Coast of New South Wales.

He has been making films for over 15 years, and garnered awards including Best Feature Film (San Diego Surf Film Festival), Best Feature Film (Berlin Surf Film Festival), and Best Cinematography (Florida Surf Film Festival).

His photographs are regularly published in international surfing magazines and he was included in Surfing World Magazine’s ‘Fifty Most Intriguing People In Surfing.’

Dr Simon Bradshaw

Dr Simon Bradshaw is a researcher on climate science and impacts at the Climate Council.

A writer and campaigner for climate action, he was formerly the Climate Change Advocacy Lead at Oxfam Australia. Simon’s research and advocacy has taken him to the Torres Strait Islands, Tibet, India, throughout the Pacific, and to international climate negotiations.

For the Sydney event, he will be joining Dave Rastovich to talk about protecting Australia’s ocean for good.