Harry van Moorst was determined to make a difference. And, he did. Not just for his family, but for the people of Werribee, whom he helped protect from the deadly health impacts of a proposed high-level toxic waste dump | OBITUARY
Quietly spoken. Tenacious. Kind. With an exceptional feel for how to bring people together in a common cause. Harry van Moorst was determined to make a difference. And, he did.For the people of Werribee, whom he helped protect from the deadly health impacts of a proposed high-level toxic waste dump.
Harry threw himself into anti-war and anti-conscription organising, both on and off campus. He was a founder of the Melbourne University Students for a Democratic Society and played a key role in developing and organising non-violent civil disobedience campaigns against the war and conscription. Off campus, he became one of three Vietnam Moratorium co-chairs, alongside the chair, Jim Cairns .
In 1980, he met Sue Graham, his partner of 42 years. He had become a lecturer in social sciences, first at Swinburne University, then later at Footscray Institute of Technology where he taught in urban studies and community development. In 1988, he and Susie moved to Werribee and built their mud-brick home near the Werribee River, where they brought up their children, Tom, Monica, and Kim and shared time with Mallory and her mother Lillian.
For the next two decades, Harry was the tireless director of WREC, continuing to advise local communities facing toxic dump threats, and organising expos and educational programs every year on environmental and green energy themes. As fellow activist and friend, Helen Van Den Berg, explained, the major environmental groups did not campaign on general waste policies so “WREC became the go-to organisation for advice on toxic waste issues”.
At Harry’s funeral, his family, through their tears, talked of how “Harry created community wherever he went, and somehow magically wove work life and family life together, essentially by burning the candle at both ends”.
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