The successful fight to save and protect the Wolli Creek Valley bushland rests on the shoulders of many dedicated and passionate individuals from the early days in the 80s and 90s, who may not be known to more recent members of the Society. We recently lost the lovely Lee Hoffman. She was a delightful, cheeky and humorous individual and will be sorely missed. Lee’s longtime partner Gavin Gatenby, a former President of WCPS, has written this tribute:
Lee and I bought a cottage in Turrella in early 1980, but weren’t recruited to the WCPS until 1986 when I was working as a tour guide at the historic NPWS-run North Head Quarantine Station, and was persuaded to join by a fellow guide, Martin Smith, who had grown up in the Wolli Valley. At that stage the Department of Main Roads (DMR) was proposing to build an 8-lane surface motorway through the valley in two 4-lane stages.
Almost immediately upon joining, Lee and I were pitched into an ugly struggle over the nature and leadership of the original group. After a split, the old leaders departed and WCPS was reformed as a modern, incorporated, community-oriented group. Lee had previously had a career as an infants’ teacher, so when the Society began doing walks through the valley for school groups, she was well-qualified to help develop this work.
Inaugural TVT walk at Judy Finlason’s house in 2008, Lee in doorway
Lee also served on the Committee for many years and threw herself into a succession of public campaigns to save the valley. This involved much letterboxing of leaflets and WCPS campaign tabloids and gaining signatories on letters and petitions, culminating in the success of the campaign to force the concept of a rail line to the airport onto the government’s agenda as an alternative to the M5 East.
Lee was subsequently involved in various campaigns against motorways. In 1995, during an action by Macquarie University students against the M2 Motorway, she was arrested after locking-on 12 metres up the boom of a crane. Her subsequent account of the incident was published in the SMH on 22 May 1995 under the title “Citizen arrested”. She was later involved in the EcoTransit campaigns to bring light rail back to Sydney.
Lee was precipitated into severe Alzheimer’s-type dementia by the death of her beloved dingo, Jesse, in late 2024. For many years, she and Jesse had been much-loved members of the local dogwalkers group in Turrella Reserve. Lee passed away in the course of an operation on a broken hip following a fall at her home in Batemans Bay.
