Mick Van De Vreede of Tirhatuan Ward
As a former electrician Mick Van De Vreede did his bit towards energy consumption and the darkening of the coal brown skies over the Latrobe Valley. But at 44, he is now a seasoned and strategic environmentalist.
On his tidy desk in the small Parks Victoria office in Narre Warren North he is arranging and rearranging his life. He is full-time park ranger, City of Knox councillor for the Tirhatuan ward, loyal husband to Rosie, father to 12 year old Emily and former president of the voluntary organisation, the Knox Environment Society.
He has given up the financial comforts of life as an electrician to pursue a life-long dream in natural resource management.
I have arrived early. With the enthusiasm of a fifteen year old he asks quickly “Would you like to do the interview straight away, or a bit later?” This is Mick Van De Vreede – enthusiastic – passionate about life – mindful of the needs and wants of others. His wife Rosie describes him as “a very kind-hearted, passive person,” and fellow councillor Ben Smith says, “passion and integrity is what clearly stands out.” Ask any other councillor “and they will tell you the same thing” - and they did.
To many he is a fitness fanatic. The only councillor who rides his bike to work and back, he stands out at council meetings with his outdoors ‘rosy glow’.
The Knox mayor of last June, Cr Emanuele Chicchiello, said in an interview, “In my opinion he’s had a profound impact on the council with issues on sustainability and the environment and he’s been a brilliant advocate to shift the council’s focus out to a triple bottom line approach – the application of social, economic and environmental criteria for all forms of decision making.”
It was in his early twenties that Van De Vreede created The East Gippsland Coalition-Dandenong Ranges Group to protect the old growth forests of South Gippsland.
After joining the Knox Environment Society 14 years ago, he quickly rose to the top. A focused environmental activist, Mick was president for 12 years. Vice President, Irene Kelly, says, “Mick is a born leader”.
Despite his positive recollections of his life, of holidays spent bushwalking and fishing and of his childhood in Croydon, it was his wife Rosie who spoke of his difficult teenage years, and how he suffered the torment of divorcing parents. Taken in at aged 16 by her family he was forced to quickly confront his future with all the maturity of an adult.
Music was an outlet for Van Der Vreede and along with his partner Rosie he joined a local band as a guitarist.
And now … “Family comes first … Absolutely… Unbelievable …. With a demanding work load - I would drop everything if I felt that I had to focus more on my family … and I’ve done it on a number of occasions in the last year.”
Rosie describes a father who is “a very warm dad” and who always organises time to “mess about with Em”. He has a liberal style of parenting and prefers not to dictate with regard to his daughter’s own future. Everyone agrees that Van De Vreede is absolutely driven by the desire to create a positive world for Emily and for her generation.
It was during his early years at KES (Knox Environment Society) that he first befriended the young businessman, Darren Wallace. Working as a team they became one of the key driving forces behind Knox City Council’s significant shift towards greater environmental responsibility.
Without their lobbying, Knox City Council would probably have taken longer before employing a full-time conservation officer. They also pushed for council’s extensive local urban re-forestation program. Their first breakthrough came from a petition signed by thousands of residents at one of the early Stringybark Festivals.
Referring to a past experience with the local press Van De Vreede says he has been labelled. “Bloody oath I was! I was put in a pigeon hole by the media and I wasn’t happy with it. Because straight away I was ‘Mr Environment’, ‘Mr Public Transport’.” But despite his moderate style, Van De Vreede remains an ardent environmentalist who is tenaciously pursuing the Rowville to Huntingdale railway link.
He has been disappointed in the past that a few people failed to appreciate his new passion for youth and social health issues and he now chairs several committees such as the Youth Advisory Council.
In the unlikely event that his public life as councillor should falter, you’d have to think that Van De Vreede will be no worse off. As he says: “You can work effectively from the outside as an activist…as I did in terms of lobbying the Knox Council for ten years…achieved a lot.” He would “just take it in his stride”, Darren Wallace says.
When, at the end of the interview, I ask what his dream is, the passionate message is unmistakeably ‘Mick Van De Vreede’:
“It’s just that I would like to see a real change on how this whole region operates … We’re making ‘masses’ of amounts of contributions to greenhouse gases and pollution, over and above what we should be. I’d like to see that all turn around and changed in terms of seeing the transport system improved and our dependency on motor vehicles reduced. And we need to see more people recreating on our bicycle paths.”
“We need to see more activity centres becoming real community hubs, where people meet …. where young people are empowered and have a real involvement in the community.”
The inspiration from singing environmentalist and humanitarian, John Denver, in Van De Vreede’s formative years, has clearly not been wasted … on this number one fan!
Debra Truin