FREMANTLE’S “Phantom Planter” and former citizen of the year Bryn Davis has died after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
The South Fremantle resident was a tireless activist for heritage and the environment; his dream of a green belt around Fremantle is still at the heart of many council policies, and the city’s parks and streets are full of trees he covertly planted years before ‘urban canopy’ became a buzzword.
Long-time friend Kyele Wickenden was due to give the eulogy at Mr Davis’ funeral on Friday and said he had been a delightful and generous person.
“His goal was always, as he said, ‘to leave this place – whether the planet, local environment or a restored building – in a better condition than we inherited it,” Mr Wickenden said.
Mr Davis’ environmental activism kicked off in the early 1970s, writing submissions for the Environmental Protection Authority’s System Six report, one of the first consider which pockets of the metropolitan area needed to be preserved as natural spaces.
• Have you got one of Bryn Davis’ trees on your street?
Working as a teacher at Guildford Grammar, he also campaigned to save Sir James Mitchell Park in South Perth, later creating the organisation Green Force to get a public profile for his environmental work.
He joined The Fremantle Society in the mid-80s, with two terms as vice-president.
“This was a period when the council and state were considering a lot of things in Fremantle, and not all of it was good; things like a 10-storey office block on the site of a National Trust heritage listed building in the Phillimore precinct and demolishing the North Fremantle Town Hall to build a use car lot,” Mr Wickenden said.
“Saving the heritage of Fremantle was just the thing for Bryn to get his teeth into.”
Mr Davis was among the campaigners who saved the E Shed on Victoria Quay from demolition, paving the way for its relocation and reincarnation as a popular market.
For his work he was honoured as Fremantle’s citizen of the year in 1998, and in 2010 the City of Fremantle officially named a pontoon at South Beach at him.
Mr Davis was a regular in the Herald over the years, and journalist Jenny D’Anger remembered him as an “amazing guy”.
“A real fighter for many causes as well as his own independence in the face of a cruel disease,” Ms D’Anger said.
“I’ll never forget during an interview he insisted on making us a cup of tea.
“He managed despite the dystonic spasms of his arms threatening disaster.
“But I did Carr the full cups to the table.”
by STEVE GRANT