Pam Robinson AM, came from Ireland for a Gap Year in 1963. Growing up with ‘hands on’ in the Irish environment through family, school and Guiding activities she fell in love with the Australian countryside, later marrying an Aussie.
David, Pam and son Daniel ran a fine wool operation for 30 years at "The Elms" Warrenbayne West.
She and her neighbour Angus Howell became concerned about areas in their paddocks in the 1970s when they noticed patches of land, denuded of vegetation, began showing up. Sheep would roll on the bare ground and then lick at the fleece. They had uncovered an emerging problem with dryland salinity.
They set out on a mission to find out what was happening to the landscape and, through contacts with the Soil Conservation Authority and with the support of other concerned area farmers, in 1983 helped to develop a local land management plan for the Warrenbayne-Boho Land Protection Group.
The management plan morphed into Landcare in the days when the organisation was still emerging in Victoria. Pam was an inaugural Member of the Goulburn-Broken Salinity Pilot Program Advisory Council and appointed to the first State and National Landcare Advisory Committees.
As a Councillor and Shire President of the former Shire of Violet Town, her connections for Local Government with Landcare were strong. Pam was on the first Environment Committee of the Municipal Association of Victoria, and their representative on the Decade of Landcare Plan Steering Committee. In the mid 2000’s, as Manager Climate Change and Environment with the Cities of Darwin and Palmerston she worked closely with Landcare Groups and the Local Government Association of the Northern Territory.
Pam was awarded an OAM in1990 for services to Conservation and Local Government and in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to conservation and to the environment, and to the community.