Board of Directors

EGFA is fortunate to have a committed and involved Board of Directors, who scrutinise every project proposal, and stay in touch by email throughout the year.

Brian Walters AM QC

Brian Walters is a prominent Melbourne barrister, writer, and human rights and environment advocate. In 1981 he co-founded ‘Wild’ - Australia’s wilderness adventure magazine and winner of the Victorian Government Small Business Award. He was a director of ‘Wild’ for 25 years. Brian was a founding member of the Greens in Victoria. Brian is a former president of Liberty Victoria, and a former vice president of Free Speech Victoria. He authored Slapping on the Writs, concerning the use of litigation to silence community groups, as well as 'Treason: Claus von Stauffenberg and the Plot to Kill Hitler', and two poetry books: 'Angels, like laundry' and his latest book, 'Brink', which is themed around climate change. He has written and spoken widely on the environment and human rights, and has appeared in many high profile cases which raise these issues.

Judith Gray

Judith was the co-publisher and book review editor of Earth Garden magazine for more than 30 years. She lives with her husband Alan and children on a solar-powered ‘urban farm’ at Cable Beach in Western Australia. Judith is an accomplished artist, art teacher, and yoga and meditation teacher. She is knowledgeable about food gardening, compost and chooks. Judith is a Director of the Earth Garden Foundation, which she helped establish in 2008. Judith has been involved in many other projects and environmental campaigns, and home-schooled three of her children for three years. She was the main cook for a local emergency food charity in Broome, training other cooks for five years. She has travelled extensively throughout the remote deserts of Australia, and trekked in the Himalayas to the most remote Tibetan valleys to install solar lighting in health posts. Judith is now the Project Manager for Bush Money Mob’s extensive programs assisting remote Aboriginal people in small communities throughout the Pilbara and Kimberley deserts of Western Australia.

Alan Gray

Alan was the editor of Earth Garden magazine from 1986 to 2022 when it closed. He lives with Judith and their family on a solar-powered urban farm at Cable Beach in WA. Alan worked as a journalist in Melbourne before taking over Earth Garden. He has always been an environmental and social activist, pre-dating the Franklin Blockade of 1982-3. Alan is the Chairperson of the Earth Garden Foundation, and worked for 14 years with their Indigenous partners in the Himalayas to install solar lighting and power in more than 60 remote village health posts and regional hospitals throughout Nepal. Alan and Judith owned Australia’s first commercial electric car, the first ‘Blade Runner’. He is a keen organic food gardener and surfer, and has travelled extensively through remote desert regions of Australia with his family. Alan has an abiding interest in Aboriginal culture and works as a registered financial counsellor on projects to help remote Indigenous families solve their financial crises via the Bush Money Mob program of the Earth Garden Foundation.

Marcus Ward

Marcus is an architect specialising in rural sustainable housing. He runs an active practice with over 1000 completed projects throughout Australia. He has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Vermont (USA) (Education and Sociology) and a Bachelor of Architecture from RMIT. Marcus is a 35 year member of the CFA. He has also contested both State and Federal elections as a Greens candidate. Marcus has travelled and studied traditional earth building techniques in India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Bolivia, Peru and the United States.

Anthony Hurren

Tony Hurren has been a lawyer and senior barrister in private practice for more than 30 years. He is a senior barrister in Adelaide. He has travelled in the Himalayas in Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet, and has a deep personal connection with Himalayan culture. He has also travelled widely with his family through remote parts of the Australian Outback. Tony is a director of the national body of the charity, Compassionate Friends, and President of its South Australian chapter.

Financial History and Audits

EGFA was registered as an overseas aid organisation with AUSAID on 26 September 2008.

EGFA then applied for DGR (Deductible Gift Recipient) status. This was granted - after four drafts, four kg of documents per draft, and $75,000 of pro bono legal assistance - on 25 July 2012 when the Assistant Treasurer published a notice in the Government Gazette approving EGFA’s Overseas Aid fund for DGR status.

EGFA’s books of account have been audited and published every year since 2008-09.

Bush Money Mob’s Judith Gray consulting with Chairwoman of the Pandanus Park Aboriginal community, Ms Patricia Riley.

Income

From 2008 to 2012 EGFA relied on two sources of income for all its project funding: profits from the sales of ‘Snow Leopard’ Goretex jackets, and donations from readers of Earth Garden magazine.

These two sources of income were enough for EGFA to fund six or so village solar projects each year, and to pay the annual running costs of the TEAM Nepal children’s home near Kathmandu.

After EGFA was granted DGR status in 2012, the funding mix began to change. In late June 2013 EGFA received a large donation from the private philanthropic Fund established by Alan and Judith Gray in 2008. At the same time, Snow Leopard jacket sales were starting to wane, and the number of Earth Garden readers paying annual membership fees also started to decline.

Gradually, since 2013, the annual donation from the Grays’ fund has become the major source of funding for EGFA. Fortunately however, the changing mix did not reduce the funding for Nepal projects at all.

This has allowed EGFA to maintain its Nepal activities without interruption. Since 2008 EGFA has funded 59 village projects, and funded the annual running costs of the TEAM Nepal children's home continuously for the past 13 years.

EGFA was also able to provide one-off funding and support to both the children's home and the Himalayan Light Foundation in the aftermath of the devastating May 2015 earthquakes. EGFA has also been able to provide emergency support to HLF staff left jobless during the Covid pandemic in 2020.

Expenses

When EGFA began, all administration expenses were paid for by Earth Garden magazine, the family publishing business owned by Judith and Alan Gray. As the magazine industry has declined in recent years, it has become harder and harder for the Grays to cover all accounting, admin, marketing costs and government fees. Staff wages alone became difficult to cover.

So in the past few years the Grays’ own philanthropic Fund has made an extra donation to EGFA to cover all of these costs. This maintains the 13 year pattern of any donations to EGFA being used for project funding and not admin costs. So any donor can be assured their money will go straight to Nepal.

Or, since Bush Money Mob began - straight to financial counselling services for remote Indigenous people, depending on the donor’s wishes.

Recent years’ audit documents and financial statements are downloadable HERE.

Financial Statements

EGFA has been audited every year since 2008-09 when it was registered as an overseas aid charity. Below is a selection of recent financial statements - which are also submitted annually to the ACNC, Australia's national charities oversight commission.

ATO Endorsement as PBI, Type 1 DGR status.

Annual Reports

Annual reports from the Chairperson of EGFA are available to download, in pdf form below, for all completed financial years from 2013 onwards.

EGFA Company Objects & Constitution

EGFA Limited is a not-for-profit charity. It is a tax-exempt company limited by guarantee. The 'Company Objects and Constitution' can be downloaded here . . .

Company Objects & Constitution

Privacy Policy

Bush Money Mob respects the privacy of everyone who visits our website and anyone about whom we have personal information.

Any personal information we have about you will be used by us to provide you with information about Bush Money Mob, our ongoing campaigns, or our systemic advocacy.

You may be contacted by e-mail, unless you ask us not to do so.

Any information we collect will be as provided by you and at no time will we sell your information. The personal information you supply through our site will be securely stored.

You are able to access other websites by clicking on links we have provided on our website. You should be aware that we are not responsible for these other sites. You may need to check their privacy policies and practices, which may not be the same as our own.

Cookies are small pieces of data that our site can send to your web browser. Cookies do not capture any private information. We use cookies to:

• Keep track of advertisements.

• Compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interactions in order to offer better site experiences in the future. We may also use trusted third-party services, such as Google Analytics, that track this information on our behalf. You can control cookies in your browser settings.

We have the right to change this statement at any time and notify you by publishing a new version of this statement on our website.

If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy, please get in touch via email at: bmm@earthgarden.com.au.