The Byron Shire lost a much-loved resident with the death of Joanne (Jo) Walsh on 14 March 2023. Together with her husband, Mick O’Regan, and their infant son, Vincent, Jo moved from Sydney in the late 1990s to be close to her extended family, and to establish her own environmental management business in Byron Bay. The family settled into a shared property on the outskirts of Bangalow in 2004. From her first days in Byron Shire, Jo worked tirelessly to utilise her deep knowledge of soil and water to aid both rural producers and local government personnel to improve environmental outcomes. As she so often said, ‘good soil and clean water underpins everything’.
Jo Walsh was the third daughter and youngest child of Bill Walsh and Doreen Murdoch, who emigrated from England in 1955. While her elder siblings were UK-born, Jo was the ‘Aussie baby’. Her childhood was spent in Sydney’s beachside suburbs of Clovelly and Randwick. Always a bright spark and a natural leader, she was the School Captain of Clovelly Public School. After attending Sydney Girls High, she went on to Sydney University where she graduated with an Arts degree in History and Spanish. Her deep love of all things Latin, and her fierce and unstinting commitment to political solidarity, saw Jo join work brigades that went to both Cuba (1984) and Nicaragua (1987). In Nicaragua, she coordinated and led a group of 30 Australians who helped in the annual coffee harvest, and contributed to the wellbeing of local communities.
Jo’s commitment to Latin American solidarity was both principled and practical. Her life endorsed Che Guevara’s maxim that a true revolutionary is guided primarily by love, and compassion for all facing injustice. And her love of the music, the food and the spirit of Latin America brought to mind Emma Goldmann’s famous retort, ‘if I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution!’ In a moving eulogy, her lifelong friend Keith March noted ‘Jo was the first to arrive at the party, and the last to leave the barricades’.
Her determination to have a set of practical, professional skills that could assist developing world communities inspired Jo to complete a second degree in Agricultural Science. She became an expert in recycled water, soil health, and organic certification for rural producers. In her working life in Sydney she held senior positions at both Sydney Water and the NSW Environment Protection Authority. When she arrived in the Byron Shire in 1999, those skills became assets for the whole community. She helped establish the Organic Producers Roundtable, was instrumental in establishing recycled water protocols and was an invaluable expert in all matters to do with best practice for effluent management. She wore, with pride and laughter, the title of ‘Sludge Queen’. As she once said in a speech to wastewater specialists, ‘not only does shit happen, it happens to be good’.
Beyond work, Jo’s life was rich with connections to family and friends. Her beloved sister, Janthia Powditch, and the nieces and nephews she cherished, became a web of support and encouragement for her. She was a favourite aunt, a wonderful sister and a much-admired colleague. However, her greatest boast was being a mother. Her ferocious love for her son, Vincent, was a hallmark of her life. She threw herself into giving him the best possible experience of life. Whether it was taking him to Spaghetti Circus, managing the Byron Public School band, encouraging him to sing, play the drums, or simply exhorting him to love the natural world, Jo showed Vincent the meaning of unconditional love.
Jo Walsh’s life was cruelly interrupted by a diagnosis of younger onset dementia when she was only 53. It was a devastating moment, and one she handled with astounding grace. As her life was irrevocably changed, she never complained but continued to see in the world everything she loved. In her unfiltered ways, she maintained a passion for family and friends, continued with her declaratory politics (some locals may even remember a celebrated moment at the 2019 Byron Writers Festival when she told a crowded marquee exactly what she thought of Scott Morrison. Jo Walsh wasn’t one to hold back the expletives!).
Most of the last decade Jo was cared for at home, primarily by her husband, Mick, and her elder sister, Janthia. In September 2019, after a sudden diminution in her health, she was admitted to Feros Care in Bangalow. Despite the difficulties, it was a time of great connection, of intimacy and love. Jo’s raucous laughter punctuated the days, while her generosity and empathy never diminished. Deep into her illness she would often walk to the edge of her front verandah, throw her arms wide and declare to the green, bird-filled valley that ‘We are so lucky’.
In fact, all who knew Jo were lucky; she made the world a better place. Vale, Jo Walsh.
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