Award-winning historian Iain McCalman reveals the little-known story of influential Australian conservationist, John Bu¨ sst. Known to his enemies as ‘ The Bingal Bay Bastard’ , Bu¨ sst, a Bendigo-born Melbourne bohemian artist, transformed into a brilliant conservationist who, in the 1960s and early 70s, led campaigns to protect two of Australia’ s most important and endangered environments. The first saved Australia’ s endangered lowland rainforests and led to the subsequent UNESCO World Heritage Listing of our Wet Tropics Rainforest Area. The second stopped Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen’ s attempt to mine 80 per cent of the Great Barrier Reef for oil, gas and limestone fertiliser. A plan Bu¨ sst likened to ‘ bulldozing the Taj Mahal to make road gravel’ . Instead, the victory led to the UNESCO World Heritage Listing of the Great Barrier Reef as ‘ the most important marine system in the world’ . Sadly, both face renewed threat today.