Pip Ransome listens to her heart

Pip Ransome is a Merricks Beach resident and part of the Westernport community that helped fight off AGL’s gas project. She is also a Forever Green supporter and part of Environment Victoria’s new Action Network. We talked to Pip about what inspires her to protect the places she loves.

We all have a place that we feel a special connection to. And for Pip, that’s Merricks Beach in Westernport Bay.

“Every year since I was four, my parents took me on holiday to Merricks Beach. We all fell in love with the place, me particularly, and mum and dad bought a block in the 1950’s. It’s where I live now – thank you, universe!”

So when AGL threatened to build a gas import terminal in Westernport Bay, Pip decided to join community group Save Westernport to help stop this polluting project from going ahead.

“I wanted to fight for Merricks. I love this place and all the beings I share it with: trees, grasses, birds, bugs, fish – the place itself. I have no ecological knowledge; I just follow my heart.”

It was through this campaign that Pip first got involved with Environment Victoria. EV organiser Victor Komarovsky was working together with the community to amplify the huge people-powered movement.

“I was very impressed with Victor and his professionalism. For me, what makes a campaign is the heart of the people involved, and he made me feel part of the EV family.”

For Pip, heart means acting with honesty, simplicity, and with a connection to others and nature – wisdom she learnt during fifteen years volunteering beside Yorta Yorta Traditional Owners, and reinforced by her current practice of the Buddha’s teachings.

“In Western culture, we see ourselves as separate from nature. We have lost that oneness, which is why we often feel afraid, anxious, hopeless and greedy. Aboriginal people have a deep connection to Country, and they have been living at one with nature for eons.”

Being part of a community is one way of restoring that connection for Pip.

“Contributing makes you feel like you’re making a difference,” she says. “Environment Victoria is one of five causes that I support and have remembered in my will, because of its commitment, professionalism – and because EV gets things done!”