As President of FIDO, now known as the Watchdog of K’gari, I would like to acknowledge the contributions of a Whitlam cabinet minister, a stalwart friend to K’gari, FIDO and John Sinlcair who and took a courageous stand to initiate the First Fraser Island Inquiry in 1975.
Moses Henry Cass (18 February 1927 – 26 February 2022) was better known known as Moss Cass. At the 1969 federal election, he defeated incumbent Liberal MP Philip Stokes in the Division of Maribyrnong. Just 3 years later, the It’s Time campaign brought the Whitlam Labor Government to the Federal Parliament. Moss Cass was the 26th of 27 Minsters appointed to the Whitlam cabinet. He held the portfolio of Environment and Conservation from1972 till 1975. Coming to office too late to save Lake Pedder, in Tasmania, from flooding for a hydro-electric project, he was receptive when approached by John Sinclair of Fraser Island Defenders Organisation, FIDO, for support in ending sand mining on the island, now known as K’gari (pronounced Garee).
In November 1974 he was the major proponent behind the Environment Protection (Impact of Proposals) Act which required environmental impact studies before major works on environmentally sensitive sites. FIDO had brought an action in High Court challenging the Maryborough mining warden’s judgement in issuing sand mining licences to Dillingham Murphyores over large areas of K’gari, including most of the ocean beach and areas with unique perched lakes. The issue became a major controversy in May 1975 with media outlets running headines that made “Fraser Island” and John Sinclair household names. Cass objected to granting export licenses for the minerals of K’gari, but was opposed by Rex Connor, Minister for Minerals and Energy, who, ironically, had supported the passage of the environmental Protection Act just 5 months before. In an unfortunate display of party disunity, Connor forced a cabinet vote on the matter, threatening to resign if the export licences were not approved. He won by a single vote.
John Sinclair responded with an invitation to Moss Cass to visit the island and see the mining sites for himself. Cass accepted and with his wife Shirley made a highly publicised visit to the island. Television crews filmed the Minister’s plane landing on the beach and his swim in the famous Lake Wabby. Upon discovering that very site was covered by a mining licence, Cass returned to Canberra determined to push ahead for an environmental inquiry into the likely impacts of sand mining on K’gari
Later Cass was to discover that Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and Connor had colluded to grant the export licences just ahead of the passage of the new law. Both FIDO and Cass were outraged, but while the bulldozers worked the sands of K’gari, A recent paper from Chris Loorham, then a law graduate appointed to assist Commissioner John Hookey, provides enlightening insights into the experience. The commissioners spent a week on the island visiting sites proposed by the various stakeholders. Chris remembers a convivial journey:
For five days conservationists, miners, lawyers, scientists, foresters, a trade unionist, the commissioners, their advisers and staff camped and ate together as a group, travelling over rough sand tracks during the day, as we were introduced to many of K’gari’s wonders.
The Commission of Inquiry sat for a month in Maryborough hearing evidence from exactly 100 witnesses and viewing 658 exhibits. This was followed by 3 days in Brisbane.
Dr Hookey’s report was unequivocal, recommending that ALL exports of minerals (including minerals that have been subject to processing or treatment) extracted or which may hereafter be extracted from Fraser Island be absolutely prohibited. He also recommended that the whole of Fraser Island be recorded as part of the National Estate. Although by the time the report was submitted, the Whitlam government had been dismissed, the High Court had unanimously agreed that the Mining Warden had erred in his judgment in issuing the sand mining licenses, so incoming Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser had little choice but to accept the report.
Although no longer in office, Moss Cass’s work had brought about the first exercise of the Commonwealth’s environmental powers against the opposition of a hostile state government, which was held to be valid by the High Court.
His last year in office had been tempestuous. In addition to his work for K’gari, he enacted government protection for the Great Barrier Reef. In 1975 he led parliamentarians and ALP branch members in expressing concerns about the effects of uranium mining. Whitlam and Connor were less than impressed with his stand however, and he was moved from the environment ministry to that of Media. This was not unnoticed by the Australian media. The Australian’s editorial of 21st of May 1975 points out that he was widely perceived to be doing an excellent job of implementing the policies that, in part, been responsible for the Labor Party’s electoral success:
By blaming Dr Cass for the government’s erratic track record on conservation, Mr Whitlam and Mr Connor seem to be throwing away the concern for the environment which was one of the most effective Labor images during the 1972 and 1974 election campaigns.
Moved to the role of Minister for the Media, Dr Cass approached the task with characteristic energy and laid the basis for the Australian Press Council, but his work was curtailed by the Dismissal. He continued in the shadow cabinet as opposition spokesman for Health, his original field of expertise. After retiring from his seat in 1983, he chaired a review into the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs and was appointed by the Labor government of Bob Hawke to the board of Australia’s National Museum. His environmental interest remained strong and he served as chair of the Australian National Biocentre for a year in 2002 and acted as patron of the Sustainable Living Foundation and an honorary fellow at the Melbourne University School of Land and Environment.
Most pertinently to the current controversy about antisemitism, Dr Cass, in 2007, was a founding member of Independent Australian Jewish Voices, a breakaway group from Zionist lobby organisations. During an earlier Gaza War in 2009, he signed a statement condemning Israel’s “grossly disproportionate military assault”. Dr Cass passed away on 26 February 2022, at the age of 95.
References:
Cass, Moss; Encel, Vivien; O’Donnell, Anthony (2017). Moss Cass and the Greening of the Australian Labor Party. Australian Scholarly Publishing. ISBN 9781925588446.
Hicks and Hookey, (1975) Fraser Island Environmental Inquiry: Final Report.
Loorham, Chris (2025) Saving K’gari from the sand miners: Memoir of the Fraser Island Environmental Inquiry, 1975–76 International Review of Environmental History:Volume 11, Issue 1, 2025. Edited by: James Beattie, Ruth Morgan DOI: http://doi.org/10.22459/IREH.11.01.2025
Sinclair, John. (2024) Saving K’gari: the Campaign to save an Island. And/Also Press Brisbane.
Susan Zela Bissett June 16 2026
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