Ensuring our
ancient places have
an enduring future

The brief

Australia boasts an abundance of different and remarkable flora and fauna, but the Wilderness Society had identified a collection of eight very special places that are unique—but also under increasing threat. Our challenge was to take this group of iconic places and create a unifying ‘identity’ for them that would enable the Wilderness Society to talk about them as a group that needed protection.

The good

To create an identity and campaign for these iconic places we first looked at what united them. This entire continent is different and remarkable, but each of the iconic places the Wilderness Society had identified as part of this grouping are unique on a global scale. They are ancient places formed over billions of years that house Gondwanan forests, demonstrate evolutionary adaptations, and feature species and whole lineages that are found nowhere else on earth. They are home to Traditional Custodians who preserve the world’s oldest living continuing culture and a connection to Country like no other. They are places that are crucial to our world’s very life support. And they need to be protected. They are… ‘Nature’s Elders’.

Designed to inspire all Australians to have a sense of wonder and pride in this vast continent, the Nature’s Elders campaign encompasses everything from an overarching campaign icon for ‘Nature’s Elders’ (as well as a carefully designed family of eight unique location icons for the ‘Nature’s Elders’ family) to strapline, tone of voice and a rollout of assets including everything from social media tiles to t-shirts. A comprehensive style guide has also been developed to ensure that all of the internal teams at the Wilderness Society can work with the campaign and add to and build on assets as time goes on.

Overall, the campaign has been designed to play on the ancient uniqueness of these places in intriguing, emotional, and even fun ways to bring a sense of wonder about what these places offer, and why we should all be passionate about protecting them. Together we can all make sure these ‘Nature’s Elders’ have not just a long past, but a living future.

The impact

As an ongoing, long-term campaign, the success of Nature’s Elders in both fundraising and campaigning terms will be measured more obviously as time passes. Early feedback, however, has been extremely positive and the Wilderness Society has already had a major win for one of the Nature’s Elders, with the NSW government finally ruling out the third coal lease site on the doorstep of Wollemi after tens of thousands of supporters signed submissions and wrote to MPs, and supported their campaign. We can’t wait to be part of more successes in the future.