During the presentation of his award in January 2015, eighty-six year old Eric took all the attention in his stride, and gave an excellent impromptu acceptance speech in which he told some stories from the early days when he established a guided bushwalking tour business based on the Overland Track in 1970. The business was called Craclair Guided Tours ®, and over the years, it employed 250 local people as guides and played a huge role in making Cradle Mountain and the Overland Track a world-renowned tourism destination.
An earlier recipient of The Kate and Gustav Weindorfer Honours List award, Dennis Maxwell, told us about when he and Eric travelled to Melbourne and Sydney to promote Cradle Mountain and the whole of Tasmania in association with Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) and Ansett Airlines, “long before eco-tourism was even thought of” and before Tourism Tasmania was set up. They were exciting days.
Written by John Wilson, Jan 2015