CLIVE HATTON WALKER
Born 1936 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Grand parents British.
1957-1959: Hunting expeditions in Mozambique. Dangerous game. Studied ‘animal spoor & tracking”.
1959 – 1963: Toured Europe and the UK. Joined the Overseas Visitors Club in London rising to the position of Manager of the Courtfield Gardens hotel group. Hospitality and tourism.
1960 & 1963: Two visits to Tsavo N Park, Kenya. 65 000 to 100 000 black rhinos in Africa and 1.2 million elephant
1966: Appointed game ranger in the Tuli Block, Bechuanaland (Botswana) Married Conita Hagens.
1968 & 1969: Expeditions to Fort Tuli, Zimbabwe Tuli Circle to study Pioneer Column history and the founding of Rhodes Rhodesia.
1968 -1974: Joined Herbert Evans Co as assistant Advertising Manager rising to the position of General Manager in Johannesburg
1970: First joint exhibition of animal studies. Pretoria. Work has been exhibited in the USA, London, and Johannesburg SA
1971: Wilderness trail in Zululand with the Ian Player’s Wilderness Leadership School.
1972: Field trip to Namibia. Led first wilderness trail of Hilton College school boys to the N.E Tuli and field trip to Botswana, guest lecturer, University of California students.
1973: Wilderness Foundation launched in the Transvaal in support of the Wilderness Leadership School. Committee member.
1973: Founded the Endangered Wildlife Trust in Johannesburg with James Clarke and Neville Anderson. First Chairman and then Director over a period of 13 years. First international art exhibition in San Antonio, Texas.
The first two studies sponsored by the EWT were Gus Mills, Brown hyena, and Andrew Louwry, cheetah under Prof Koos Bothma, UP.
Commenced study of mammal tracks from the CANE RAT up, (Spoor). ‘Signs of the Wild’ was finally published in 1982. Still in print. 2020.
1974: Co-founder of the Wilderness Education Trust with a view to establishing an EE program for children in the then Transvaal. This breakaway was the result of the failure to gain autonomy from the WLS in Natal.
Resigned from Hebert Evans on the 15th of June 1974 to pursue a career in animal art and to join the Wilderness Leadership School as a nature guide operating in Botswana. Set up trail operations in the Mashatu GR for the school with Matt Makofski until November 1975. The ‘school’ chose to pull out which led to my resignation and to set up Educational Wildlife Expeditions to replace them. Founded by Clive & Conita Walker and Michael Brett.
1974: Co-authored, ‘Walk through the Wilderness with Don Richards, published by Purnell.
1976: Founded Educational Wildlife Expeditions. An adult education program consisting of camping and walking in wild country to continue with a similar concept to the Wilderness Leadership School. EWE became enormously successful leading to the employment of two additional ‘guides’, Neville Peake and Graeme Thompson. The trails provided for 8 participants and operated up to 1994 expanding into the Klaserie GR and the Okavango Delta with a short period in Tongaland. KZN. Refer to Baobab Trails, 2014 for list of 20 senior guides. 1976 -1994.
1977: Discovered the extensive killing of rhinos and elephants in the Kaokoveld of Namibia by citizens and members of the SA armed forces. Mounted a major campaign and reported the matter to the IUCN on behalf of the EWT. Supported the project up to 1985
1977: The EWT commenced a detailed study of the elephants of the Tuli Block under the direction of Prof Brian Walker of WITS. MSc student Bruce Page.
1979-1980: Two-year sponsored aerial surveys of desert-adapted wildlife, Kaokoveld, elephant, giraffe, and rhino. Slang Viljoen. Msc. UP.
1977: Appointed member of the IUCN — AFRICAN ELEPHANT SPECIALIST GROUP. Position held for 12 years.
1981: Appointed Managing Director of Lapalala Wilderness by Dale Parker who purchased the original 5000ha game reserve in the Waterberg of Limpopo. This enabled Clive and Conita Walker to establish their environmental program for children of all race groups in SA within the reserve and went on in 1985 to formally establish the Lapalala Wilderness School under a public trust which he chaired for the next 20 years. He is today the PATRON of the School. More than 100 000 children and teachers have passed through the school programs.
1985: Resigned from the EWT in March to devote time to the Lapalala reserve and school programs.
1985: Co-founded the Rhino and Elephant Foundation and was appointed Vice Chairman. Co-founded the Field Guides Association of SA and elected first Chairman. This came about as a result of a workshop arranged by Don Richards and the writer at Lapalala Wilderness in 1989.
1989: Founded the Waterberg Nature Conservancy in conjunction with Kwalata and Touchstone G R.
1993 – 2006: Appointed to the African Rhino Specialist Group of IUCN.
1997: Commenced the process of nominating the Waterberg as a UNESCO Biosphere. Approved in August 2001. Appointed first Chairman. Established the first natural and cultural history museum in the Waterberg in a restored primary school built in the late 1800’s at Melkrevier.
2005: Retired from Lapalala Wilderness and located to the museums to run them full time. Land was claimed in 2006 and closed in 2008. The last 9 years have seen the re-establishment of a new living museum complex on a 100 ha sanctuary 25km from the town of Vaalwater.
The WATERBERG LIVING MUSEUM comprises 6 museum buildings dedicated to Biodiversity, Rhinoceros, Elephants, Ancient Past species, and a Cultural History museum of human occupation going back 3 milion years. 83 fossil replicas of hominids and animal species are on display.
In addition to the main public area, ‘Livingstone Lounge’, an auditorium seating 80 people, the Science center, WISE housing a reference library, a herbarium, and archive collection. School children from local schools will be accommodated in groups of up to 60 students with a dedicated guide.
BOOKS PUBLISHED:
‘Walk through the Wilderness’ 1974. With co-author, D.Richards.
‘Signs of the Wild’, 1982. Struik Random House. Still in publication.
‘Twilight of the Giants’, 1982. Sable Publishers.
‘Soul of the Waterberg’ 2005. Co-author with Prof J. Du Plessis Bothma.
‘African Elephants’ 2000. Co-author with photographer Nigel Denis.
‘Okavango from the Air’, 1989 with photographer Herman Potgieter.
‘Savuti-the vanishing river’, 1990. Walker, C. Southern Books.
‘Kaokoveld the last Wilderness” 1987. Co-author Southern Books. Rhino Keepers 2012, Jacana Media. C and A Walker.
‘Baoabab Trails’ 2014, Jacana Media. Autobiography with Sally Antrobus.
‘Lapalala Wilderness’ 2016, Jacana Media. Private publication.
‘Limpopo River of Gold’ 2016, Jacana Media. Co-author. P. Norton, M. Gardner.
‘Rhino Revolution’, Publication Feb. 2018. Jacana Media. Clive and Anton Walker.
‘Rhino in my Garden’ by Conita Walker, with Sally Smith Publication in October 2017.