PHILANTHROPY
Saving private rhinos
After a successful career in the mining industry, BGS Old Boy Allan Davies ’69 and his wife Lyn established a charitable foundation in 2007 to support projects they found interesting. Now worth several million dollars, the Dalara Foundation donated $400,000 to various worthy causes last year alone. Given Allan grew up in Mount Isa, and he and Lyn spent years living and working in regional Australia, it’s unsurprising many of Dalara’s funded projects benefit country people and communities. Dalara’s beneficiaries include scholarships for veterinary, agriculture, and engineering students; training for rural midwives through the Royal Flying Doctor Service; and research into stroke prevention and Hendra virus. Dalara was also a generous supporter of The Lilley Centre’s construction at BGS. Education remains an ongoing focus. “We’re really keen on a not-for-profit group called the Clontarf Foundation, which focuses on education for Aboriginal boys,” Allan says. “We feel really passionate about education because it’s the fundamental building block for any society to
continue to improve itself. There are so many things that could be fixed if people were better educated.” To this end, Allan would like to see the 1969 Year Level Bursary grow. “I think bursaries are a fantastic way to assist the philanthropic effort at BGS. I’m keen to do something with the other guys in my year who are like-minded.” Having enjoyed his time as a boarder at BGS, Allan has been a generous donor to the School. Perhaps more surprising is his interest in saving the African white rhino. Allan says working and travelling through South Africa in the 1970s gave him an enduring appreciation for African wildlife and social issues. “Apartheid was in place, and we travelled around the country and saw a lot of things that affected us. It has some bearing on the philanthropy we do today.” When Allan was asked to get involved in the conservation of the wild rhino population about 10 years ago, he was intrigued, and the Australian Rhino Project was born. As co-founder and Chair, Allan is involved in the logistics
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