A Local’s Perspective With Brinkley Davies

Welcome to episode four of A Local’s Perspective, a series where we team up with environmentally-conscious Australians and put our precious coastline under the microscope, brought to you by Corona Extra.

Episode four features surfer, marine biologist and environmental advocate, Brinkley Davies, in her hometown on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula. While she now calls the turquoise waters of Exmouth in Western Australia home, Brinkley jumped at the chance to head back to the tight-knit community on the isolated piece of coastline where she grew up.

Yorke in winter is cold and desolate, but incredibly beautiful. Huge ocean swells and storms come howling in one minute, and the clouds part to turn the coastline into a sunny tropical paradise the next. Brinkley’s parents tossed her into the ocean at a young age and she surfaced quickly, surfing some of the country’s most brutal waves and free diving with cute fur seals and even cuter tiger sharks. Time spent in and around the ocean paved the way for her passion in ocean conservation, and after completing her studies in marine biology, Brinkley set off to work on conservation projects around the world and eventually founded the non-for-profit Balu Blue Foundation.

Spending time in this unique slice of coastline for A Local’s Perspective revealed Brinkley as a true product of her environment; a like-minded community of people whose passions and livelihoods revolve around the big blue, who’d do anything on an individual or collective level to fight for their environment. Plastic and consumption are minimised, and when faced with multi-national oil companies that don’t give a shit about the oceans, the people of Yorke come out in full force. The Yorke Peninsula might be isolated, but Brinkley and her friends and family are living proof that when people band together to fight for this beautiful land of ours, only good things can come of it.

Hit play on our fourth episode of A Local’s Perspective above, then go learn more about Brinkley’s Balu Blue Foundation, get along to a community conservation initiative in your local area. Find out more about how you can get involved and support Corona’s Protecting Paradise initiatives here.

Film by Jam Hassan and Andy Gough