Lloyd Hancock

Griffith Sciences' 2022 Outstanding Alumnus

Bachelor of Environmental Science

It wasn’t until Lloyd Hancock sat on horseback surveying the compelling country of Central Queensland’s stunning Carnarvon Gorge that he fully understood he was on the right path.

It was 1990, and for more than a decade Lloyd had led an outstanding career planning and managing a series of major developments across Australia, often projects with a heavy environmental component.

As an independent consultant, Lloyd says, he had the privilege of window-shopping various sectors in search of a place to hang his hat.

“Finding your raison d'être was a big thing in my family, and consulting across different sectors—tourism, social welfare, agriculture—was a way to find the best place for me out in the world,” says Lloyd.

Unsatisfied, even after helping plan a new NSW ski resort and writing White and Green Papers for the Victorian government, Lloyd turned to a mentor, who asked him what he’d do if he had six months to live.

“I answered that 'I'd take young people out and show them the bush—but that’s not a proper job!',” he says.

And so from that ridge overlooking Carnarvon Gorge, Lloyd made the decision to put his mentor’s hypothetical into action and purchased Saddler Springs, a 30,000 acre property that sides the gorge, and turned it into a wilderness education centre for disadvantaged youth.

“I was only a facilitator and a vehicle, not some visionary,” he laughs.

For more than 30 years, Saddler Springs has hosted wilderness experiences for groups of young people—indigenous and non-indigenous—doing it tough, supplemented by eco-tourism and university study tours to help pay the bills.

“You can have a powerful experience in the bush, one that unlocks deeper shifts in people, particularly those who might be undergoing a life transition or are at a disadvantage,” says Lloyd.

“Nature is ‘the original cathedral’, but our connection to the natural world has been hugely compromised.

“We’re the most urbanised country on earth; even 50 years ago most Australians had family in the bush, but even that link is diminished now.”

Tandem to developing Saddler Springs, Lloyd also founded the Youth Enterprise Trust (YET) to sustain it, a nationally respected charity to assist disadvantaged youth, and aided the founding of five other charities.

With YET, he “never accepted a dollar from government” and instead fostered a community of supporters that raised millions of dollars over the years to maintain the property and its diverse staff, supported by about 70 full-time equivalent volunteers.

In 2021 Lloyd transferred Saddler Springs, the property that had been his home for so long, to a not-for-profit trust, allowing him and his wife Amanda—also a noted conservationist—to focus on documentary filmmaking.

Lloyd was named the 2001 Queenslander of the Year and the 2002 Social Entrepreneur of the Year (Northern Australia) for his YET work, just two of the many professional and community accolades he’s gathered across his career.

Griffith University Vice President Dr Peter Binks summed Lloyd up as a passionate environmental leader and “a humble man despite his considerable achievements”.

“I know he prefers to avoid accolades, and accepts awards only if he believes the recognition will highlight the cause for which he’s nominated and the people of that cause,” says Dr Binks.

Lloyd's other Griffith University bona fides are impeccable: he was a foundation student among the 1975 Bachelor of Environmental Science intake, served as the first President of the Student Union and was the student representative on the Griffith University Council.

“Griffith had as its founding ethos this openness of communication between administration, students and teaching staff,” he recalls.

“It gave the place a vitality, this notion of holistic thinking and developing a dialogue—what could prove that better than me as a teenage student riding my pushbike to meetings of the University Council?”