Valerie Taylor interviewed by Gregg Borschmann in the Environmental awareness in Australia oral history project [sound recording]

Taylor, underwater photographer and film-maker, marine environmentalist and commercial artist, speaks of her family background; growing up in New Zealand; battling infantile paralysis; the family's return to Australia when she was age 16; life in Port Hacking; scuba diving and spearfishing; being involved in the television production 'Whiplash'; theatre work; sharks; her activities in the St. George Spearfishing Club; her realisation that this sport was contrbuting to the destruction of the reef marine life; the killing of intelligent marine life like dolphins, seals etc.; the banning of killing of marine animals while using any type of self-contained breathing apparatus; her views of the Australian Diving Federation; marrying Ron Taylor (1963); their early films together, 'Shark Hunters' and 'Skindiving Paradise'; securing sponsorship; the making of 'SurfScene'; the discipline and athleticism of surfboard riders; editing their films; John Harding; Ben Cropp; (1967) filming of the Belgian scientific expedition to the Great Barrier Reef; Gwen Plumb; her campaigns to save the grey nurse shark and to stop the fishing for the rare potato cod on the Great Barrier Reef.

Taylor discusses her campaign to stop birds being exterminated on the Coral Sea Island by Japanese mining; her knighthood (1986) by Prince Bernard of the Netherlands for her work in protecting coral reefs and its marine life, their work on a TV series Barrier Reef (1970-71); the individuality and intelligence of fish; her start in underwater photography (1959); Ron adapting the camera for underwater use; Hans and Lottie Hass; Prince Rainier; her ambition to become an accomplished underwater photographer and to be published internationally; being acknowledged as a top underwater photographer in the 1970s; her photodocumentation (1969) on whaling ships; the impact of 'Blue Water, White Death' on other divers; swimming unprotected among white pointers; the effectiveness of metal mesh swimsuits; their photographic work in National Geographic (June 1973); the crown of thorns starfish; undertaking the surface filming of the shark footage for the movie 'Jaws'; public reaction to the movie; her greater environmental activism; her techniques for handling dangerous sharks.

Taylor recalls her experience (1982) of Arab culture; testing of various sharkproof underwater repellents; the electronic pulse repeller; being bitten by sharks; her advisory work to promote or conserve marine life; her ability to draw and paint professionally; her current campaign to save the white pointer shark in Australia; her despair at human greed and abuse of sealife; the myth among Australians that the Great Barrier Reef is fully protected; the fact as a marine park permission to fish or mine is granted much more often than it is refused; how those who violate totally protected areas, are not prosecuted but dismissed by the judge; her disillusionment in teaching the present generation and her hopes of inspiring the next generation with a children's documentary series about marine life.