It’s with great sadness that we have to inform you of the death of a valued colleague, friend and long-term Green: Jeremy Ball.
Jeremy was the man involved in the fatal accident with the log-truck at Carrick that has been reported in the media over the past 24 hours.
Jeremy was a long-term member and supporter of the Greens, becoming active when he returned to Launceston in 2002 after years of working and living abroad.
He worked on Kim Booth’s 2002 successful election campaign and continued to work for him for many years, stood for the Greens at federal, state and council elections, and went on to become a councillor and then deputy-mayor of Launceston Council.
An actor and community activist, one of his most recent projects involved devising and coordinating a jobs program to help refugees and migrants in Launceston get on their feet.
As a councillor and then deputy mayor, Jeremy championed the arts, social enterprise, regional and local economics and improved systems and designs knowledge.
A popular and energetic Greens member and council representative, he will be sorely missed by people in Launceston but also the wider Tasmanian community.
Our deepest sympathies and support go to Jeremy’s wife Karina, sons Griffin and Jasper, his parents John and Caroline, and the rest of his family.
• What Christine Milne and Bob Brown say about Jeremy Ball …
Christine:
Jeremy stood as a green candidate many, many times for us but he stood as a champion for the environment on causes that go back many, many years. In particular people will remember his advocacy for the Tamar Valley and Tasmanian forests against the Gunns pulp mill. Jeremy spoke at so many meetings, unite on site, at some of the big community meetings, and his election to the city council in the first place he attributed to his campaign against the Gunns pulp mill. I want to particularly say to his family, his wife Karina, to his children Griffin and Jasper, to his parents Caroline and John, he was a great friend, a great Green. We loved him, it is a tragedy that he is gone but when people look out at the Tamar Valley they should think of Jeremy. It is clean and it is beautiful because people like Jeremy Ball stood up for it.
Bob:
I first got to know Jeremy when he was a little boy campaigning for the first bike way in Tasmania in Launceston back in the late 1970s. He went on to campaign for the Franklin River and against the pulp mill to keep the Tamar Valley clean. He was a true champion of community and the sort of Tasmania we dream about. He was, down the line, to become a phenomenal mayor of Launceston in the future and representative of Tasmania. Jeremy not only dreamt about but had a plan to make Launceston the most progressive and liveable city in Australia. I was talking with him about that recently when he visited the Sea Shepherd ships being repaired in Launceston. He was full of optimism about the future he had real plans for Launceston and for Tasmania. He was a great champion of this island state of ours but in particular his home city of Launceston and now he has gone. It is a terrific loss for Launceston, it is a great loss for Tasmania and just a horrible loss for his bereaved family and friends. Jeremy was a totally devoted father who put his family above all and it is just awesome to think he is not there now and that his wife and two children and his extended family have him no more. But the arms of this community are around the Ball family and they are going to have to suffer a great loss but also know what a great individual they spawned and they loved and what a great person he was for Tasmania. His is a life to celebrate, a life to inspire us now and into the future, and he is a fellow who not only his family but all Tasmania and particularly Launceston will be proud of and glad of, vale Jeremy Ball.
• TT MEDIA HERE … For tributes to Jeremy Ball, from Premier Will Hodgman to Helen Burnet ….
