"This is just perfect," she says, glancing at the waterbirds incising the swamp's surface. "This is my Dad."

Kate Murray's father is Brian Gilligan, the revered environmental manager, protector and educator. He died on December 11 from cancer. He was aged 72.

But for his second child, the memory of Brian Gilligan remains embedded in Seaham Swamp Nature Reserve, just down the hill from the family home.

"There's almost a spiritual feeling, with the paperbarks, feeling the softness, the leaves underneath," she says. "There's something very unique and special about it."

Her father knew this place was special. It is why Brian Gilligan fought to save it from being sold off and drained half a century ago.

On January 14, 1972 - the day before he was to be married to the fellow geology student he fell in love with at uni - Brian received word that the sale was off. The swamp was to be gazetted as a nature reserve. It must have felt like an early wedding present.

"I think it did," says Micheala Gilligan, his wife of 48 years, "with all the lobbying he'd been trying to do."

While Brian Gilligan was instrumental in saving the swamp, the swamp helped shape his future. For the high school science teacher, this was his open-air laboratory and inspiration, as the swamp was the subject of his university studies.

"He did a master's degree there," explains Micheala Gilligan. "He'd come home from his teaching at Raymond Terrace at lunchtime, pull on the waders, and go through and do his measurements. And I think that really started his wetland interest for the rest of his life."

Brian Gilligan devoted his life and work to sharing that interest and teaching others to observe the natural wonders around them.

In 1976, he founded the Awabakal Field Study Centre at Dudley, where thousands of students have engaged with the environment. He was the initial convenor of the Hunter Wetlands Group and a founding director of the Shortland Wetlands Centre.

Brian Gilligan also held senior roles in the NSW Environment Protection Authority and was the head of the state's National Parks and Wildlife Service. After that, he worked with a string of environmental and land management agencies and groups in Australia and overseas.

Yet throughout his career, Mr Gilligan returned to his home in Seaham, and to the swamp.

He encouraged others in the community to see the beauty in the wetlands on the fringe of the village. Long-time local and good friend Rob Adams recalled that back in the 1970s, few saw the swamp as beautiful.

"We grew into it, and Brian was the main one behind it, who tried to convince us - and he did after a period of time," says Mr Adams, who is a member of the Seaham Park and Wetlands Committee.

The swamp, which had been Brian Gilligan's place of education and discovery when he was young, his place of reflection and escape when his career often took him far away, became his place of therapy and respite after he was diagnosed with lung cancer on Christmas Eve last year.

A prolific essayist, in his final piece Brian wrote about his desire in the past 12 months "to tidy off loose ends of some old pet projects".

A focus of those projects was the swamp, and the community surrounding it. He wanted to develop trails around the wetlands and link the nature reserve with nearby Seaham Park. He also wanted to secure an old slab cottage, known as Tom McClellan's, and to have installed a series of information signs, outlining the history of the sites.

Yet he didn't see these projects as a solo journey. They were a way for him to connect more deeply with his community and his family.

A few months ago, as he became more ill, Brian Gilligan asked his graphic designer daughter to work with him on the projects, particularly the information signs.

"I was thrilled because it meant I could actually do something," Kate Murray recalls. "I felt so lost and helpless when Dad was diagnosed."

Kate Murray enjoyed working with her father, tapping into his vast knowledge and helping him plot his ideas for the swamp projects.

"He said the thing that gave him the most joy was to actually feel like he was giving back to his immediate, local community, to feel like he could do something for the generations to come here, but also to reconnect with the locals," she says.

In recent weeks, Brian Gilligan would wander down to talk with Rob Adams and other volunteers who were cleaning up a section near a bird-viewing pavilion by the swamp.

After all that his friend had done for the swamp through the years, and with plans for more trails, Rob Adams had an idea he wanted to run by Brian.

"I did speak to him, sitting down here maybe two and a half weeks ago," Mr Adams recalls. "I said, 'How about Brian's Trail?'. And he said, 'No, no, I don't want my name', that type of thing."

He may not have wanted his name attached to the reserve, but Brian Gilligan's life was entwined with that of the swamp. Which is why Kate Murray, along with her older brother, younger sister and mother, is working on her father's projects.

She will discuss the plans with Port Stephens Council and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, who manage the land. She established a GoFundMe page, because her father's wish was that if anyone wanted to acknowledge his death, rather than give flowers, they could help bring these local projects to life.

"I think he'd feel happy in his heart that he's ticked off another one on his endless list of projects that he always had," she says. "I think he'd be smiling that we're here and getting it done."

The life of Brian Gilligan will be commemorated and celebrated on Tuesday, with a memorial service in the grounds of Ben Ean winery at Pokolbin, starting at 2pm. In these times of COVID restrictions, the service will also be live streamed.

Rob Adams is also thinking about how his friend can be remembered at Seaham Swamp. He respects Brian's wish that he didn't want any big signs with his name on it. So Mr Adams is thinking about planting a tree, by way of a memorial, or, "It'll possibly be just a little sign that says, 'Brian's Trail'."

For Kate Murray, she doesn't need any sign. All she needs to do is walk around the nature reserve, as she had done with her Dad since she was a child, to remember him. And to honour him, she will push on with his vision for the swamp.

"Dad was always looking to the future," she says. "He was a planner. And I suppose, for him, it did give him peace knowing that future generations could come and enjoy this beautiful natural area."

Service live stream link: http://bit.ly/37rW8Sj

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