Efforts to immortalize the life of Rosemary Baldwin, a British woman who fell in love and later promoted the nature around Lake Bafa, are under consideration.
Local media have suggested that Kuşadası Municipality is continuing in its project preparations to turn her house into a museum.
Rosemary spent many years in the beautiful geography of the Aegean. She came to Kuşadası, then a small holiday town, in the 1960s, admiring its natural areas while crossing the Samos Strait by boat.
When she first arrived, looking at the incredibly beautiful peninsula dominated by the ancient Mykalea Samson Mountains and said, “I fell in love with this geography with great passion.
“I would never have thought that I would be a part of the magnificent view of my house in Kuşadası, where I would spend a long time camping on the northern slopes, listen to the sounds of leopards, see Dilek Peninsula, Samos Island, the ancient cities of Colophon and Lebedos. Nowhere have I seen the plant communities on this peninsula that I fell in love with. The plants were almost intertwined, displaying an extraordinary beauty.”
Rosemary worked closely with the Natural Life Conservation Society, which works in the region, for years. Contrary to the news that some investments will be made on the Dilek Peninsula, the sensitivity she showed for the protection of the natural area at that time was engraved in the memories.
She attended a lunch given at the Kismet Hotel in honor of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, who came to Kusadasi on October 17, 1971.
There, Rosemary asked for support by telling Prince Philip how important Bafa Lake and Büyük Menderes Delta, which she had been researching for years, were, that these must be national parks, and the threats of construction on the Dilek Peninsula.
Prince Philip, the Honorary President of WWF, met with some people from Ankara that day and informed Rosemary that there would be positive developments in this regard.
She continued to spend a significant part of her life on the shores of Lake Bafa and the national park, working with inexhaustible energy and excitement, and helped to announce the importance of this geography, which she loved so much, to a very large audience in the world.
One of her biggest dreams was to protect these important natural areas in order to protect the habitats of the birds she admired. That’s why she was engaged in dialogue with organizations such as Birdlife International and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
She also tried to get bird watchers around the world to come to Bafa. During those years, she drew up a bird observatory plan and handed it to Nergis Yazgan, who was then head of DHKD. Yazgan later donated this important memory of Rosie to regional environmental group, EKODOSD.
Rosemary died on Christmas 1993 while staying with her daughters in Italy. As per her will, her ashes were placed in a jar and brought to Kuşadası.
Rosemary’s daughters, Rahmi Koç, Kismet Hotel owner Hümeyra (Özbaş) Sultan, Eşref Sencer Kuşçubaşı’s daughter Dikdam Aktay, Vera – Bülent Bulgurlu, and DHKD President Nergis then attended a ceremony in the fishing boats that come out of Kapıkırı to spread her ashes and colourful roses on waters of Bafa Lake.
Both of Rosemary Baldwin’s dreams, for which she worked so hard, came true not while she was alive, but right after her death.
The Büyük Menderes Delta and Bafa Lake Conservation Project of Rosemary Baldwin and (DHKD) Wildlife Conservation Society was concluded in 1994 with the support of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
While Bafa Lake Nature Park was being built in Aydın region by the General Directorate of National Parks, the borders of Dilek Peninsula, which was a National Park in 1966, were expanded to include the Büyük Menderes Delta and gained the status of a National Park.
For Rosemary’s second dream, her daughters came together and collected money between them. With the help of an expert from England, a birdwatching house was built, with the help of the world’s best bird-watching techniques, on the corner of Lake Bafa where Sakızburnu Dalyan meets the lake, with the follow-up of Gürdoğar Sarıgül, the regional officer of DHKD.
On May 26, 1996, representatives of the Ministry from Söke and Didim, The Rosemary Baldwin Bird Observatory was opened with its district governors, businessperson Rahmi Koç, DHKD chairman Nergis Yazgan and other guests.
The Bird Observatory was transferred to the General Directorate of National Parks with a protocol signed between DHKD and the Ministry of Forestry.
The observatory, for bird watchers from abroad and domestically to come to Bafa to watch the birds, the social and economic development of the local people around the lake thanks to ecotourists, and the execution of education and awareness programs for the sustainable protection of the lake, especially for children, was later due to adverse weather conditions.
Years later, bird-watching towers and observation terraces were built by the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, 4th Region Aydın Provincial Branch Directorate, in order to spread bird-watching tourism.
However, her memory continues to live on with talks of a film and Kuşadası Municipality’s plans to turn her house in the city into a museum.