While staying at the Atherton Tablelands, we enjoyed a visit to Wongabel forest. It interested us so much because the forest had a history of timber harvesting and whilst now reserved, it is an excellent example of a remnant rainforest alongside commercial forestry programs and research plots. The walk is in excellent condition and very well maintained.… Read more
Cooktown represents the most northern point we have travelled in Australia thus far. Like others do when up this way, we could have continued our trip to the tip of Cape York. But for now, not for us. Maybe next time when we are better prepared.
Everywhere you look in Cooktown there is a reminder of Lieutenant Cook, the repairs to the Endeavour and the botanical and faunal collections of Banks and Solander.… Read more
If you haven’t bought my book “Fires, Farms and Forests”, this book review on pages 17 and 18 of the Australian Forest History Society Newsletter Number 81 (December 2020) may inspire you to take the plunge. You can view the newsletter online at https://www.foresthistory.org.au/newsletters.html
NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS
Robert Onfray, 2020. Fires, Farms and Forests.… Read more
Several years ago, I stopped listening and watching the news and current affairs on the ABC. I was sick of being consistently fed what I believe was biased and unbalanced reporting. We are told by ardent ABC supporters this is not how the ABC operates. But you only have to look at their main website to see they have a track record a mile long of upheld complaints about stories that were found to breach their standards for impartiality.… Read more
This month’s blog is by Allan Jamieson. Most of you would know Allan from his time working with APPM as a chemical engineer at the pulp and paper mill in Burnie, and as the inaugural manager of the new research unit set up by North Forest Products in Ridgley in 1993.… Read more
Jim Fidler writes this month’s Surrey Hills blog. Jim was born and raised in Launceston. Educated at the University of Tasmania with a teaching degree majoring in geology, Jim began teaching at Burnie and was also Principal at Waratah Primary School from 1984-87. Jim moved to Beijing in 2000 where he initially was a Lower School Principal and then a High School Humanities teacher at the International School, Beijing.… Read more
As we entered south-east Queensland for the summer period, and before we do some house-sits during the summer school holidays, we decided to return to Hervey Bay for a couple of weeks.
We stayed at the same caravan park and same site we had during the 12-week COVID lockdown period.
In September’s travel blog I shared our experiences with the local antechinus who would entertain us each dusk as they were out and about feeding.… Read more
As you travel north from Winton to Cloncurry along the Landsborough Highway, you see spectacular open Mitchell grass (Astrebla app) plains with their distinctive golden colour under the relentless sunshine. I had heard about these magnificent plains but had no idea how extensive and beautiful they really are.
After McKinlay, you start to see a change in the soil from the black-grey clays to the red mineralised earth soils.
In my book “Fires, Farms and Forests”, Chapters 8 through to 10 cover the development of forestry operations on Surrey Hills. Barry Graham worked in the pre and post-industrial forestry era on Surrey Hills during four separate stints. Endnote 819 on page 248 of the book summarises his career. Barry is only one of two people still alive, that I know of, who worked on Surrey Hills in the 1950s.… Read more
On our way from the Cania Gorge up to Emerald in Central Queensland, we stopped for a few nights in a small settlement called Springsure, just north of Carnarvon Gorge National Park. The name of the town comes from a local property that was named for its reliable, permanent spring.
When I had to drive from Dalby to Emerald for work, I would go through Springsure, and I was impressed with the spectacular jagged peaks that provided a scenic backdrop to the small town.… Read more
