Back to the Bush: My Love Affair with Australia and Protecting the EnvironmentBack to the Bush is the author's account of his environmental and conservation work from the early 1960s to the end of the 1990s. In a sense this is the second volume of a 2-part series and follows his Under the Mulga - A Bush Memoir published by UQP in 2005.In that first volume, the author traced the history of western land use illustrated by his family's experience of developing two semi arid timbered blocks into functioning sheep and cattle farms. It starts with a trip by Cobb and Co coach, describes the advent of water, carried by hundreds of km of bore drain and the annual cycle of ring-barking and felling timber to feed starving stock in the ever-present drought years. They sold their farms just before wool boomed in 1949.The current volume takes up the story with the family's move out of the bush and into Brisbane, in 1958. The author never felt at home in the city and quickly became involved in CSIRO and DPI fieldwork and inspections of large-scale land clearing schemes in Queensland. In his words, he became "Increasingly concerned for the environment and soils from over-clearing of farming land and heavy stocking in the inland pastoral sector. This gradually led to working through the Departments of Forestry, Primary Industries, National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Conservation Movement and Shire Councils to promote more sensitive land-use and development and to help establish a network of National Parks in the major bioregions throughout the country, to protect ecosystems and maintain diversity. This was the program I set myself, which dominated my life from the 1960s to the 1990s."What follows is a fascinating blend of the bushman's powers of observation enriching the scientific method and infused with a passion for the land and its people.The book contains nearly 300 colour photos, maps and illustrations and describes soils and land use in layman's terms. It will be of interest to the scientist as well as the conservation minded person who enjoys a good yarn. |