Battle for the Bush

Colong Foundation/Envirobook, 174 pp, pb, $24.95

Packed with information drawn from campaigns for protection of the Blue Mountains and the Alps, this paperback provides an invaluable insight into bushwalker-driven battles in the Great Dividing Range of south-east Australia. Author Geoff Mosley’s detailed and carefully documented story demonstrates how much we have to thank Myles Dunphy for, for his visionary proposals to retain substantial tracts of country, free from intrusive development, for recreation and nature conservation; and also his colleagues and successors who have maintained the battle.

This is also a story about the origins of the wilderness movement in NSW, revealing a focus on personal self-sustained recreational values where, in the early days at least, the nature conservation element has been less clearly articulated than in some other parts of Australia. The importance of retaining wild places free from modern infrastructure, and in particular the motor vehicle, is a key theme, along with the need to recreate our contact with the natural world as urbanisation increases, as quoted extracts so clearly show:

"Now, when mankind begins to envisage the complete urbanisation and subjection of the remaining wild parts of the country, the prospect is a wearisome and worrying one: for where else can man go to escape civilisation …

The thought that the country can never go wild again is positively appalling …"

(from The Katoomba Daily Special Supplement of 24 August 1934, by Myles Dunphy under the pseudonym of "Barron Thurat")

The book provides too often neglected elements of historical and descriptive detail through text and photograph – an important component at a time when corporate memory and experience are all too often neglected as new generations of campaigners, managers and decision makers succeed each other. It is also laced with fascinating glimpses into the techniques of campaigning, the philosophies which drove it, and some of the people involved. The protracted campaigns which Dunphy and his bushwalking colleagues pursued required enormous tenacity, and are still being followed up today.

While much of the original vision for a Greater Blue Mountains National Park has been achieved, albeit (as the book makes clear through a series of separate – in name and sometimes physical – blocks) ongoing vigilance remains essential to ward off compromising activities around the edges and intrusion by tracks, infrastructure, vehicles and so on.

The story of the alpine areas – significant also as a component of the important sweep of eucalypt forest ecosystems across the full altitude range from the mountains to the coast – offers fewer grounds for complacency. Expanding ski resort development, including Victorian excision from national parks, and failure to terminate grazing, continue to threaten the ecological integrity of the high country.

The Colong Foundation and author Geoff Mosley are to be congratulated on providing us with a valuable reference for all those concerned for our precious, but sadly diminished, wild places.

Anne Reeves

The Wollemi Pine

Text Publishing, Melbourne, 212 pp, $27

News of the discovery of the Wollemi Pine in 1994 fired imaginations worldwide. How could a 40 metre-high tree only known from 120-million-year old fossils remain a secret? James Woodford, in The Wollemi Pine, tells of plants, fossils and the pine, and also about personalities, power, government and nature conservation.

James is well placed to tell the story. He broke news of the pine's discovery in The Sydney Morning Herald and has continued to report each new development. Yet the story is about more than a nameless place in the Wollemi wilderness. We are taken to a time when Wollemi pines covered eastern Australia, journey to the modern Tarkine wilderness looking for pollen, hear the experts in labs in Canberra and Sydney, and finally venture into the Wollemi pine grove itself.

At times the writing is like an artist painting with words; which is what I like most about the book. The Wollemi Pine is a clearly written, constantly interesting and well-explained account. Paleobotany, plant genetics and identification are written in everyday words, but unfortunately it is a quick read and, by the last page, you crave more.

I saw James at work hunting down the story of the pine. These relentless efforts have successfully allowed him to recreate the moods of each significant moment and piece together the scientific puz

zle. There is enough to satisfy any urge to understand the mystery of the pine, without a visit.

But the book achieves more. It reminds us of the importance of rare-plant conservation, a little-funded and unpopular realm until now. Particularly it reinforces the importance of large, well-managed conservation reserves for biodiversity, known and unknown.

Andrew Cox

National Parks of Australia

New Holland Publishers, 176 pp, hb, $54.95

This book on Australian national parks by Allan Fox should stand out from the crowd because of the reputation of its author, who has made an important contribution to nature conservation over the years.

National Parks of Australia is also distinguished by the text which shows Allan Fox’s long experience in environmental education and interpretation. He manages to distil complex facts and ideas down to the essence, and imparts an understanding of his subject in a way that readers are bound to appreciate and other writers in this genre will admire.

Books on national parks in Australia are always faced with a problem: which of the many hundreds of parks to feature? It must be a help to have Allan Fox’s background in making the selection, as this book strikes a good balance between bioregional 

representation and popularity.

The book is nudged out of the armchair travel category by its marginal notes covering climate, access, equipment, wildlife-watching and other practical things – information which intending visitors will find useful.

The only point in the book I have a serious quibble with is the sub-heading in the Introduction: "The First ‘National Park’ in the World". This suggests (and perhaps it is not what the writer intended) that national parks are an Australian invention. I don’t think so.

This is an attractive book, richly illustrated with colour photographs drawn from many sources; notable among these images is the work of photographer Don Fuchs.

Peter Prineas

Touring New South Wales

New Holland Publishers, 176pp, pb, $37.95

Another travel book from New Holland, this time limited to NSW and by travel writer Bruce Elder. It is also obviously for a different audience – those who get out of their cars and walk a short distance, but not too far.

The book presents 70 self-contained tours in NSW, each on two pages with very clear maps and descriptions of highlights of the trip. As a sample, "The Desert Circuit" describes Sunset Strip, Copi Hollow, Pamamaroo Lake, Menindee, Wilcannia, White Cliffs and Mootwingee (sic) NP. The information is very good in terms of the more positive aspects of post-European historical sites and lightweight recreation, but may leave bushwalkers cold!

Its good points are the great photos (all in colour, large and small), an excellent index and the information on post-European history. It would be a very useful book to keep around the place, to help with planning longer trips. I would probably never follow one of the suggested tours, but I would certainly consult it for snippets of information on individual places.

Glyn Mather