John Blay - Wild Nature: Walking Australias South East Forests

JOHN BLAY, writer and naturalist, has long-standing connections with Australias south east and has written extensively about its nature and its people. He has walked throughout the region while researching its forests, their chequered history and national parks. This journey to the heart of the forests is the third part of his forests trilogy.

Other works by John Blay include:

Non-fiction

Part of the Scenery

Trek Through the Back Country

The Australian Native Plant Gardeners Almanac

The Australian Wildflower Diary

On Track: Searching out the Bundian Way

Back Country: Trek Through the Deua and Wadbilliga

Plays (for radio and stage)

Vinegar Hill

The Journeys of Aubrey D

Doin Our Best to Deny It

Harpur

The Great Village Dream

Bedbug Celebration

Variations on a Theme of the Lyrebird

The Fleet

A NewSouth book

Published by

NewSouth Publishing

University of New South Wales Press Ltd

University of New South Wales

Sydney NSW 2052

AUSTRALIA

newsouthpublishing.com

John Blay 2020

First published 2020

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia

ISBN9781742236902 (paperback)

9781742244853 (ebook)

9781742249353 (ePDF)

Cover design Peter Long

Cover photograph John Blay at Coolangubra by John Ford

Internal photographs and illustrations John Blay

Maps Josephine Pajor-Markus after John Blay, except National Parks of South East Australia based on a map by George Elliott

The maps in this book are approximate representations of the areas they cover and should not be relied upon by those undertaking walks or visits into these areas.

All reasonable efforts were taken to obtain permission to use copyright material reproduced in this book, but in some cases copyright could not be traced. The author welcomes information in this regard.

For the battlers
who stand with nature

To begin, I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which I have lived, travelled and written and the Elders past, present and future, and pay my respect to all who have given me information about the lands and as a result made the journeys so much richer. We still have some distance to travel

Proposal for a national park in East Gippsland to link up with the South East Forests National Park in New South Wales.

2 January 2020

In Eden this afternoon its gone red. You cant see without a light inside. Outside, the dead grass of the lawn is glowing crimson. The sky is a dark, deep orangey red, as if its on fire. You cant do anything energetic the air is so pungent and smoky. All activity is reduced to a minimum. And with this mad sou-wester its cold. Yesterday it was hot but now theres a deep chill in the sticky atmosphere.

Places have burned we thought could never burn. There used to be fires. Theyd burn here and there. But now its one big fire coming from many directions thats burning everything and leaving no refuges.

Maybe afterwards well reflect back and say this is when everything changed.

My rare privilege, some would call it madness, is to have experienced the great native forests of the south east region of Australia intimately, up close and personal you could say, over a period of very many years. These are outstanding on a world scale. National parks here protect a fantastic array of wildlife, and yet they are within a days drive from Australias three major capital cities and 80 per cent of its population. It seemed to me these protected areas should be appreciated, that I needed to put them in context and realise their natural beauty while I explored their value to civilisation in a world thats putting more and more weight on turning a profit while nature goes up in smoke.

Maybe its nature that Im talking about because the forests are part of nature just as we are, and everything else. One problem is that nature can get out of balance, not that fires are at fault. Maybe theyre a consequence. But theyre at the back of my mind while Im out in the bush. There are reminders everywhere that help you read the countryside and its fire history as you walk. Its only natural. Fires have their own beauty. They can inspire us with fear and dread.

Then

Notes in my journals reveal me planning,

thinking of the south east forest trails even though there are no trails in the parts where I want to go. Its like the joke my dreaming plays on my waking self. I really need to go there, I tell Jacqueline. But where exactly do you want to go? she asks. You go to Cuttagee often enough, dont you? Maybe I should have kept it as our little joke and let it be. The places I want to go are not easy places, I say. Its the great escarpment where the divide between the tablelands and the coast is braided into wild gorges and cliffs. Its hard to find a way through north to south because theres no clear route. Its deep and its dark, all mixed up and rugged. A few tracks go east to west but I have to go north to south. What do you expect to find? she asks. I can only shrug. What if in the end theres nothing there? It will inspire us with its beauty, I promise. And its different. If its so wild, surely well be lost? she says. Suddenly it comes clear to me. We can map whatever we find and tell the story of the great escarpment forests. She wonders if it matters and I say that this is undervalued natural country. Its where the forest wars were fought. These places found protection because enough people thought they needed protection and demanded it and the story of their progress towards protection is chequered. But there must be trails, not just fire trails but real ones, maybe animal pads, maybe older ways. We can find the truth. Her forehead wrinkles in confusion. If we can make ourselves a mobile base camp we can live there in the forests for a year or so to find what theyre all about. She thinks deeply. Isnt it contradictory to speak of trails and unfettered nature at the same time? But trails take many forms. Some lead you into nature. Its important we reconcile our thoughts if the project is to come to pass. Some are like smoke trails and others are like history that tell you how things came to be the way they are. Some trails, for example, might show the way to fabled things like the waratahs of the Coolangubra ? Wouldnt you like to experience them? Her excitement at the possibilities of going there rises. Imagine us becoming as one with the forests We could visit the headwaters of the Brogo River as a trial run, I suggest. Check out its amazing wilderness.