We all know how mothers have to be on the ball to keep an eye on the young. This was borne home to me afresh by my wallaby mates lately. After days of dreary chilly rain, the sun came out. The only wallabies that seemed even half-awake were the mums with toddlers. This one had [...]
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Much of this winter has been spent at the computer, writing more book talks. It’s cosy inside my cabin, with the slow combustion wood heater going all the time but fully banked down, as once the mud brick walls have heated up, they hold the warmth. No heat transfer at all. But I am also [...]
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At my altitude frosts are so rare that I note them on my rain chart. They do little damage and give me new visual pleasures from their special effects. As always in nature, closer observations repays with small and extraordinary details — like this crystallised wallaby dropping! ‘Green’ is often overrated, and the new white [...]
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Early mornings are a good time for wallaby viewing as they move into the yard to catch the sun and start their day. Warming up and washing are essential first steps. This mother and joey are combining the two as the sun rises above my eastern treeline. They looked like they were hugging but as [...]
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I have finally gotten around to cutting back the verandah’s vines of wisteria and ornamental grape. They have twisted around themselves and each other to form very strong and sculptural outstretching limbs. This year I am experimenting with leaving more of their extremities, their claws, poised to shoot green fingers further than before perhaps. Beyond them, against [...]
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Brown is not a favourite colour for me; I never wear it. I don’t even particularly like chocolate. My dad — and many others — was fond of a paint called Mission Brown. He also grew beans for market, of a variety called Brown Beauty, which I was allowed to help plant when I was [...]
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A chilly early morning at Goulburn River Stone Cottages, the moon still high in the sky and the three peacocks still perched in their night-time tree. They are ridiculous birds for flying or perching, one would think, with their disproportionately long tails and heavy bodies. There are three show-off males here, two ‘peacock blue’ and [...]
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It is winter, but the deciduous trees and vines don’t all drop their leaves at once. It’s a nicely timed taking of turns to blaze out their seasonal farewells. This beauty is the very last leaf on the whole Glory Vine. On a misty morning, its bright pink is almost shocking. I want a lipstick [...]
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Now that the rain’s stopped, my yard is a sheltered sunspot for the wallaby population, which seems to have exploded. I guess they give the kikuyu grass more attention now that it’s winter and there’s not a lot happening elsewhere, growthwise. This morning they seemed as ‘herded’ and as focused on the task as a [...]
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It was just on dusk when I reached Mallacoota, 23 km east of the highway. A stunningly beautiful spot, and quite a large village, but, as I discovered when I drove to the inlet foreshore, its population must explode in summer. What I thought was just a pleasantly green and tree-edged park proved to be [...]
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At Devonport, waiting to board the night boat, Tasmania farewelled me with rain, as it had greeted me a fortnight before, then withdrew its forces to the now familiar lowering dark clouds over its mountains — and turned on a perfect double rainbow. Day or night, Tasmania, your wild skies have won me. In the [...]
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It’s a late winter dawn, too cold and too early to get up really, but, since I’m awake and I have a million things to do — I toss back the covers and start the day. By the time the kettle has boiled, the first stripes of sunlight are fingering the tops of my gum [...]
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Here's the cover of my new book — Rich Land, Wasteland — How coal is killing Australia — which is now in bookshops.
A candid meander through my life up here on my remote mountain wildlife refuge, answering the oft-asked question 'Why do you live way out there?'
Stories about the wild things who allow me to share their living space — and a plea to look after them before it's too late.
