book review – Page 2 – National Parks Association of NSW

Book Review: What the Trees See: a wander through millennia of natural history in Australia

Posted by NPA NSWon August 26, 2024August 26, 2024in Spring 2024Leave a comment

Author: Dave Witty

Publisher: Monash University Publishing 2023

Reviewed by: Helen Wilson of the NPA’s environmental book group

This is a recent book by an emerging writer about a wide range of Australian trees, both species and individual specimens, that have historical significance. Witty is an English migrant who fixates on the trees he comes across, particularly very old ones, to investigate Australia; finding a wealth of fascinating and often little-known stories. Along the way he demonstrates wide reading and knowledge of Australian history, literature and art.

Book Review: The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing our ancient bond with forests and nature

Posted by NPA NSWon August 26, 2024August 26, 2024in Spring 2024Leave a comment

Author: Peter Wohlleben

Published: 2019 in German. English version 2021, translated by Jane Billinghurst, published by Black Inc.

Review by Graham Kelly of NPA’s Environmental Book Group

Peter Wohlleben is a German forester, best known for his “The Hidden Life of Trees” published in 2015. This newer book covers a variety of tree-related topics, mostly linked to relationships of various kinds between humans and trees. The author has a huge knowledge of trees. He is also willing to commit his own ideas and opinions into his writing.

Book Review: The Secret Life of Wombats by James Woodford

Posted by NPA NSWon May 29, 2024May 30, 2024in Winter 2024Leave a comment

Pam Dawes, NPA Environmental Book Club

This book begins by exploring through the eyes of a 15-year-old schoolboy, Peter Nicholson, the burrows of wombats; wriggling on his tummy and exploring a world not unlike that of Alice’s Wonderland. His notes and tunnel maps written in 1960, are still being referred to today, as his feat has not been repeated. Imagine coming face to face with a wombat within a tunnel only just big enough to wriggle through. Peter excavated the tunnels just enough in a few places, to make a turnaround, so he could come out of the burrow face first.

Book Review: The Frenchman

Posted by NPA NSWon May 29, 2024May 30, 2024in Winter 2024Leave a comment

The Frenchman. Francis Barrallier life & journeys 1773-1853

Andy Macqueen (self published) 2024

RRP $40.00

A review by Roger Lembit

Andy Macqueen has written a new book about the life and travels of Francis Barrallier. Barrallier, who served as an Ensign and Aide-de-Camp in the early days of colonial Sydney penetrated deep into the southern Blue Mountains over ten years before the crossing by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth.

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Book Review: Sunburnt Country: The History and Future of Climate Change in Australia

Posted by NPA NSWon December 6, 2023December 7, 2023in Summer 2023Leave a comment

Author: Joëlle Gergis.

Publisher: Melbourne University Press, 2018.

Reviewed by: Sam Garrett-Jones and Graham Kelly, NPA Environmental Book Club

Australians are no strangers to ‘droughts and flooding rains’¹. Joëlle Gergis charts a history of Australia’s climate since European settlement and before, with a focus on its high variability and the consequent disasters of flood, drought and fire. She uses written accounts of early colonists and ‘formal records’ of weather from William Dawes’ 1788 observations onwards.

Book Review: Underground Lovers – Encounters with Fungi

Posted by NPA NSWon August 31, 2023August 31, 2023in Spring 2023Leave a comment

by Alison Pouliot, NewSouth Publishing, University of NSW Press Ltd 2023

Review by NSW NPA Environmental Book Club

Pouliot is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable writer whose life work is studying fungi. Underground Lovers introduces us to this amazing world. Previously we may have been astonished by unexpected encounters with beautiful or weird fungi in the bush or our gardens. We’re probably aware that fungi do important work in complex ecosystems but may not know much more. She introduces us to the basic facts about the different types and their role in recycling and networking in the ‘subterrain’ of plant communities. She champions the study of this third ‘kingdom’ besides flora and fauna.