Welcome to Forest Leaves

RAF Spitfires: the cover of Paul Brickhill’s biography of Douglas Bader     To many men of my generation, way into our 80s and beyond,...

Saltbush Bill and his off-sider “doing up” his axes on a bush grindstone – a classic drawing by Eric Jolliffe    A few years ago, my wife...

Mulga country [photo by Bruce Maslin]     As a child just learning to love the sound and rhythms of poetry, I can still remember my...

Essentials for old-school bush cooking: the shovel, wire grill, a couple of rocks, twigs of mulgawood … and six sausages   I was...

Tuscan landscape – once tasted, never forgotten.   I have been reading The Hills of Tuscany – a new life in an old land by Ferenc Máté ....

Granny’s tea set on display on our kitchen table in 2024   My wife Ellen Linda was tidying up the other day (as is her wont) and when I...

Two beauties: Ellen standing by a shapely Sugar Pine in the botanic garden at Hamilton in Victoria, August 2024   I was ducking about in...

A Hawker Hurricane: the very essence of power, beauty and dangerous purpose     This is a story about two fighter aircraft of World War...

Tiger hunting from elephants in India, 1890 (courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum)   Readers of these chronicles will know about my...

The top 15 m of Gardner Tree fire lookout, the cabin open to the four winds   “To bat the breeze”, according to the 1978 Dictionary of...

A Spitting Cobra shooting venom   A “ snake yarn ”, according to The Australian National Dictionary, is  “ a tall story. The term is...

Big Brook – one of my favourite patches of karri forest ( photo by Jack Bradshaw) Any forester who has worked in the karri country long...

Mrs. Dance about to fell a tree to mark the foundation of the city of Perth in Western Australia in 1829 – the celebrated painting by...

Ebenezer Scrooge with Marley’s ghost – an illustration from A Christmas Carol  by Charles Dickens, my first encounter with a Ghost of...

A simple picnic coming up in Dryandra Forest: grilled chops, sausages and a billy of tea   Picnics in the bush have been part of my life...

The end of my Blackwood Marathon: I might not have come in first, but still had an astonishing victory over a world cycling champion.    ...

The beautiful blossom of the Silver Princess tree – watercolour by Frank Batini   It all started one sunny autumn day back in 2017. I was...

Mowgli and his wolf-mother - an illustration from the first Jungle Book (Macmillan's Children Edition 1983)       The release of Disney's...

Flight path Perth to Darwin, 2,650 km, most of which is over no-man’s land.   There is nothing like the death of a dear friend, or a real...

Bushfire in Western Australia’s southern forests   I had an insight, many years ago, into a fascinating perspective on The Great Bushfire...