My favourite bushfire: a good news story from the wandoo forest
Wandoo forest in the Helena River Catchment of Western Australia Anyone with a lifetime involvement with bushfires can recall a horror...
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yorkgum
- Apr 18
- 21 min
Dick Sproge - legendary axeman of the karri country
Dick Sproge in the crown of the Diamond Tree, 50 m from the ground, in 1941 Although he died in 1957, I never met Dick Sproge. Our times...
278 views2 comments
yorkgum
- Mar 26
- 10 min
The Great Trout Hatchery Caper - Scotty saves the day
The modern Trout Hatcheries at Pemberton. The original timber hatchery, as featured in this story, is at the rear. Both are adjacent to...
182 views2 comments
yorkgum
- Mar 10
- 12 min
Replicating The Duyfken: an intersection of maritime and forestry history
The Duyfken replica, off the coast of Western Australia in 1999 This is a story with three diverse elements: a famous sailing ship and...
179 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Mar 1
- 3 min
A Science History Snippet : my time in molecular biology
The cover of James Watson's famous book about the even-more famous research into molecular biology that led to the discovery of the...
74 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Feb 22
- 7 min
Rediscovering Western Australia's rarest tree
The marri pinkie on Great Eastern Highway near Mundaring I was driving back to Perth from the Avon Valley one Christmas a few years ago...
200 views3 comments
yorkgum
- Dec 27, 2022
- 13 min
Batman - the first incarnation
Promo for the first on-screen Batman, the 1943 15-part serial. One way or another, Batman keeps turning up in my life. As a small boy...
72 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Dec 14, 2022
- 5 min
Harbingers of Christmas
Western Australian Christmas Trees, in a paddock by the York-Lakes Road Driving up to the Avon valley yesterday. I noticed that the WA...
169 views4 comments
yorkgum
- Nov 28, 2022
- 31 min
The Dwellingup Fire - voices from Western Australia's worst bushfire disaster
A radio play by Roger Underwood The morning after: January 25th, 1961 Overture: the first two minutes of ‘Summer’ from Vivaldi’s Four...
39 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Nov 7, 2022
- 7 min
Bears and Douglas-fir: my perilous days in wildlife research in the Pacific North-west
The Black Bear of the North American Pacific North-west forests I was reading Dangerous Dan McGrew, one of my favourite poems, for about...
75 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Oct 28, 2022
- 9 min
Quandong - the jewel of the Australian bush
Quandong fruit on one of our trees at Gwambygine For a few years in the early 1980s I found myself working in forestry research in...
97 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Oct 5, 2022
- 13 min
Rising to the occasion - a Cyclone Alby story
The path and daily locations of the eye of Cyclone Alby, showing dramatically how the storm accelerated when approaching the south-west...
194 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Sep 28, 2022
- 11 min
Boab - adventures with the Gouty-trunk Tree
The cover of my favourite book about boab trees I will never forget my first visit to the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It was...
121 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Sep 13, 2022
- 15 min
Bush Communication : a note on early forestry telephone and wireless systems in WA
An early wall phone, with its essential elements - the ear-piece, mouth-piece, crank, bells and magneto and battery boxes - as once...
148 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Aug 30, 2022
- 17 min
Boarding house chemistry: a romance
The Boarding House, and former Teacher’s Barracks at Pemberton (photo courtesy of Joanna Drake) A young man starting out on a life in...
172 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Aug 19, 2022
- 6 min
Prince Andrei and the oak tree - a story about the overlap of literature and life
The cover of the new (2007) edition of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky I have been...
101 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Aug 8, 2022
- 12 min
Rainbow Trail: a milestone in WA forest management
Photo courtesy of Joe Caruso This is a story about a road through the forest, beginning with its origin as a logging railway, its...
128 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Jul 28, 2022
- 11 min
Unsung Heroes - a reflection on courage (and foolhardiness)
Freshwater Bay Painting by Elizbeth Durack Provided you have lived long enough, most of us have done something heroic at some time or...
105 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Jul 8, 2022
- 5 min
Antonio Ravalli: a renaissance man in ponderosa country
Renaissance man: Father Antonio Ravalli I have been reading a wonderful little book called “Ponderosa - people, fire and the West's most...
128 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Jun 24, 2022
- 9 min
Blazing a track: "the Australian experience in a small compass"
Portrait of Paul Hasluck on the cover of his biography by Geoffrey Bolton I have been reading Geoffrey Bolton's biography of Paul...
118 views1 comment
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