Steam, coalsmoke and clickety-clack: my Great Railway Journeys
“The Trans” Commonwealth Railways train, crossing the Nullarbor, probably in the 1940s I have always loved trains. I can travel on them,...
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yorkgum
- Nov 18
- 10 min
The return of the Hilltop Forester - Lol Gray Tree revisited
Mallet forest at Dryandra (photo by Greg Durell) I have been spending a lot of time in the Dryandra forest this last year or so. It is...
128 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Oct 28
- 10 min
Trees and Fire - a forester's perspective
A firefighter retreats from the intense heat of exploding eucalyptus trees in an Australian bushfire In a letter to the editor of The...
255 views2 comments
yorkgum
- Oct 15
- 11 min
On Barrow Island with Harry Butler and the SAS: memories of wildlife and war games
Satellite image of Barrow Island, off the north-west coast of Western Australia I have been reading about the formation and early...
145 views2 comments
yorkgum
- Sep 28
- 30 min
School Days - a memoir of Hale School in the 1950s
The crest and motto of Hale School I have recently re-read Such, Such were the Joys, George Orwell’s essay on his school days at Eton and...
151 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Sep 13
- 10 min
H.S. Trotman at Kingston Rest: toughing it in the Kimberley
Hubert (“Bert”) Trotman, dressed for a formal reception I have been reading Beckoning West¸ the enthralling story by Eleanor Smith about...
150 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Aug 30
- 18 min
Hermann Goering - and the burning of the Bialowieza
Hermann Goering as Commander of the Nazi’s Storm Troopers, in 1933 I never liked Hermann Goering. It is true that he was a brave and...
151 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Aug 17
- 14 min
Spriggo takes on the bad guys: gunplay in the bush
Don ‘Spriggo’ Spriggins in his mild-mannered-forester persona This is a story about (among other things) my friend Don ‘Spriggo’...
214 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Aug 9
- 11 min
"The Great Storm" : the 1987 calamity in southern England
A devastated Leicester Square in London, the morning after the storm There is an amusing scene in an episode of the television program...
121 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Jul 25
- 8 min
Desert Oak: an icon of inland Australia
Desert oaks in central Australia. (Photo by Jack Bradshaw) The American naturalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau once wrote a...
135 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Jul 14
- 12 min
An omlette and a glass of wine: reflections on food and cooking
A perfect 'Omelette de la mère Poulard', famous in the 19th century in Mt St Michel in France, and still served at the La Mere Poulard...
101 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Jun 29
- 10 min
Garb Day: memories of a (minor) sporting triumph
Crosscut sawyers in a bush competition at Big Brook in Western Australia. Villages in parts of Europe in medieval times had an...
133 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Jun 16
- 10 min
The Elephants' Graveyard: undiscovered riches or a charming jungle myth?
An elderly Sri Lankan male elephant … en route to the Elephant’s Graveyard? Having been an aficionado of Tarzan when I was a boy, the...
111 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Jun 1
- 13 min
Bolts from the blue: lightning and forest fires
Lightning arcing through a conifer tree in Arizona, USA (photo sent to me by Phil Cheney) Like most people, lightning both scares and...
285 views4 comments
yorkgum
- May 8
- 7 min
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...
208 views1 comment
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...
348 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...
211 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...
220 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...
81 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...
258 views3 comments
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