Golden Glory: a story about the flowering of Australian wattles
Silver wattle in a garden setting (photo from Wikipedia) There was a halcyon time in my long-ago forestry career when I spent a few years...
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yorkgum
- May 12, 2022
- 9 min
New Inventions ... and Wheels Re-invented
I bring to your attention two wonderful new inventions from the USA: the ‘Transparent Toaster’ and the ‘Hot Water System That Requires No...
94 views0 comments
yorkgum
- May 8, 2022
- 3 min
Paying Forward - an Easter tale
An Easter picnic in the bush Every so often as we continue our journey through this vale of tears, there occurs an event that marks a...
98 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Apr 28, 2022
- 10 min
Timber bridges: where beauty and utility coincide
The Fremantle Traffic Bridge, photographed in 2022 I was on my bike yesterday, cycling down to Fremantle, and stopped for a breather...
113 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Apr 22, 2022
- 7 min
A 'Rhum' Affair
An abandoned crofter’s cottage on the Island of Rum I was mulling over a paper on the temperature record at Darwin in the Northern...
69 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Apr 16, 2022
- 6 min
The Bushfire at Big Hill Brook
Bushfire in the karri forest (photo by John McKenzie) In 1972 I was the Divisional Forest Officer (or in today’s jargon, ‘District...
140 views2 comments
yorkgum
- Apr 10, 2022
- 7 min
Reflection on a delicacy: the curried egg sandwich
An offering to relish: home-baked bread and curried egg, the ultimate sandwich I attend a weekly gym session for geriatrics, cheerfully...
161 views5 comments
yorkgum
- Apr 6, 2022
- 7 min
Laurie Lee and Henry Lawson: Twice-told tales
Like the great Horace Rumpole, I have reached the age where I prefer mostly to read books I have read before. Thus, I have recently been...
42 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Mar 31, 2022
- 8 min
Nature's gift ... a reflection on olive oil and olive trees
Ancient olive trees in a garden in Italy (photo from Wikipedia) An old friend rang me up one day a few years ago to ask my advice about a...
133 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Mar 23, 2022
- 3 min
Oak beams
Notre Dame Cathedral burning (photo from Wikipedia) Is there any more tragic sight than the destruction of a thing of beauty by fire?...
70 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Mar 21, 2022
- 4 min
Looking the part
Left: My Aunt Dorrie and Uncle John, perfectly attired for tennis in the 1930s At my first meeting as a newly elected committee member of...
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yorkgum
- Mar 21, 2022
- 6 min
Night Climb
If there is one thing nobody likes, it is an unexpected phone call in the middle of the night. They never seem to bring good news. I...
63 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Mar 17, 2022
- 4 min
The entombed miner - a drama from WA history
Inspired by the rescue of the schoolboy soccer team from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018, I decided to re-read The Entombed Miner by...
44 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Mar 17, 2022
- 24 min
Man of the trees: a memoir of Barney White
It is surprising how few people you meet over the course of the years who are universally liked. Even the most popular men and women seem...
125 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Mar 16, 2022
- 23 min
An Army Cadetship
Like most young people of my generation, I grew up knowing about war. I was born in 1941, the darkest year of the Second World War, and...
72 views1 comment
yorkgum
- Mar 15, 2022
- 6 min
Bush skills
I have been privileged to work with, and to observe a lot of highly skilled bushmen in my time. Men who could shear a sheep, put up a...
60 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Mar 14, 2022
- 8 min
Monash on the Western Front
In a paper written earlier this year in the wake of the 2009 Victorian bushfire disaster, I drew a pointed analogy. The failed and...
32 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Mar 14, 2022
- 7 min
Dipping into "While the Billy Boils"
The days have been very hot at Gwambygine recently, and after a morning in the orchard or slashing weeds or pruning my trees, I usually...
28 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Mar 14, 2022
- 3 min
The day the light came on
I worked as a forester and lived in Northcliffe and Pemberton, deep in the karri country, for many years between 1962 and 1975. It was a...
58 views0 comments
yorkgum
- Mar 14, 2022
- 8 min
The 1961 Crowea Fire
The bush crowea (Crowea angustifolia) is one of my favourite wildflowers. It comes away in an abundance in the karri forest after a...
22 views0 comments
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