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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...
yorkgum
Oct 15, 202311 min read


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...
yorkgum
Sep 28, 202330 min read


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...
yorkgum
Sep 13, 202310 min read


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...
yorkgum
Aug 30, 202318 min read


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’...
yorkgum
Aug 17, 202314 min read


"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...
yorkgum
Aug 9, 202311 min read


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...
yorkgum
Jul 25, 20238 min read


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...
yorkgum
Jul 14, 202312 min read


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...
yorkgum
Jun 29, 202310 min read


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...
yorkgum
Jun 16, 202310 min read


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...
yorkgum
Jun 1, 202313 min read


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...
yorkgum
May 8, 20237 min read


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...
yorkgum
Apr 18, 202321 min read


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...
yorkgum
Mar 26, 202310 min read


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...
yorkgum
Mar 10, 202312 min read


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...
yorkgum
Mar 1, 20233 min read


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...
yorkgum
Feb 22, 20237 min read


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...
yorkgum
Dec 27, 202213 min read


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...
yorkgum
Dec 14, 20225 min read


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...
yorkgum
Nov 28, 202231 min read
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