Welcome to Forest Leaves

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...

I bring to your attention two wonderful new inventions from the USA: the ‘Transparent Toaster’ and the ‘Hot Water System That Requires No...

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...

The Fremantle Traffic Bridge, photographed in 2022 I was on my bike yesterday, cycling down to Fremantle, and stopped for a breather...

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...

Bushfire in the karri forest (photo by John McKenzie) In 1972 I was the Divisional Forest Officer (or in today’s jargon, ‘District...

An offering to relish: home-baked bread and curried egg, the ultimate sandwich I attend a weekly gym session for geriatrics, cheerfully...

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...

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...

Notre Dame Cathedral burning (photo from Wikipedia) Is there any more tragic sight than the destruction of a thing of beauty by fire?...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

In a paper written earlier this year in the wake of the 2009 Victorian bushfire disaster, I drew a pointed analogy. The failed and...

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...

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...

The bush crowea (Crowea angustifolia) is one of my favourite wildflowers. It comes away in an abundance in the karri forest after a...