Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

The Daintree, it’s been a Tribulation with Jasper – Support a Local with a Book Purchase

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It is a privately-owned World Heritage property that receives no financial assistance from government and is dependent on its own cost-recovery capabilities. I’m referring to Daintree Rainforest, formerly Cooper’s Creek Wilderness.

Owned and operated by my dear friend Neil Hewett, it was deluged with all the rain in the aftermath of cyclone Jasper.

Neil has lived in this oldest surviving rainforest through all of this before, again and again. His children grew-up under the canopy, with all the wildlife the cacophony of different sounds, smells, and beings.

Neil and his three children, photograph taken more than a decade ago. His children, like my daughter, are all grown up now.

It is the case that people from cities sometimes lament the lack of ‘art and culture’ in places like north Queensland, but this is only because they can’t see both the art and culture that is intrinsic to this landscape.

The beauty etched onto even the bark of trees by even a lichen spider.

To be able to show you the spiders, cassowaries and the geckos, the range road needs to be re-opened, after the ferry is re-opened, but the Captain Cook Highway may not re-open until late January.

In the meantime, I hope you might support Neil’s writing by purchasing the most wonderful book, A Stray Liana.

It is Neil’s story, that attempts to reconcile different perspectives and showcase nature.

As Neil wrote when I hosted a series at this weblog on the nature of wilderness some years ago,

For me, wilderness both resonates of human potential and also describes the ultimate expression of humanity. No other state of relations can be more admirable. Far from the notion of humankind and wilderness being mutually exclusive, I believe we must rather aspire to change for the benefit of wilderness and in so doing, restore to ourselves, integrity.

Neil has, and lives, a different perspective. Buy his book, replete with photographs of Australian nature and words of wisdom from under a rainforest canopy arguably the oldest surviving old-growth rainforest on Earth.

An orchid from the Daintree.
The main street of Mossman just a few days ago after cyclone Jasper, a town north of Cairns, you pass through it on the way to Daintree Rainforest.
The road to Cape Tribulation is likely to be impassable for some time because of the landslides. This landslide down Thornton Peak was filmed by Neil just two days ago.
One of my favourite photographs in his book, A Stray Liana.

I hope you might support Neil’s writing by purchasing this most wonderful book, A Stray Liana https://www.astrayliana.com.au/product/a-stray-liana-book/

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Comments

  1. hunterson7 says

    It is a lovely book. “A Stray Liana” is worth the read. I have enjoyed it and hope to visit in person someday.