In December 2001, after two years of searching for somewhere in Australia to put her archive, Germaine Greer was taken to the Numinbah Valley in South-east Queensland, to see an abandoned dairy farm that was for sale. It was the last thing she wanted, totally unsuitable as a site for a library, but the battered subtropical rainforest that clothed the upper slopes of the property needed her. Since then she has spent every spare cent on rehabilitating the forest, and set up a charity to continue the work after she has gone to be recycled.
White Beech tells the story of how Europeanisation has devastated our landscape and what we can do to restore its biodiversity and uniqueness. In Germaine's view conservation is too important to be left to politicians; it is time ordinary Australians began doing it for themselves.
THIS SYDNEY IDEAS LECTURE TOOK PLACE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY ON 27 October, 2013.
For further information and additional content see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2013/germaine_greer.shtml