Australia

On Track: Searching out the Bundian Way, by John Blay

/ asenseofplace2017

Published by NewSouth Publishing, 2015.

Alpine daisies and Mount Kosciuszko

Alpine daisies and Mount Kosciuszko

opening lines:

“Into the night I can’t take my eyes off that sawtooth line of mountaintops that over-reach, perhaps overwhelm, my campsite.”

…

This publication details John Blay’s impressive search for the lost ancient Aboriginal route, the Bundian Way, between the high country and south coast of New South Wales. Blay conveys some rather stunning and diverse country on this often remote bushwalk from the mountains to the sea, and details the peopled histories of the places he journeys through. He introduces us to the Ngarigo, Yaitmathang, Yuin and Biduelli tribes; often focuses on the records of Brierly, Robinson, Howitt and Clarke; and delves into the many stories of the Bundian Way. It is incredible to realise page by page just how much effort and planning such an undertaking required, and there is a strong overarching sense of place throughout the book. But the real jewel of this book is Blay’s determination to bring the old Aboriginal landscape to life, and his recognition of the role of the Bundian Way as a literal path to reconciliation.

However the book did have some drawbacks; the primary one was that the writing often felt uneven. It seemed to alternate between engaging and poetic to becoming bogged down in descriptive detail; sometimes it felt like Blay was unconsciously imitating the straightforward diary entries of the Europeans whose writing he referenced throughout the book. I also started to harbour some doubts on the veracity of the author’s natural history observations. For example: on page 64 Blay mentions ‘hundreds of wanderer butterflies’ despite this being an unlikely scenario given the country he is in – I suspect he meant forest-loving Common Brown butterflies instead; on page 70 he mentions hearing the ‘whooshing’ noise of a Powerful Owl’s wings, yet owls have silent flight; and on page 256 he records ‘…as thornbills chide me with their insistent tsk tsk tsk…’ in rainforest habitat, when he surely meant the oft-heard scolding call typical of scrub-wrens instead.

This book’s strength, on the whole, is the detailing of people and their connections, past and present, of the Bundian Way, and this is where Blay’s writing shines. As a result of Blay’s efforts and in conjunction with the Eden Local Aboriginal Land Council, the Bundian Way is now listed on the NSW state heritage register. In the closing pages of his book, Blay indicates the intention of opening the Bundian Way as an ecotourism venture to the public and the first coastal stage has opened. When the full length of the Bundian Way is open, it will undoubtedly be a walk of national importance.

Seeing Through Snow, by Matthew Higgins

/ asenseofplace2017

Published by Ginninderra Press, 2017.

Kiandra

Snow at Kiandra © Matthew Higgins

opening lines:

“Somewhere in the howl of the morning blizzard there was another sound.”

…

Canberra historian, author and expert on the high country Matthew Higgins has published his first novel based on the ghost town of Kiandra. Kiandra is located in the New South Wales high country between Yarrangobilly and Adaminaby, and is now part of Kosciuszko National Park. The novel is told in the style of an oral history with Les Leong as our narrator, and this style makes the book very easy to read and accessible. We learn that Les was born an orphan in a terrific blizzard in 1891, and we follow his life story (mostly) in and around Kiandra.

I was surprised at some of the information Higgins reveals about Kiandra in his 158 pages. Via Les, we learn how Kiandra became the birthplace of skiing in Australia in the 1860s thanks to the Scandinavian migrants at Pollocks Flat; the vagaries of the physical conditions with huge blizzards (such as in 1891) and significant fires (such as in 1939); the Australian-Chinese tensions at various goldfields; the town’s treatment of the local Ngarigo, Wiradjuri and Wolgal people; the real-life characters drawn to Kiandra region such as photographer Charles Kerry, poet Banjo Patterson, author Elyne Mitchell, artist William Dobell and musician Mick Jagger; the impact that the Boer War, World War I and World War II can have on a small town; and the employment options for a town started on gold, but later relying on saw mill work and the Snowy Mountains scheme.

This is a delightful gem of a novel, with the author’s intimacy with and respect for the alpine region evident throughout the book. The cover image of children on their skis from around 1906 serves not only as a great front cover but is also possibly linked to one of the characters Les talks about, photographer Charles Kerry. Higgins’ writing reads well and so perfectly suits the oral history style of the book that I kept forgetting that I was reading a novel! Higgins gently reminds us how easy it is to forget just how much can happen in one lifetime – let alone one spent in a town which was abandoned in the 1970s, and how tough this community had to be to survive. A small but charming touch is the addition of pen and pencil sketches at the start of each chapter, and make sure to read the author’s note at the end of the novel.

‘Seeing Through Snow’ has an excellent sense of place, and I would highly recommend it to anyone wishing to gain an introduction to Kiandra or the Australian high country in general.