The People's Forest: A Living History of the Australian Bush

FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS, forests and bushlands - as much as golden sands and red deserts ~ have painted themselves boldly across the canvas of Australia. The people, both black and white, have created heroes and legends to explain and lay claim to these landscapes.

What stories do we tell now and wish to pass on to our children and their children? What is our Bush Dreaming?

The People's Forest is the first national oral history collection of Australian landscape memory and folklore. More than eight years in the making, this is the hitherto untold story - the crucial cultural heritage ~ of our forests and woodlands. It is a poignant record of human failure and achievement. Here you will find hard work, hope and tears in portraits of old and new pioneering.

These compelling human stories represent a selection from the 88 interviews of Australian men and women whose very different life stories were collected between 1992 and 1997. Recorded in association with the National Library of Australia, The People's Forest also presents the best of the Library's forest pictorial record

As we look back on the 20th century, celebrate our Centenary of Federation, and face a new millennium, Australians have different visions and new expectations of the bush. These are crystallised in eight specially commissioned essays, written by people of standing who are experts in their chosen fields. These essays are a significant contribution to the debate about the nature of Australia and our nationhood.

The People's Forest documents a wisdom, memory and insight that we are in danger of losing, as surely as we may yet lose even more of the bush itself. How soon will we come to know that they are inseparable ~ the stories, the people, and the forests?