John Blay
A
brief CV
John Blay, writer and naturalist, was born at Parramatta in 1944 and has written extensively about the bush and its people in prose, drama and poetry. During an epic bushwalk in 1982, he discovered a new species of wattle in the Brogo wilderness. Growing to over 30 metres, the species was named Acacia blayana in his honour. He has served as a national Arts & Reviews Editor and has published photographs and stories in magazines like Good Weekend. He continues his work in the SE Forests and writes about the region's natural history.
Since 2001, he has been involved full time in researching the Bundian Way in association with local Aboriginal communities and as the Bundian Way Project Officer for Eden Local Aboriginal Land Council. His extensive researches and bushwalks whilst investigating the important traditional route, resulted in its official recognition and NSW Heritage listing in 2012.
A
selection of his photographs was exhibited in Sydney in November
2004 and in an ongoing
exhibition in Delegate at the Bundian Way Aboriginal Art Gallery (2012-15).
PUBLICATIONS
AS A WRITER INCLUDE:
PROSE:
On Track: Searching out the Bundian Way NewSouth 2015
‘The Bundian Way is a reconciliation … This is a track, a meeting place, that links the freshwater to the saltwater, the beaches to the mountains. People traversed that track for a lot longer than most of us can get our heads around. And it should be a track for all of us to come together now.’
— MICK GOODA, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner
‘On Track is proof that the land still has its mysteries, and that after more than 200 years, the age of explorers is not yet over. John Blay, with a poet’s sensibility and a poet’s eye for detail, takes us step by step across country as he puts the Bundian Way back on the map.’
— DAVID MALOUF
The Australian Wildflower Diary
Wildlife
Presentations 1995
The Australian Native Plant Gardener's Almanac 2nd Edition Wildlife Presentations 1995
The Australian Native Plant Gardener's Almanac
Wildlife Presentations 1994
”It doesn't matter if you don't plant anything, this book is so practical
and so beautifully designed you'll wish you wanted to”
Susan Geason, The Sun
Herald
Back
Country
Methuen
1987
“...the prose is as tough as the salt pork that the likes of Eyre and John
McDouall Stuart used to gnaw at when they were lost...
his encounters with bush people and reflections on the infinite—
all contribute to a bracing read...
It’s a rewarding experience to follow”
— Derek Whitelock,
Sydney Morning Herald
“...the text is peppered with sensitive observations on the country through which he travels and the people he meets. Most of the writing is brisk and good humoured, including lively episodes which display the skill of a practiced playwright... It kept taking me back in fond imaginative memory to Ovid and the child in David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life.”
— Ray Ericksen, Habitat
“...more in the tradition of English narratives of long walks in strange and lonely places. Blay is a professional writer and it shows in his robust text which attains a plateau of excellence not often reached by writers about the bush... a classic tale”
— Graeme Barrow, The Canberra Times
Part of the Scenery McPhee Gribble/Penguin 1984
“...Thanks to its over-riding good humour, it has the spontaneity of Richard
Brautigan’s rewriting of Thoreau’s Walden.
It’s a wonderful book of characters and things that clamber
through the forest with details delivered with a confident poetic
touch.”
— Tom Thompson, National Times
“...There are no shallow panegyrics in Part of the Scenery about
pre-industrial paradises in nature, nothing
facile about the attainment of spiritual oneness.
Blay speaks to us of hard work, experiment and emotional
desperation. But his
quiet expertise about lyrebirds and bushrats in his Bermagui forest never
fails to impress and fascinate...”
-- David
Myers, Sydney Morning
Herald
POETRY:
His poetry has appeared in
various anthologies, magazines and newspapers
including The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Canberra Times,
Australian Poetry Now, etc
”...In his fragmented, exciting space-age poems, John Blay seems to have
arrived at that vital apprehension of his own time which has been
necessary to most good poetry in English since the 16th century...”
Sylvia Lawson, The
Australian
...Of the many poets who attempt non-traditional forms,
Blay is one of the few to succeed...”
Roger McDonald, Makar
PLAYS: (include)
BEDBUG
CELEBRATION Pram
Factory
1981
“...Plenty of life in Richard Murphett’s production to
see out a decade of alternative theatre in the Pram Factory... a
stimulating experience.”
Paul Heinrichs, National Times
Stuart
Sayers, The Age
Vinegar Hill
(Verse
Play) ABC
Radio 1972
The Journeys of Aubrey D
ABC Radio 1974
“...a 2 1/2 hour program which will be recognised as one of
the most important developments in Australian radio...”
Maurice Dunlevy, Canberra
Times
“...stunning sound odyssey... the
most imaginative use to date of the radio medium by an Australian and
ranking with anything done overseas...”
Ralph Wilson,
Sight and Sound
Mayakovsky
ABC Radio
1972
Harpur
ABC Radio
1974
Doin’ our Best to Deny It
ABC Radio
1975
The Great Village Dream
ABC
Radio
1976
Variations on a Theme of the Lyrebird
ABC Radio
1987
The Jazz Singer
ABC Radio
1987
The Fleet
ABC Radio
1988
(All over an hour in duration)
SCREENPLAYS:
BOBBY THUNDERBOLT Arenafilm
JOURNALISM & REVIEWS:
Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Times, National Times, Books & Writing, Good Weekend, Arts & Reviews Editor: The Republican, Australian Geographic, The Australian Literary Review, Canberra Times...
PAPERS AND ESSAYS: (include)
Seeing the Forest and the Trees, The Australian Literary Review, February 2008 (vol.3 no.1)
Truth and Terror in Fire's Ancient Kingdom, The Australian Literary Review, April 2009 (vol.4 no.3)
Moving Forwards ICOMOS conference 2013 Historic Environment 2014 (Vol 26 No. 1 - 2014)
AWAY on the Bundian Way (with Blackburn and Dorrough) in Marshall A. J. (ed.) Land of sweeping plains. CSIRO Publishing, 2014
The Bundian Way: mapping with stories Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Tenth World Wilderness Congress symposium; Salamanca, Spain 2013. Publication: US Forest Service 2014
AWARDS,
GRANTS, etc:
Farmers Poetry Prize
1969
Young Writers Fellowship
1972
New Writers Fellowship
1973
Writers Fellowship
1975
Creative Writing Fellowship
1975
Senior Writers Fellowship
1980
Parks Writers Award
1981
Bicentennial Commission 1987
Australian History Award 2002
Australian History Award 2003
Heritage Volunteer Award 2012 (in association with ELALC and the BWAC)
FILM
DEVELOPMENT GRANTS:
Australian Film Commission
1988
Australian Film Commission
1989
Australian Film Commission
1990
Australian Film Commission
1991
EDITOR:
Arts & Reviews
The Republican
1997/8
Arts & Reviews
The New Republican 1998/99
