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The South East Forests Project:  some notes

The forests of South Eastern Australia are, most of all, extremely beautiful but they are also dramatic, exciting and have many stories to tell.

For very many years John Blay has kept an intense engagement with the SE Forests of Australia. He has walked them, researched them, engaged with their spirit and lived in them. From Bermagui to Lakes Entrance to Kosciuszko, he’s been there. This site hopes to explain some of what he has found there, why he’s written those books and where he thinks are the best places to go.

Central to his preoccupations of the past decade has been working with the Eden Local Aboriginal Land Council to develop the Bundian Way. Most recently he has found time to complete some of his writing projects.

Some traditional path ways and dreaming tracks of the SE Region

 

 

Although his South East Forests Project truly began in the early 1980s, a new intensive phase began in early 2001. With the assistance of the NPWS, John Blay walked the region full time and his trek covered many thousands of kilometres. It comprised three legs over almost three years:

  1. From Barragoot beach near Bermagui through Biamanga National Park, through Brogo Pass into the Bemboka Section of the South East Forests National Park, over Brown Mountain, along the escarpment Forests to the Genoa Wilderness and then onto Mount Imlay and on to Nadgee Nature Reserve, between Eden and Mallacoota.
  1. Through the coastal Parks and reserves of the region from the Ninety Mile Beach in Victoria and back to Bermagui. 
  1. From the coast to the summit of Kosciuszko, exploring ways, interlinks and means for a walkway, along the border regions and into the high country of NSW and Victoria. 

His on ground researches paid especial interest to old aboriginal campsites, pathways and moth hunting localities as well as new and interesting species of wildlife.

Over the period he explored the relatively unknown beauty and natural attributes of the region, which forms a rough triangle from Bermagui in the north, to the Kosciuszko National Park in the west and Croajingalong National Park in Victoria to the south.  Ultimately, his intention was to produce books and generally inform people about the amazing wonders of the region, which he believes would deserve World Heritage status.

 He is known for his expertise on flora and fauna of the region. 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. 

  

The Brogo wattle, Acacia blayana

His researches for this project properly began in the early 1970s.

 His aims, he said at the time, were, 'to actually be in the bush, on foot, as much and for as long as possible. You see more then, you become more observant and you notice the unusual things, the special things. I’m not going to be totally pure. I won't just follow along straight routes, I’ll diverge and zigzag and follow butterflies. Wherever it would be helpful I’ll come out of the bush to speak with the experts and old local residents and such. At later dates I will most certainly revisit areas I have missed or which have raised my curiosity, as many times as necessary. I am especially interested in old aboriginal campsites, pathways and moth hunting localities. Although I’ll be keeping a journal along the way, I probably won’t start writing the main book properly until the actual walking is finished and all the information is collated, identified and effectively transcribed. I will ask big questions along the way, and continue to look at the history of the area, the values people find in such areas as well as the importance of ‘wildness’ and ‘wilderness’ to us nowadays and for the times to come.'

 

Silvertop ash, Eucalyptus seiberi

From the silvertop ash which are common on the dry ridges for the coast to the crest of the coastal range to the white sallee or snowgum, most common to the colder places of the range where snow and frost are all too common, the SE Forests display a range of plants and wildlife that are remarkable by any standards.

White sallee, Eucalyptus pauciflora

His aim in the beginning was simply to capture the essence, the history and natural history of the new National Parks which included places better known for forest protests like the Coolangubra and Tantawangalo. Bob Carr was a keen supporter of the project and his government provided a two-year history research grant to help cover expenses. The National Parks & Wildlife Service of NSW and Vic have provided remarkable levels of assistance and co-operation. In 2004 he gave a talk for the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife on the wild forests, attracting a capacity crowd. 

Shining gum forest

The project has yielded close to 10,000 photographs which are being data-based to provide a resource for the future. Not all are suitable to be shown on the web but some of the most beautiful are to be part of a SE Forests photographic exhibition late in 2004.

Messmate-brownbarrel forest

White ash prefer the misty mountaintops.

The succession of eucalypts from the coast to Kosciuszko in itself is so remarkable as to deserve world heritage status, and when coupled with other merits the case is extremely strong. These are the great eucalyptus forests of the world, a store and a resource of great charm and beauty.