Fly Away Peter!
Over the coming week I'll show you some of the marine reserve at Bicheno on Tasmania's east coast. It is a haven for sea birds of all kinds, seals and even whales out at sea. I'm told the diving here is extraordinary, with kelp forests underwater.
My title comes from a novel about young Australians heading off to war. Sadly, the world is in another precarious position with potential global conflict in both hemispheres. I won't go into the details - we are all too aware of them. This is humanity at its very worst! A predator species that feeds on itself (particularly its young men who go off to war). And such was the theme of David Malouf's brilliant novel called, "Fly Away Peter" (1982).
Young Jim Saddler is a bird watcher - particularly Queensland Sandpipers - and when WWI is declared he feels compelled to join up. The novel doesn't have a happy ending with Jim dying as he goes "over the top" of a trench on the Western Front. What a waste! And for what? Europe was plunged into war again within a generation.
Wars and rumours of wars, they seem to be with us always. But the beauty of David Malouf's work is the way he weaves the truly sanctifying aspects of Nature into the story. Nature redeems much of what we humans destroy. There's a lesson in that for us. If we don't learn our lesson soon the world would be better off without us.
Fly Away Peter!
Over the coming week I'll show you some of the marine reserve at Bicheno on Tasmania's east coast. It is a haven for sea birds of all kinds, seals and even whales out at sea. I'm told the diving here is extraordinary, with kelp forests underwater.
My title comes from a novel about young Australians heading off to war. Sadly, the world is in another precarious position with potential global conflict in both hemispheres. I won't go into the details - we are all too aware of them. This is humanity at its very worst! A predator species that feeds on itself (particularly its young men who go off to war). And such was the theme of David Malouf's brilliant novel called, "Fly Away Peter" (1982).
Young Jim Saddler is a bird watcher - particularly Queensland Sandpipers - and when WWI is declared he feels compelled to join up. The novel doesn't have a happy ending with Jim dying as he goes "over the top" of a trench on the Western Front. What a waste! And for what? Europe was plunged into war again within a generation.
Wars and rumours of wars, they seem to be with us always. But the beauty of David Malouf's work is the way he weaves the truly sanctifying aspects of Nature into the story. Nature redeems much of what we humans destroy. There's a lesson in that for us. If we don't learn our lesson soon the world would be better off without us.