On The Beaton Track: January 2001
Life in the Tall Eucalypt Forests
A first book is a momentous occasion in a person’s life. As a matter of fact, that’s all I want to talk about! My co-author David Lindenmayer and I, together with our editor, Louise Egerton of New Holland Publishers, launched the book at the new Melbourne Museum in late November 2000. It was a smashing event—over 100 people turned up for our presentations. We started with an audio-visual of my photos from the book, engineered by my partner, Nick, and ended with a highly entertaining slide-lecture by David. Only a well-respected ecologist like him could get away with calling Mountain Brush-tail Possums “boof-heads”.
The venue was fabulous; our book launch was the inaugural event in the much-publicized Rainforest Gallery, the central core of the whizz-bang new Melbourne Museum. The book was so well received that 60 copies were sold on the night and it has been getting excellent reviews ever since. It is featured across 12 pages in the current issue of GEO magazine (Dec 2000-Feb 2001). Watch out for more reviews in several newspapers and magazines in the coming year. You can also attend one of the many talks and events that David and will be presenting in 2001, including a major one at Dymocks bookstore in George St, Sydney.
Exhibition
But that’s not all the news concerning the book! Interest is high in an exhibition based on photos from the book. These will be reproduced and framed as fine artworks and will tour the country starting, hopefully, at the Melbourne Museum. Just a small matter of sponsorship to tie up first...
Travels and Treks
Last year...
I travelled wide and put in many months on the wattle story before it was featured in the January 2001 issue of Australian Geographic (#61—the one AG jokingly calls “the Esther Beaton issue” because it features two articles shot by me). The highlight of that project was the trip to Uluru where I met many wonderful, wise craftsmen and planetary keepers. One of the kindest and most informative was Cassidy Uluru who showed me how as children they used shaggy inkcaps to paint each other’s faces.
After the dehydrating mid-summer heat, I was glad for the opportunity to work in a cooler climate. In November 2000 I carried out an assignment for Australian Alps National Parks in the Snowy Mountains of Victoria. We stayed at Dinner Plain, an alpine resort which provides summer activities as well as the traditional skiing in winter. My assignment was to feature the style of camping, known as minimal-impact camping, that suits the fragile alpine environment, which went well despite heavy rain, wind and fog.
This year...
The coming year promises to be very exciting. I’ll be back at Binna Burra Lodge in February to write my next book and while there I’ll be giving a talk based on The Tall Eucalypt Forests—to an audience of gourmet cooks!
Two months from now, in April, Nick and I will be undertaking the grandest adventure either of us had had in a decade. We’re trekking to The Kimberley! The itinerary hasn’t been fixed yet, but you can be sure it won’t follow the beaten track. It will definitely be the Beaton Track with lots of crawling, climbing, slithering and snooping—whatever it takes to find elusive animals, elusive places and grand adventures. Some targets on our hit list are: Windjana Gorge, Lillimilura Police Station, Bungle Bungles, Geike Gorge, cajeput and boab trees, archer fish and sawfish, Johnson’s crocodiles, Ghost Bats, Short-eared Rock Wallabies, Golden Bandicoots, the Rough-scaled Python, Rainbow Pittas, Rainbow Bee-eaters, Lilac-crowned Wrens and, who knows, maybe even a Night Parrot. We’ll try catching cherabin (fresh-water prawns) ourselves, and we’ll eat barramundi—once it’s been caught for us by more experienced fishermen.
The Kimberley is a vast plateau of 340,000 square kilometres dissected by ancient gorges and penetrated by only two roads. It’s one of the last great wildernesses of the world. Therefore, I’ve adopted the challenge to bring back the story of a new destination. Fifteen years ago, the Bungle Bungles were virtually unknown. Just think: there are probably equally beautiful locations locked within the Kimberley’s walls waiting to be discovered!
In the Studio
Throughout the past year I’ve been amassing a collection of photos on Australian native flowers. Some of these have been produced as the 2000 calendar for GIO but after that project finished, I continued to shoot many more flowers. I was entranced by the bizarre shapes, outlandish sizes and unusual colors of our natives. They are like nothing else on the planet. Watch for an upcoming article in Australian House and Garden magazine on using them as cut flowers.
Until next time,
