In the summer of 2003 bushfires raged for nearly two months in the alps of north-east Victoria. Instead of being allowed back onto their leases the following summer, the cattlemen were instructed by the state government not to take their cattle up in case they caused further damage. In 2005 the seven year leases expired, and were not renewed, ending a tradition that was being handed on to a fourth generation.The new edition of Cattlemen of the High Country looks at the issue of fire and cattle grazing and the struggle of the mountain cattlemen to retain their leases. It provides an enduring record of a breed of Australians, folk heroes in their own right, whose lives have formed the basis of verse and legend. Each year the cattlemen held their annual muster before the first snowfall of autumn, and brought their cattle down to lower pastures for winter feeding, or sold them at the annual sales. These tough and resourceful cattlemen endured the snow and freezing conditions of winter and the threat of ravaging bushfires of summer. When mustering or checking their cattle, they sheltered in little huts, which they built from the timber at hand. They were masters of bushcraft. The dangers of steep slopes and rocky terrain held no terrors for them as they worked with their hardy stock horses and indispensable dogs. In this book their yarns and reminiscences reveal a characteristic courage and endurance, and an indomitable sense of humour.

Hunters and Collectors is about historical consciousness and environmental sensibilities in European Australia from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. It is in part a collective biography of amateur antiquarians, archaeologists, naturalists, journalists and historians: people who shaped the Australian historical imagination. Dr Griffiths illuminates the way these avid collectors and investigators of the Australian land and of its indigenous inhabitants contributed a sense of identity at colony-wide and eventually nationwide level. He also considers the rise of professional history, anthropology and archaeology in the universities, which ignored the efforts of the amateurs. Griffiths shows how the seemingly trivial activities of these hunters and collectors feed into the political and environmental debates of the 1990s. This book is outstanding in its originality, interpretative insight and literary flair.

A timely study of change in a complex environment, Where There Are Mountains explores the relationship between human inhabitants of the southern Appalachians and their environment. Incorporating a wide variety of disciplines in the natural and social sciences, the study draws information from several viewpoints and spans more than four hundred years of geological, ecological, anthropological, and historical development in the Appalachian region. The book begins with a description of the indigenous Mississippian culture in 1500 and ends with the destructive effects of industrial logging and dam building during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Donald Edward Davis discusses the degradation of the southern Appalachians on a number of levels, from the general effects of settlement and industry to the extinction of the American chestnut due to blight and logging in the early 1900s. This portrait of environmental destruction is echoed by the human struggle to survive in one of our nation's poorest areas. The farming, livestock raising, dam building, and pearl and logging industries that have gradually destroyed this region have also been the livelihood of the Appalachian people. The author explores the sometimes conflicting needs of humans and nature in the mountains while presenting impressive and comprehensive research on the increasingly threatened environment of the southern Appalachians.

Heroes are hard to come by - but there's one man whose legend has stood the test of two centuries, and whose name sits on Australia's highest peak. Tadeusz Kosciuszko: freedom fighter, friend of Thomas Jefferson and champion of liberty on two continents. Bestselling author Anthony Sharwood finds out why he's the hero the world needs right now. Kosciuszko - our iconic highest mountain - is a name familiar to all Australians. But how many people know who the mountain is named after? Tadeusz Kosciuszko, who lived from 1746 to 1817, is the most famous person Australians probably know absolutely nothing about. A military engineer, freedom fighter, and champion of human rights, this extraordinary revolutionary was crucial to the success of the American War of Independence, then bravely led an uprising against Russia and other invaders in his native Poland, promising freedom and equality to all who joined his cause. In his day, Kosciuszko was loved and respected across Europe and America. His great friend Thomas Jefferson called him 'as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known', while Kosciuszko would later challenge Jefferson to live up to the famous words 'All men are created equal' by bequeathing his American funds to free enslaved people, including those on Jefferson's plantation. Bestselling author Anthony Sharwood (From Snow to Ash; The Brumby Wars) has spent a lifetime walking, skiing and writing about Kosciuszko National Park. Now he sets off on the trail of the man himself, travelling across the USA, Poland and Switzerland to key sites in Kosciuszko's life. Returning to Australia where a potential name change from Mt Kosciuszko to an Indigenous name is hotly debated, he walks with the area's traditional owners and discovers the ancient history of Australia's highest peak. Kosciuszko's life and legacy is enthralling, inspiring and indispensable. But is that reason enough to keep his name on the mountain?