General introduction To Bush office Series by RB Lonetree
Hi folks and welcome to my bush office for the very first time, and to my new series, that is, unsurprisingly, called "Bush Office'. Some of you might already be familiar with this little piece of forest from previous videos in which I have taken you on forest walks and showed you the rich diversity of flora and fauna, but this new endeavour of mine, called, unsurprisingly “Bush Office”, will consist of me presenting some of the work I do here in what is, at least in fine weather, my actual office. Weather permitting, I sit her most days here in my outdoor bush office writing poetry and performance poetry, songs and song- lyrics, prose, political essays and commentary, film-scripts and other musings that I now intend to share with you from the office where they are conceived and written.
My office is at our place in Widjabal Wia-bal country, deep in the heart of the Bunjalung Nation in Northern New South Wales Eastern Australia, close to the hippy town of Nimbin, that was a poineer in the countercultural revolution of the early 1970’s.
Our place lies in the remnants of what is known as The “Big Scrub”, which was once the largest lowland subtropical rainforest ecosystems in Australia. It covered 75,000 hectares in the hinterland of Byron Bay, until cleared by European settlers, who were mainly chasing the Red Cedar trees that they greedily referred to as “red gold”. Today, only 1% of this once mighty rainforest remains, and my family and I are most fortunate that some of this remnant rainforest lies in pockets right here on our place, here where I have my bush office.
The Big Scrub primarily occurs on rich, basalt-derived soils on the southern flank of the Wollumbin (Mt Warning) caldera. It is descended from the ancient Gondwana rainforests and the species here trace their lineages back over 180 million years, and also includes the species that migrated from Asia many millennia ago.
The region is home to the richest terrestrial biodiversity in NSW - the third richest in Australia - it’s an ancient, complex ecosystem of massive environmental, spiritual and cultural value.
Most of our place here is wet sclerophyll regrowth, but there are sections of untouched remnant rainforest, mostly in the steep sloped areas that have never been logged. We have all sorts of critters here, from diamond Pythons to Paddy melons and Potteroo’s, Quolls to Koalas, Wallaby’s to Wampu Pigeons, Lyre-birds to Lewen’s Honey-eaters, Bandycoots to Bandy-bandy’s, Boobooks to Bush-Turkeys, Eagles, Hawks, Falcons, Kites, Owls, Mopokes, Sugar-gliders, Dingoes and Drongos, you name it, we have it here.
Sometimes I will recite my original poetry, rad from my works of fiction and non-fiction, perform my songs with my guitar, and otherwise wax lyrical, must and ponder.
Anyway, I hope you folks will enjoy this series of creative presentations from my bush office, and I welcome your comments, critiques and feedback.
Wherever you are in this wonderful big ol’ world, in the city or the bush, in the mountains or on the coast, welcome to my bush office.