The Big Scrub

The Big Scrub subtropical rainforest in the NSW Northern Rivers almost wasn’t. Despite a lineage stretching back millions of years to the time Australia was part of the Gondwanan rainforest supercontinent, it came within a hair’s breadth of disappearing altogether with the arrival of Europeans, who chopped and cleared 99 per cent of it in a short space of time.

If it weren’t for the efforts of Dr Tony Parkes, founder and president of Big Scrub Landcare, and a growing band of professional bush regenerators and supporters, the remaining 1 per cent would also have been lost. Today, with the help of donors and private landholders, the Big Scrub