White Beech: The Rainforest Years

By Germaine Greer

A memoir of a love affair with the forest and her native Australia, White Beech is Germaine Greer's most personal book yet

'A powerful account of Greer's attempt to reverse the calamitous environmental impact of Australian history on one patch of land ... Greer remains a winning, funny, indomitable figure throughout, and it is fascinating to follow her as she works through so much of her messy, complicated relationship with Australia' Financial Times

One bright day in December 2001, sixty-two-year-old Germaine Greer found herself confronted by an irresistible challenge in the shape of sixty hectares of dairy farm, one of many in south-east Queensland that, after a century of logging, clearing and downright devastation, had been abandoned to their fate.

She didn't think for a minute that by restoring the land she was saving the world. She was in search of heart's ease. Beyond the acres of exotic pasture grass and soft weed and the impenetrable curtains of tangled Lantana canes there were Macadamias dangling their strings of unripe nuts, and Black Beans with red and yellow pea flowers growing on their branches … and the few remaining White Beeches, stupendous trees up to forty metres in height, logged out within forty years of the arrival of the first white settlers. To have turned down even a faint chance of bringing them back to their old haunts would have been to succumb to despair. Once the process of rehabilitation had begun, the chance proved to be a dead certainty. When the first replanting shot up to make a forest and rare caterpillars turned up to feed on the leaves of the new young trees, she knew beyond doubt that at least here biodepletion could be reversed.

Greer describes herself as an old dog who succeeded in learning a load of new tricks, inspired and rejuvenated by her passionate love of Australia and of Earth, most exuberant of small planets.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Nov 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781408846704

Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer is a major cultural figure – a writer, an English critic, a literary and media star, and a feminist.

Reviews for White Beech

[aneurysm1985-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I saw Germaine Greer at a speaking event in 2012. I was enthralled to hear her discuss her project to rehabilitate the 60 hectare Cave Creek rainforest site in South-Eastern Queensland. I made a mental note to one day read her book White Beech once she got around to publishing it.It is now three years later, and I managed to finally track down a copy of the book. Unfortunately, my reading experience left me quite underwhelmed.In short, I wish that Germaine had focused her book on the events from 2001 onwards, from the time that she bought the Cave Creek property and began the rehabilitation. I want to know the specifics of the 'how' it all happened.Disappointingly, White Beech is padded with entire chapters that diverted me from what I presumed was the core essence of the book. I had to wade through chapters about Germaine's descision-making process, as she toured prospective properties in New South Wales and the Northern Territory, before deciding not to buy them. We also have multiple chapters dedicated to the historical events that took place in Australia's ecology during the 225+ years of European settlement. Such as the escapades of Australia's pioneer botanists, who worked to classify the country's flora.In other words, I wish that Germaine Greer had written far less about the 1860s endeavours of botanist Ferdinand von Mueller, and far more about the 2010s endeavours of conservationist Germaine Greer and her helpers. Based on the vigour with which Germaine discussed her Cave Creek rehabilitation project in 2012, White Beech (2013) is a missed opportunity.

[mimal_5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

bookshelves: published-2013, radio-4, zoology, winter-20132014, those-autumn-years, nonfiction, fradio, forest, environmental-issues, australiaRecommended for: BBC Radio ListenersRead from January 27 to 31, 2014R4 BOTWBBC description: Germaine Greer is in search of 'heart's ease'. She longs to find a patch of her native Australia to make good, to restore after years of misguided exploitation. And she has just the person to help her with her project - her sister who is 'a properly trained Australian botanist'. But finding the right patch of land turns out to be far more difficult than she ever imagined.Read by Germaine Greer Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.1. Overview and reasons why. GG finds herself an Eco Warrior in her mid-life2. After a two-year search, Germaine Greer has almost given up her quest for a piece of land to heal. But then she goes to see an abandoned dairy farm on the Gold Coast.3. Germaine Greer has bought a piece of battered rainforest on the Gold Coast and the task of restoring it seems overwhelming. Now she has to admit to her sister what she's done.4. The hero of Germaine Greer's rainforest is the rare white beech tree. She discovers it is neither white nor a beech, but it is one of the most endangered species of the forest.5. Germaine Greer returns from a six-month stay in England to find some exciting plantlings in her propagation unit in the rainforest - a discovery that makes all her work worthwhile.Gondwana RainforestSoo good I shall look at deals on the paper book.5* Poems for Gardeners5* White Beech