Film review: Silent Friend (2026)
A film where the ‘hero’ is an ancient tree set in a medieval German town is to be watched alone in quiet contemplation. Silent Friend (2hr, 27 min) is a truly amazing work of both art and science. The hero […]
Category: AGHS tree theme
Art of the gum tree
The Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne has an exhibition running from 10 July to 21 November 2026 called Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the gum tree. Translating as ‘breathing for us’ in Woi Wurrung, Ngarn Wa’ngal celebrates the deep cultural […]
Logging
John Taylor responds to David Lindenmayer on logging and increased fire risk. The greatest risk to our forests is catastrophic fire. And forest fires are increasing in frequency and intensity. Whether the forests are in state forest or national park, […]
Rare seed: gardens as conservation hubs
Camden Park’s front garden under a palo blanco Old gardens can be vital conservation resources for plants endangered or extinct in the wild. A fine example is Camden Park Estate, south of Warrane/Sydney, where three such plants have been conserved: […]
The man who planted Canberra
My review of The man who planted Canberra by Robert Macklin first appeared in The Weekend Australian on 21 February 2026. Walk into any bookshop today and you’ll be surprised by the number of books about trees. Publishers tell us too that anything […]
The Longford oak
Last spring members of AGHS Tasmania Branch visited Longford Hall in Northern Tasmania. The property, first established in 1820s, has variously been a boys’ school with farm, a girls’ school, a Carmelite monastery and, at times and currently, a private […]
We need shade
Shade – The promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource by Sam Bloch, Random House, New York, 2025 The author Sam Bloch is an American environmental journalist and his examples in Shade are largely based on observations from the United States, […]
The Genius of Trees
Harriet Rix, The Genius of Trees: How trees mastered the elements and shaped the world, Vintage, 2025 The author says: This is a story of how tree-ish trees are and how, by being tree-ish they have woven the world into […]
Capital trees
When I read that the AGHS’s theme for 2026 was trees I immediately thought of Capital Trees, which not only fits the theme perfectly, but which is an excellent treatise on Wellington’s trees for both locals and visitors. For those from […]
Tree news
The bad news The mortality rate of trees in forests from Tasmania to the Top End is increasing as the world warms, according to a new study published in Nature Plants. To establish mortality rates for Australian forests, Professor Medlyn, a […]