A Heritage of Trees

In the mid 90s an international book arrived on the market titled “Meetings with Remarkable Trees”. Writer Rupert Russell and photographer Paul Curtis were inspired and considered all the remarkable trees they hadpassed by in their travels around north Queensland’s Wet Tropics and contemplated their individual stories of resilence and character. The Wet Tropics is nothing if not trees and all the lifeforms they support.Paul and Rupert travelled far and wide over 3 years visiting known examples and discovering many more. You could say people came out of the woodwork offering advice and information on individual examples of great spirit and in many cases known to very few people. Three years of walking, climbing and crawling resulted in quite a library of spectacular examples of dwarves and giants from deep within the wilderness. However, other commitments and financial resources led to a hiatus until in 2018 photographer and publisher Steven Nowakowski re-lit their enthusiasm and offered his assistance and expertise in getting the project moving again. Trees were re-visited and more discovered. Rupert’s wonderful text brings alive the story of encountering each tree and Paul and Steve’s photographs capture the sometimes uncooperative subjects in all their moods and spectacle. Here, a combination of talents has produced a long overdue book celebrating the nature of north Queensland’s Wet Tropics through the age old inhabitants that have watched as indigenous Australians, explorers, loggers and bushwalkers passed beneath their limbs – the trees of north Queensland.