Blue Plateau: An Australian Pastoral (1st ed.)

Located in the Blue Mountains southwest of Sydney, the Blue Plateau is a contrary collection of canyons and creeks, cow paddocks and eucalyptus forests,the first peopleand ranchers.

This book reveals the plateau through its inhabitants: the Gundungurra people who were there first and still remain; the Maxwell family, who tried, but failed, to tame the land; the affable, impoverished, often drunken ranchers and firefighters; and the author himself, a poet trying to insinuate his citified self into a rugged landscape defined by drought, fire, and scarcity.

Like the works of Peter Mathiessen, Barry Lopez, and William Least Heat-Moon, The Blue Plateau is a deep examination of place that transcends genre, incorporating poetry, peoples history, ecology, mythology, and memoir to reveal how humanity and nature intertwine to create a home.

Elegiac and intimately composed, this vivid portrait of a rugged wilds expands readers sense of the place they call home.