A taxonomy of Australian nature writing
It was an evening in September 2002, and I stood at the counter of the bookshop in Glebe. It was the night of the launch of Gum, Ashley Hay’s eucalypt memoir; and I was at the counter to buy myself a copy.
Right behind me in the queue, a woman asked her friend, ‘So, is this nature writing?’ This is not a question one expects anyone to ask in Australia,…