Nature
Australia
Autumn 2004
Reviewed by Steve
Morton
"Science is a
lot of fun, and yet you'd barely know it from most of the media
reports on the topic. Of course scientists do tend to be earnest about
their work - and indeed science has very significant import in the
world, so frequently it is a serious business. Yet there's not enough
writing about the very human pleasure of doing science.
John Read's book is a
lovely step in this direction. Perhaps ecologists are fortunate among
their scientific peers because a great deal of ecology is done in the
bush, where adventures large and small take place as a matter of
course. John makes full use of this advantage. His story of ecological
investigations across the arid heart of the Lake Eyre Basin, from
Coober Pedy to the Strzelecki track, contains an entertaining and
illuminating variety of anecdotes. He shares his love of the country
effortlessly, and populates the landscape with pen pictures of
adventures that range from personal epiphany to life-threatening
accident. Animals and plants share the story, particularly the
reptiles that John so evidently admires.
Human beings are not
displaced by the animals, though. John writes of the companions who
ravel with him, of anti-nuclear activists, of pastoralists, of boffins,
and of many more human types. His eye is sympathetic and understanding
of different perspectives, yet the reader also comes away with a
strong sense of John's values and beliefs.
John Read loves the
dry country and its plant, animal and human inhabitants. Read his book
and you'll understand why he does so, and you'll have fun along the
way too."
Aurora
September 2003
Reviewed by M.
Kirton
"This is a very
useful book as well as being an enjoyable read. It is useful because
it gives a balanced account of environmental issues as they affect the
Australian outback, being long on evidence and short on slogans."
R.M.
Williams Outback
Magazine
1 June 2003
"A few years
ago, young ecologist John Read went to work on Roxby Downs Uranium
Mine, hoping to discover how he could expose it from the inside. From
his experiences there comes this excellent collection of real life
eco-adventure stories. While the stories are entertaining, Read's
ecological bent make the book one that educates and informs at the
same time, exploring environmental issues without coming across as too
scientific or laborious. Red Sand Green Heart is the rare
insight of an ecologically educated writer with a flair for language
and a passion for the environment."
Sydney
Morning Herald
3 May 2003
Reviewed
by James Woodford
"The blurb
seemed unconvincing, and the fact that the author has spent most of
his career as an ecologist at a uranium mine would put off all but the
least cynical. However, Red Sand is a genuine treat.
Strange habitats
throw up bizarre creatures and eccentric people. This is a book about
one of the weirdest, subtlest, most complex, most spectacular and
least understood landscapes in the continent - a boom-and-bust
universe that makes the stock market look like preschool.
As an ecologist for a
uranium mine, Read would be easy to dismiss as a mouthpiece for a
politically incorrect industry. But he is extraordinarily blunt about
his employers and his own feelings regarding uranium mining. "My
allegiances were biased towards the environment," Read writes at
the beginning. "If cover-ups and environmental degradation were
rife, as some of my mates suspected, working at the mine would place
me in a strategic position to expose them from the inside." He
did find problems, pollution and other environmental impacts. He
writes about these with unflinching honesty but also puts them in
context.
Luckily that is not
the most important part of the story. When he arrived in 1989, Read
was given a brief by Western Mining that most scientists could only
dream of - freedom, funding and a huge slab of central Australia,
where immensely important scientific discoveries were just waiting for
a curious researcher. He was told simply that his job was "to do
the animals".
Red Sand is an
insight into a part of the nation that most know nothing about. It is
a story of discovery, of personal and scientific space, adventure and
awe. It is not literature but it is an exciting read that made me feel
like decamping to the outback."
Read
the full review here
Canberra
Times
22 March 2003
Reviewed
by Mark Tredinnick
"...Red Sand,
Green Heart is a book of anecdote, adventure and instruction. It
is a piece of nature writing, accessible, rambling, lively and
important. Important not as a literary event but because it explores
intelligently issues of rangeland and water management whose
resolution will touch us all, and, more importantly, affect the health
of wide reaches of this land we say we love......The real desert is in
there. So is our future."
Sydney
Morning Herald
15 March 2003
Reviewed by Debra
Adelaide
"...In authentic
vernacular ("accessible and non-scientific style", assures
the publisher), a passionate ecosystem management expert bloke (also a
former Roxby Downs ecologist) offers many interesting facts. Deformed
frogs indicate contaminated water. A vehicle, modified, can run on
waste cooking oils. Snakes are safer to catch than lorikeets. The
theme seems to be: take care in - and of - the outback. On other
words, don't eat sandwiches with venom-spattered hands."
The
Age
15 March 2003
Reviewed by Lorien
Kaye
"...Read can
obviously spin a good yarn around the camp fire. His book is a mixture
of rollicking anecdote and ecological explanation, combining tales of
his adventures (crash landings, dangerous desert treks, encounters
with deadly taipans) with discussions of the delicate arid-zone
environment of the desert around Lake Eyre. He talks about the natural
consequences of (rare) rain, reminds us that it is is not just cute,
fluffy mammals that deserve protection and talks about the
dangers facing the area - principally traditional pastoral practices
and feral animals"
