The Ancients: Discovering the world’s oldest surviving trees in wild Tasmania

£16.95

Available for Pre-order. Due May 2026.

The Ancients: Discovering the world’s oldest surviving trees in wild Tasmania Author: Format: Paperback / softback First Published: Published By: Allen & Unwin
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Pages: 304 Language: English ISBN: 9781761069239 Categories: , , , , , , , , , ,

Deep in Tasmania’s remote valleys and mountains grow trees whose direct ancestors lived with dinosaurs. Many are thousands of years old, some over ten millennia. Prize-winning nature writer Andrew Darby takes us on an island odyssey to discover these ancient survivors: the mysterious King’s Lomatia, perhaps the oldest single tree alive; the primeval King Billy, Pencil and Huon pines with their stories of human admiration and destruction; and the majestic giant eucalypts. He shares tales of the scientists and nature-lovers who identified these ancients and now work to protect them from climate change and fire, offering hope for their future.

Weight0.5656716 kg
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The quiet magnificence of nature is reflected in the lyrical elegance of Darby's prose. * Jonathan Green, ABC Radio's Blueprint for Living * The Ancients will be relished by anyone who cares about the extraordinary island of Tasmania * Nicholas Shakespeare, novelist and biographer * A thrilling reminder of our good fortune in having these living monuments of deep time on our doorstep * Sydney Morning Herald * The Ancients threads together colonial history, personal reflections and conservation campaigns to deepen our appreciation of our "ancient" backyard. Darby's experiences communing alone with these colossal beings often provide the book's most enriching education on the sheer force of these wild elders. * Saturday Paper *

Author Biography

Andrew Darby is the author of Flight Lines, on long distance migratory shorebirds, and Harpoon on whales and whaling. Flight Lines won the Royal Zoological Society of NSW's Whitley Award for the Best Natural History, and the Premier's Prize for Non-fiction in the Tasmanian Literary Awards. It was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Award for Non-fiction. He was the Hobart correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.