THE ANCIENTS

Guardians of Time: exploring Tasmania's ancient trees and their lessons for survival in a changing world.

Before the Europeans arrived, the people of the Indigenous nations managed the Australian continent. And before the Aboriginal peoples arrived, trees stood as guardians. It's believed people first arrived some 65,000 years ago, and eucalypts evolved 60 million years ago long after the ancients. In Tasmania the world's oldest living trees have a stronghold, and they are directly in the path of the climate emergency. Increased lightning-started bushfires are burning into them. Trees are storytellers. These trees tell thousand-year stories with lessons for us on survival. Are we able to grasp this advice, to hold it with empathy, and preserve them against our changes to their lives? Or do we say they have no further lesson to offer us on longevity, except luck, and being in the right spot? And how do we really measure up to being, like them, out in the wild. In The Ancients, Andrew Darby goes on a journey through wild Tasmania to pay homage to these significant trees. Through them we explore their stories from the past and for the future. ANDREW DARBY is the former Hobart corre- spondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is the author of Harpoon (2007) and Flight Lines (2020).