Germaine Greer: White Beech

Germaine Greer is one of Australia’s most famous cultural exports. Her groundbreaking feminist polemic The Female Eunuch – an international bestseller and countercultural classic – galvanised a generation. Since then, her name has been synonymous with passionate argument for her beliefs and an ability to think (and act) outside the mainstream.

In recent decades, Greer has turned her articulate rage to highlighting the destructive effects of European settlement on Australia. In her Quarterly Essay, Whitefella Jump Up, she explained why Australians should reimagine the country as an Aboriginal nation. In her latest book, White Beech, Greer makes the political into the personal, as she works painstakingly on returning her own patch of Queensland rainforest to its native roots. In December 2001, Greer bought 50 hectares of rainforest; since then, she has spent every spare cent on rehabilitating it, and set up a charity to continue the work after she has gone.

She’ll talk about how Europeanisation has devastated our landscape and what we can do to restore its biodiversity and uniqueness – drawing on her own experience and research. Conservation, she says, is too important to leave to politicians – it’s time ordinary Australians began doing it for themselves.