Deciduous Beech (The Fall)

The author, Chris Binks, has lived in Tasmania since 1948 and has been able to see the widespread changes that have taken place across the island over fifty years.
The painter Raymond Arnold first visited Tasmania and the Cradle Mountain Valley in 1967 and hence is also able to reflect on fifty years of walking that mountain and moorland terrain. In a moment of space and time Chris and Raymond meet in a Deciduous Beech/Pandani glade at Waldheim in the Cradle Valley to share stories of their experiences of that temperate landscape. They reflect and wonder at its beauty, its complexity and it’s indifference to human psychology. Unfortunately Chris and Raymond know that this precious valley is not indifferent to human induced climate change. In a speculative moment they meet again at Evandale in front of the painting Deciduous Beech (The Fall), exhibited during the Glover Prize 2019 and contemplate the destruction of the Cradle Valley by ‘dry lightning’‚ induced wildfire during one of the increasingly hot summers inflicted on Tasmania’s temperate world.