Making life worthwhile: author talk with local naturalist John Blay

In 1982 Mr Blay was awarded a writers grant to spent 12 months in the wilderness and write about his experience. He began at Araluen and hiked through the Deua Valley, zig-zagging through the countryside hearing local yarns and familiarising himself with local flora and fauna.

Since then he has hiked more than 10,000 kilometres - "a rough estimate at the very least," he said - and written three books.

Mr Blay's first book 'Back Country' was released in 1987 and re-published in 2016. It was followed by 'On Track' in 2015 - Mr Blay's experience of hiking the Bundian Way.

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The third book in the South East Forest Trilogy - 'Wild Nature' - was published in 2020.

'Wild Nature' traces the story of the forest wars stretching from 1980 to the early 2000s. This conflict was between conservationists and loggers over including parts of natural wilderness in National Parks.

Mr Blay said the book was an exploration of the value of the south coast's forests to the region.

Mr Blay will be sharing stories from his trilogy, as well as personal anecdotes and the inspiration behind his writing at the author talk in the Eurobodalla Botanic Gardens on April 24.

The location among native plants and his eponymous wattle, could not be more fitting.

Mr Blay was scrambling through scrub in the Brogo wilderness in 1982 when he came upon a hill covered in a wattle plant more than 25 metres tall. It was unfamiliar to him and, as it turns out, the scientific community. Acacia Blayana - commonly known as Blay Wattle - was named after Mr Blay, and it now grows as a feature plant at the Eurobodalla Botanic Gardens.

There is one other moment which sticks out in Mr Blay's memory as a key moment in his falling in love with the wild.

He stumbled upon an picturesque oasis in the Genoa wilderness near the Victorian border which he described as beautiful and placid with amazing trees and vegetation.

"Finding places like this makes your life worthwhile," Mr Blay said.

Mr Blay's next project is writing an oral history of the Bermagui area which he has been working on since 1975. It tracks the lives of people on the south coast - their existence fishing, living and changing over time.

The author talk is on April 24 from 2 to 3pm. Tickets are available here.