John Büsst Bohemian artist and saviour of reef and rainforest

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(55 65 81 1)>A rich biography of artist-turned-environmental campaigner John Bu?sst.</strong></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(55 65 81 1)>Known to his enemies as 'The Bingil Bay Bastard' John Bu?sst a Bendigo-born Melbourne bohemian artist moved to tropical Bedarra Island in North Queensland and underwent an extraordinary transformation to become one of Australia's most successful conservationists. In the 1960s and early 70s Bu?sst led campaigns to protect two of Australia's most important and endangered environments - saving lowland rainforests from destruction and the Great Barrier Reef from reckless resource mining for oil gas cement and fertiliser. A plan Bu?sst likened to 'bulldozing the Taj Mahal to make road gravel'. Along the way Bu?sst obtained the active support of five current or future prime ministers - Holt Whitlam Gorton Hawke and Fraser.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(55 65 81 1)>This inspiring biography from award-winning historian Iain McCalman is a timely reminder that the passionate commitment of ordinary citizens is crucial to achieving truly transformative environmental change.</span></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(55 65 81 1)>'John Bu?sst's love of beauty and reverence for science combined to leave two awesome interconnected but still tragically vulnerable legacies: the conservation of both the North Queensland rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef. Iain McCalman among the country's finest historians brings to life one man's journey from art to activism locating the roots of modern environmental consciousness in a highly creative and productive partnership of aesthetics humanitarianism science and politics.' - Frank Bongiorno</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(55 65 81 1)>'In</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(55 65 81 1)> </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(55 65 81 1)><em>John Bu?sst</em> Iain McCalman turns his attention to the artist architect naturalist and environmental campaigner who helped save the Great Barrier Reef from destruction in the 1960s with hugely impressive results. Vivid expansive and richly intelligent it is both a tribute to a remarkable life and a fascinating and timely study of how an unlikely group of activists transformed the way Australians understand the environment.' - James Bradley</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(55 65 81 1)>'We are all in debt to John Bu?sst pioneer defender of the environment. Here Iain McCalman brilliantly charts his life and his successful crusade to save Queensland's reef and adjacent rainforest - one of the world's great ecosystems.' - Bill Gammage</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(55 65 81 1)>'Eye-opening and inspiring. The unforgettable story of one man's struggle to save two of Australia's most treasured world heritage environments - Queensland's Wet Tropics rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.' - Mark McKenna</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(55 65 81 1)>'McCalman's book is a fine homage to a dedicated life. It's also a portrait of the kind of person who makes a difference. Busst was clever charming thoughtful and perhaps above all a good strategic communicator.' - Rosemary Sorensen <em>Independent Australia</em></strong></p><p><br></p>