Heartlands:
Vivid Conversations on Life’s Journeys
HEARTLANDS is a cultural stream of the Blue Mountains Music Festival developed in association with writer, radio producer and oral historian, Gregg Borschmann. It’s a meeting ground for people and ideas, for reflection and inspiration.
They All Ran Wild ( … and still are)
with Costa Georgiadis & Andrew Cox
Saturday 16 March, 11:30-12:30pm, The Shed
We know the story of the Big Invasion – the rabbits, the foxes, the cats, the cane toads and the camels ... the rubber vine, the Patterson’s curse, the buffel grass and the Rosy dock. It’s the invasion that hasn’t ended. Australia’s unique biodiversity – a product of 40 or 50 million years of glorious evolutionary isolation – is in freefall. Changes are not happening over 10,000s of years, they’re happening over decades or less. Twenty new weeds will establish in the wild in Australia this year and every year to come unless things change. So how do we rethink our ecology and landscape, and what do we chose to save for the new ecosystems of our climate change future?
COSTA GEORGIADIS
The host of ABC TVs Gardening Australia – the down-to-earth guru of a new way of sustainable thinking built ‘from the backyard up’. Costa is as interested in the health of our souls as much as our soils and, of course, the other species we share our planet with. He says his grandparents taught him a lot about life and love, particularly the outdoor life. “I can trace unconditional love back to them … so it’s Heart, Head and Hands, in that order”
ANDREW COX
Andrew is CEO of the Invasive Species Council and one of the giants of Australian conservation. He’s also a very tall man. He’s someone you’re almost guaranteed to have never heard of, one of those environmental change agents seriously making a difference behind the scenes. Andrew was instrumental in helping to stop the raising of the Warragamba dam wall – not last year, but more than 30 years ago when the hairbrained proposal was first pushed by water agencies. He’s worked inside government to help identify and create NSW’s wilderness estate. And right now, he’s trying to get political action, commitment and change to address the chaos created by everything from brumbies in the High Country to feral deer in too many other places. He’s also on the frontlines of efforts to rid Australia of pests like the Yellow Crazy Ant and Red Fire Ants – both guaranteed BBQ stoppers of the future.
The Last Conversation
with Eric Bogle, AM
Sunday 17 March, 11:30-12:30pm, The Shed
Surely not? The Last Conversation? Well, probably not. But then it could be. He’s 80 years old and hopes he’s got five good years left. What will the legacy be, and is there any more to say after crafting such a celebrated songbook? These curly questions, and many more, will be answered in this very special conversation. Or maybe they won’t be. Eric hates talking about himself. The real self that is, the man behind the songs. Gregg and Eric first got to know each other more than 30 years ago and Gregg says he’s not really responsible for Eric becoming famous. Gregg was doing publicity for the Scottish-born folkie in those days, when Eric was first Waltzing his Matilda All Over. Eric promises not to sing the song during this conversation, but he will sing a couple of others that you may not know or recognise.
GREGG BORSCHMANN
Gregg has spent decades travelling in and writing from all corners of remote Australia. Since the 1990s, he’s worked as an oral historian for the National Library of Australia. In 2020, he left his position as a senior producer on ABC Radio National Breakfast to pursue writing books. His current project on the koala will be published by Simon & Schuster. Together with Penny, he’s grown up a family and lived in the upper Blue Mountains for the past 30 years.