WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.130
(bright music)

2
00:00:02.130 --> 00:00:04.170
<v ->I'm not a good gardener,</v>

3
00:00:04.170 --> 00:00:06.030
but I'm a very good garden writer,

4
00:00:06.030 --> 00:00:08.580
I think because I'm not a good gardener,

5
00:00:08.580 --> 00:00:11.347
because you're actually really writing about,

6
00:00:11.347 --> 00:00:13.560
"Okay, this is what you're supposed to do.

7
00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:14.580
This is what I did.

8
00:00:14.580 --> 00:00:17.832
Sometimes it succeeds, sometimes it fails."

9
00:00:17.832 --> 00:00:21.930
(bright music continues)

10
00:00:21.930 --> 00:00:24.390
I never thought of myself as a gardener.

11
00:00:24.390 --> 00:00:29.390
I was fascinated by the ecology of plants, of pest control.

12
00:00:31.080 --> 00:00:33.497
My first paper was on,

13
00:00:33.497 --> 00:00:36.127
it was the book, "Natural Control of Garden Pests,"

14
00:00:36.127 --> 00:00:37.890
"Organic Control of Common Weeds."

15
00:00:37.890 --> 00:00:42.890
So I did a lot research for books which became textbooks

16
00:00:43.140 --> 00:00:47.100
back in the late 80s and 90s.

17
00:00:47.100 --> 00:00:49.680
I don't do that now because now people

18
00:00:49.680 --> 00:00:53.790
with far better qualifications and understanding

19
00:00:53.790 --> 00:00:56.400
are doing it within academia

20
00:00:56.400 --> 00:01:00.540
and so it's an area I've pretty much left behind.

21
00:01:00.540 --> 00:01:01.590
But back then,

22
00:01:01.590 --> 00:01:04.931
what I was writing was fairly revolutionary.

23
00:01:04.931 --> 00:01:07.200
(bright music continues)

24
00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:10.530
A reporter from the "Women's Weekly" came down

25
00:01:10.530 --> 00:01:13.800
to interview me about the gardening books.

26
00:01:13.800 --> 00:01:16.380
And quite coincidentally,

27
00:01:16.380 --> 00:01:21.380
their gardening writer, Valerie Swane, had breast cancer

28
00:01:21.660 --> 00:01:23.580
and actually resigned

29
00:01:23.580 --> 00:01:27.210
the day after the reporter had been here

30
00:01:27.210 --> 00:01:30.060
and they asked me to fill in.

31
00:01:30.060 --> 00:01:33.231
So I became the "Women's Weekly" gardening columnist.

32
00:01:33.231 --> 00:01:36.090
(bright music continues)

33
00:01:36.090 --> 00:01:38.040
I've always loved reading.

34
00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:40.650
I wanted to be a writer very early.

35
00:01:40.650 --> 00:01:42.660
I wrote my first book at six

36
00:01:42.660 --> 00:01:45.000
when I was very bored one Sunday afternoon

37
00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:46.470
and had run out of books to read

38
00:01:46.470 --> 00:01:48.930
and so I decided to write one

39
00:01:48.930 --> 00:01:50.940
and the head mistress had a copy printed off

40
00:01:50.940 --> 00:01:52.980
for all the kids in the infant school

41
00:01:52.980 --> 00:01:55.773
after she'd corrected my spelling and got it typed out.

42
00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:58.680
I decided at seven years old,

43
00:01:58.680 --> 00:02:01.590
yes, I am going to write books,

44
00:02:01.590 --> 00:02:04.740
and I could have the fruit trees and the vegetables

45
00:02:04.740 --> 00:02:07.530
and the house and the animals.

46
00:02:07.530 --> 00:02:09.150
Back then it was a hundred dogs.

47
00:02:09.150 --> 00:02:11.342
It sort of got converted to wombats later on.

48
00:02:11.342 --> 00:02:14.759
(bright music continues)

49
00:02:15.630 --> 00:02:18.240
It was completely accidental.

50
00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:21.540
I lived in a tent over on the other side for a while

51
00:02:21.540 --> 00:02:23.460
and then a shed over there

52
00:02:23.460 --> 00:02:25.140
and I'd have breakfast every morning

53
00:02:25.140 --> 00:02:27.930
up on the hill just above.

54
00:02:27.930 --> 00:02:32.930
And it was a time when a fairly old wombat was eating

55
00:02:33.540 --> 00:02:37.380
and he got curious about this strange animal

56
00:02:37.380 --> 00:02:39.423
who had moved into his territory.

57
00:02:40.410 --> 00:02:42.000
I never touched him.

58
00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:43.080
I never patted him.

59
00:02:43.080 --> 00:02:44.460
I never fed him.

60
00:02:44.460 --> 00:02:47.553
It was completely a friendship with a wild animal.

61
00:02:49.327 --> 00:02:51.480
"Diary of a Wombat" is based,

62
00:02:51.480 --> 00:02:53.970
and "Diary of a Rescued Wombat" actually tells the story

63
00:02:53.970 --> 00:02:58.290
of how the wombat knew that humans had carrots

64
00:02:58.290 --> 00:03:03.017
because Mothball was raised from a rescued wombat.

65
00:03:03.870 --> 00:03:07.287
(bright music continues)

66
00:03:08.640 --> 00:03:10.860
A friend who was a freelance journalist

67
00:03:10.860 --> 00:03:12.790
who I'd admitted I wrote in secret

68
00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:17.370
encouraged me to send some writing away.

69
00:03:17.370 --> 00:03:18.930
And I think in those three weeks,

70
00:03:18.930 --> 00:03:20.460
I actually became a professional writer.

71
00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:22.200
Instead of just writing for fun,

72
00:03:22.200 --> 00:03:25.680
assuming no one would ever read anything I wrote,

73
00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:28.800
I actually wrote for an audience for the first time.

74
00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:32.067
So I wrote "Rain Stones."

75
00:03:32.970 --> 00:03:35.190
I was using an old typewriter from the dump.

76
00:03:35.190 --> 00:03:36.926
The wombat left his droppings on it.

77
00:03:36.926 --> 00:03:39.650
The E was all soft and scuffy.

78
00:03:39.650 --> 00:03:41.910
So I wrote it without using the letter E

79
00:03:41.910 --> 00:03:44.430
and filled in the E with biro.

80
00:03:44.430 --> 00:03:46.800
And so it was picked out of the pile

81
00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:48.570
because of the appalling spelling,

82
00:03:48.570 --> 00:03:49.650
the yellow paper,

83
00:03:49.650 --> 00:03:52.320
and wombat dropping sponges

84
00:03:52.320 --> 00:03:54.660
and letter Es written in biro

85
00:03:54.660 --> 00:03:55.770
and they just assumed

86
00:03:55.770 --> 00:03:59.820
that anyone who'd sent that in must be stupid.

87
00:03:59.820 --> 00:04:03.210
So the editor took it out to read a bit aloud to everyone

88
00:04:03.210 --> 00:04:07.320
so they could laugh at the world's worst manuscript.

89
00:04:07.320 --> 00:04:08.250
And there in the office,

90
00:04:08.250 --> 00:04:10.110
she just read the whole thing aloud to everyone

91
00:04:10.110 --> 00:04:11.610
all that afternoon,

92
00:04:11.610 --> 00:04:13.710
went back into her office, rang me up,

93
00:04:13.710 --> 00:04:16.680
and offered me an advance to publish it.

94
00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:18.120
But at the same time,

95
00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:22.680
I'd sent two articles to farming magazines

96
00:04:22.680 --> 00:04:27.360
and a story about living with lyrebirds

97
00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:28.710
to the "Canberra Times."

98
00:04:28.710 --> 00:04:30.780
So by the end of three weeks,

99
00:04:30.780 --> 00:04:33.990
I had three regular columns

100
00:04:33.990 --> 00:04:38.100
and the advance on "Rain Stones,"

101
00:04:38.100 --> 00:04:42.240
which was more money than I'd ever seen in my life before.

102
00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:43.170
And it was regular.

103
00:04:43.170 --> 00:04:44.943
I mean, it was regular columns.

104
00:04:46.830 --> 00:04:49.766
So within three weeks, I was making a living as a writer.

105
00:04:49.766 --> 00:04:54.090
(bright music continues)
(birds chirping)

106
00:04:54.090 --> 00:04:57.213
We met sort of accidentally.

107
00:04:59.070 --> 00:05:02.580
It was at The Pot Belly in Canberra

108
00:05:02.580 --> 00:05:06.630
and I met Brian at a table full

109
00:05:06.630 --> 00:05:09.810
and I thought he was one of the most boring people

110
00:05:09.810 --> 00:05:11.943
I had ever met.

111
00:05:13.650 --> 00:05:16.320
He'd just come back from the Netherlands

112
00:05:16.320 --> 00:05:19.140
and he talked about climbing the tallest mountain

113
00:05:19.140 --> 00:05:19.973
in the Netherlands.

114
00:05:19.973 --> 00:05:21.570
Now, what I didn't realise

115
00:05:21.570 --> 00:05:23.550
is that Brian has a very dry sense of humour

116
00:05:23.550 --> 00:05:25.470
and it was a joke,

117
00:05:25.470 --> 00:05:26.303
but I was thinking,

118
00:05:26.303 --> 00:05:29.239
oh, this man thinks that's what mountain climbing,

119
00:05:29.239 --> 00:05:30.657
I mean, dry man.

120
00:05:30.657 --> 00:05:32.910
But I was having an open house for Christmas

121
00:05:32.910 --> 00:05:33.810
and he was at the table

122
00:05:33.810 --> 00:05:36.930
and I couldn't very well invite everyone except you.

123
00:05:36.930 --> 00:05:40.320
So he came down on Boxing Day.

124
00:05:40.320 --> 00:05:42.540
Look, it was love at second sight.

125
00:05:42.540 --> 00:05:46.570
And I just realised in that moment this was a man

126
00:05:48.540 --> 00:05:52.150
who actually could be part of this place

127
00:05:53.700 --> 00:05:54.810
in a way that I'm,

128
00:05:54.810 --> 00:05:56.370
I mean, this is part of me.

129
00:05:56.370 --> 00:05:58.530
And as he walked up the stairs,

130
00:05:58.530 --> 00:06:00.268
he was part of it too.

131
00:06:00.268 --> 00:06:05.040
(bright music continues)
(birds chirping)

132
00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:07.770
The '60s and the early '70s were a time

133
00:06:07.770 --> 00:06:10.710
where, basically, Western society was hopeful.

134
00:06:10.710 --> 00:06:13.920
What we hoped for was very, very varied,

135
00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:16.710
but just about everyone assumed

136
00:06:16.710 --> 00:06:19.170
that the future was going to be,

137
00:06:19.170 --> 00:06:20.310
was not just going to be good,

138
00:06:20.310 --> 00:06:23.580
but much, much better than the present.

139
00:06:23.580 --> 00:06:26.760
And the saddest thing with young people

140
00:06:26.760 --> 00:06:30.543
is seeing the erosion of that hope.

141
00:06:35.322 --> 00:06:37.890
One of the things I try to communicate to them

142
00:06:37.890 --> 00:06:42.890
is that humans have always faced challenges.

143
00:06:43.050 --> 00:06:45.360
We're descended from the survivors.

144
00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:48.510
We're descended from people who've survived wars,

145
00:06:48.510 --> 00:06:53.010
volcanic eruptions, volcanoes, plagues.

146
00:06:53.010 --> 00:06:54.840
Far greater climate change

147
00:06:54.840 --> 00:06:57.360
than even our grandchildren will ever see.

148
00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:00.120
We are descended from those who survived.

149
00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:05.103
And the worst thing is to actually be bored.

150
00:07:06.330 --> 00:07:08.100
And the one thing I can promise kids,

151
00:07:08.100 --> 00:07:10.710
no, I can't promise them a perfect world,

152
00:07:10.710 --> 00:07:12.720
but I can promise that they are challenges

153
00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:13.890
and they are challenges

154
00:07:13.890 --> 00:07:17.640
that we have already got solutions for.

155
00:07:17.640 --> 00:07:20.580
If they've got the courage of their ancestors,

156
00:07:20.580 --> 00:07:23.160
the one thing I can promise is if they work together,

157
00:07:23.160 --> 00:07:25.711
they will never, ever, ever be bored.

158
00:07:25.711 --> 00:07:29.128
(bright music continues)

159
00:07:33.840 --> 00:07:38.380
Look, remember, though, that I am a storyteller

160
00:07:39.390 --> 00:07:42.990
and things seem more dramatic

161
00:07:42.990 --> 00:07:46.200
because, professionally, I do cut out the boring bits

162
00:07:46.200 --> 00:07:50.250
and I just leave the entertaining bits in there.

163
00:07:50.250 --> 00:07:52.860
So yes, everything I've said has been the truth

164
00:07:52.860 --> 00:07:54.300
and nothing but the truth,

165
00:07:54.300 --> 00:07:57.120
but probably nothing I've said

166
00:07:57.120 --> 00:07:59.221
has been the whole truth.

167
00:07:59.221 --> 00:08:02.350
(bright music continues)