Author(s): Iain McCalman

Australian | June 2024 | New Non-Fiction

A rich biography of artist-turned-environmental campaigner John Büsst. A rich biography of artist-turned-environmental campaigner John Büsst.Award-winning historian Iain McCalman reveals the little-known story of influential Australian conservationist, John Büsst. Known to his enemies as ‘The Bingal Bay Bastard’, Büsst, a Bendigo-born Melbourne bohemian artist, transformed into a brilliant conservationist who, in the 1960s and early 70s, led campaigns to protect two of Australia’s most important and endangered environments. The first saved Australia’s endangered lowland rainforests and led to the subsequent UNESCO World Heritage Listing of our Wet Tropics Rainforest Area. The second stopped Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s attempt to mine 80 per cent of the Great Barrier Reef for oil, gas and limestone fertiliser. A plan Büsst likened to ‘bulldozing the Taj Mahal to make road gravel’. Instead, the victory led to the UNESCO World Heritage Listing of the Great Barrier Reef as ‘the most important marine system in the world’. Sadly, both face renewed threat today.