In the latest edition of Limina journal, I reviewed Thomas Wilson's Stepping Off: Rewilding and Belonging in the South-West.I've always been a South-West girl: growing up in Goomalling; visiting my grandparents in Toodyay, and then Beverley, and then Northam; family holidays each year to Albany or Denmark or Rudyard’s Beach; my other grandparent's holiday home in Myalup, and then their vineyard in Kendenup; road trips with my sister or friends through Walpole, Pemberton, Balingup, Augusta, Busselton, Margaret River; year 12 drama camps to New Norcia; hiking day walks and overnight stretches of the Bibbulmun track.
This is my country.
And then I read Stepping Off while I was traveling for fieldwork (I mentioned it here), and on every page was something new I didn't know about the South-West, and I was like - oh, this is my country.
I highly recommend this book for sandgropers and visitors to the South-West alike, and anyone who has an interest in history, sociology, ecology, geology, botany, agriculture, rewilding, sustainability, and how we live. (So, everyone.)
You can read my review here:
http://www.limina.arts.uwa.edu.au/volumes/volume-23.1-2017/review-budrikis
