Anna's story

Anna Howard, Friend of the Bush

Eucalyptus trees at Carnarvon Station Reserve: Photo by Wayne Lawler / Ecopix

“I will never forget the smell of the gum trees, the day we first arrived in Australia in August 1990.

We’d left my beloved UK behind and together with our two-year old son, my husband and I had flown to Melbourne to start a new life.

	Carnarvon Station Reserve. Photo by Wayne Lawler / Ecopix

Even from that very first day, the bush fascinated me. It was so different from what we knew. We expected everything to be barren, like the UK during winter, but we soon realised that gum trees are not deciduous, they’re evergreen.

We hired a car from the airport and the very next day we drove along the Great Ocean Road. We drove towards Johanna Beach and I was absolutely transfixed. The road itself was not so amazing – it was the bush that really got to me. I could not believe how beautiful the gum trees were.

Life was difficult when we first arrived and although I didn’t realise it at the time, I was suffering from depression. I sought out nature for comfort and I remember going for walks, thinking “as long as I can keep looking at these beautiful flowers, I will get through this”.

Then the jacarandas came out, literally overnight. And I saw the green of the snowgums pushing through the whiteness of the snow. All that time I’d never heard of Bush Heritage, but when a young woman approached me in the street last year and told me about their work, I told her “this is exactly what I’m looking for”.

“I don’t believe we own the land – I believe that we are its guardians, for the next generation.”

But I know that’s the way our world works, so if we’re going to preserve the land, we have to own it, which is just what Bush Heritage does. Plus, I thought, if Bob Brown has anything to do with it, I know it’s going to be good.

I’ve been in Australia for 21 years and I understand the bush now. I love its uniqueness and the way the plants and animals have learnt to survive.

I’ve learnt to appreciate the quality of the light, and the fact that when you move away from the city lights and you see the Milky Way in the night sky, you know you’re a long, long way from anywhere.”