Australian
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an NFSA website

Australian Story – Of Droughts and Flooding Rains (2002)

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The scientist, the journalist and the farmer.

Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Professor David Goldney is a landscape ecologist and a huge admirer of Peter Andrews’s work. He tells the story of the very first time he came to see what this man was doing. He arrived with a group of bureaucrats who had derided the man and his work all the way up to the farm and all the way back. Professor Goldney was so impressed he couldn’t stay away and has been working with Peter ever since.

Curator’s notes

Peter has always been lucky in the people he has brought over to his cause. Professor Goldney is a long-term believer, as is the rural reporter, John Page from Win TV. John tried for many years to get the story out and finally persuaded John Anderson, the National Party politician, to see for himself.

This is a simple but compellingly told story of how the academic came to admire Andrew’s work. Nicely intercut interview and voice-over of Professor Goldney supports the elegant material of Andrews digging on his farm and explaining his theory to camera in a way any of us can understand.