News Archive

UWA Publishing congratulates author John Dargavel for winning the Canberra Critics' Circle Writing Award for his biography - The Zealous Conservator: A Life of Charles Lane Poole .

"Dargavel's book takes a figure unknown to the general public, and with passion for one arcane field, successfully unfolds a story which illuminates much of the wider human condition," award judges said.

Published in 2008, The Zealous Conservator is the fascinating biography of a passionate pioneer of Australian conservation, hailed in 1981 by Western Australian Premier Sir Charles Court as the ‘founder of modern forestry'.

Charles Edward Lane Poole is presented as a man so captured by the ideals of forestry, science and rational land use that he followed their dictates across the world, regardless of personal consequences or political reality.

The story follows his life, studies and work in England, Ireland, France, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Western Australia, Papua and New Guinea, Canberra and Sydney.

Media references

Sylvia Defendi (UWA Publishing) 61 8 6488 6804 / 0417 967 415