Seminar 1: Cloud Land: The dramatic story of Australia’s extraordinary rainforest people and country

Speaker: Associate Professor Penny van Oosterzee | JCU Adjunct | Thiaki Rainforest Research Project Abstract: Cloud Land is a story of a patch of rainforest at the head of Thiaki Creek, the very first runnels of the Johnstone River. The focus is on events that made a difference to the rainforest itself. Interwoven with this is my own relationship with Thiaki during the restoration of a 50-hectare paddock. The book pleats and folds through deep time, forever time, evolutionary time, dreaming time, historical time and contemporary time. The assembly of events exposes insights that are otherwise hidden when looked at individually. Here is a taste Biography: Penny van Oosterzee is an Adjunct Associate Professor at James Cook University. Penny’s research areas have a focus on policy agendas related to ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, biodiversity and climate change abatement. Penny is also a multi-award winning science writer including two Eureka Science Awards, several Whitley Awards, the John Mulvaney Award for archaeology for her books. Her company is a linkage partner for two Australian Research Council projects on rainforest cost-effective restoration based on her rainforest property Thiaki Creek Nature Reserve. These projects have seen 30 hectares of restoration plantings established with biodiversity core-benefits. Thiaki Creek generates Australian Carbon Credit Units.