Book – John Bússt. Bohemian Artist and Saviour of Reef and Rainforest

Author: Iain McCalmanPublisher: NewSouth PublishingReviewer: Franklin Richards

Flying from Townsville to Cairns, recently, I was reminded of the uniqueness of the coastal land and sea below. Nowhere else in the country, does tropical rainforest tumble down from the mountains to the coastal plain and, in few places on earth, do such rainforest shade beaches fringed with coral.

Growing up in North Queensland, barefoot and brown, it never occurred to my siblings and me that things could have been different. We felt lucky to have the pristine forests and reefs to explore. And that was it.

I have since learned that the preservation of these environments has little to do with luck and everything to do with the passion, persistence and hard work of a few. John Bússt, along with Judith Wright and Len Webb, deserve much of the credit for saving North Queensland rainforest and reef. Of these three, the latter two university educated activists have tended to get most of the credit. Award-winning historian. Iain McCalman, admitted that he too, initially, thought Bússt, ‘the cheeky Bingil Bay Bastard seemed a less serious figure.’ McCalman’s book, John Bússt. Bohemian artist and saviour of reef and rainforest, is his effort to redress that error.

The biography tells the story of how Bússt abandoned formal education and privileged family in Victoria and became an artist and activist in North Queensland. Like all such transitions, it was not strictly linear and included false starts and curious asides.

Whatever the wayward path to ‘saviour of reef and rainforest’, it began definitively enough. McCalman writes: ‘In the summer of 1929-30, John Bússt, aged twenty, and his sister, Phyllis Victoria May Bússt, aged twenty-eight, suddenly, and without consulting their parents, abandoned their Melbourne University degrees.’

What followed were several years of bohemian life, in and around Melbourne. The Bússts took up painting and, for a time, fell under the spell of Colin Colahan, a rebellious but successful artist. The association led them to join with Justin (Jorgey) Jorgensen to help build Montsalvat, an artists’ village in Eltham, in the hills outside Melbourne. The experience helped to make Bússt a tough, resourceful and resilient man. He learned how to grow food crops, tend farm animals and build in stone and timber. These skills he would put to good use when living a beachcomber lifestyle on Bedarra Island and later at Bingil Bay in North Queensland.

It was a visitor to Montsalvat who inspired the Bússt’s move northward. An invitation from Noel Wood, a flamboyant and talented painter of the tropics, was hard for John Bússt to ignore. It wasn’t long after the visit, that Bússt, now the beneficiary of an inheritance, joined Wood on Bedarra Island. He lived on the island for some years. In 1957, now married to Alison Shaw Fitchett, Bússt moved with his wife to the mainland, buying a substantial rainforest block at Bingil Bay.

During his time in the north, Bússt developed a deep appreciation of the place. He recognised the uniqueness of the rainforest, the coastal islands and reef. He also developed a deep affinity for the Djiru, the First Peoples, who were initially rounded up at Mission Beach and later transported to Palm Island. He recognised that these First Peoples had managed to live in the environment, protecting it: rather than living precariously upon it as settler populations tended to do. He tried to emulate their example. By 1965, Bússt had become a knowledgeable citizen-scientist and enthusiastic environmentalist and so began his battles against those who would exploit or destroy the forest and reef he loved.

During the next six years, Bússt fought to save the forests and reef. He helped to stop or minimise exploitation of and damage to the environment. He used intellect and persuasion and recruited the support of new and old friends, including Harold Holt. He fought many, including an army who wanted to test defoliants in the forest, graziers who wanted to mine a reef for fertiliser and AMPOL who wanted to drill for oil.

John Bússt is remembered and celebrated by many North Queensland artists and environmentalists. McCalman writes that, at the beginning of his research for this book, he was introduced to something amongst the granite rocks below where John Bússt built his mainland house. He writes: “Attached to one of these was a metal plaque weathered by sun, wind, rain and sea-spray. A fine grey-green patina of algae blended with adjacent bushes and mosses, making it easy to miss. I knew the plaque’s contents because of its mention in Judith Wright’s classic book, The Coral Battleground. Even so, her heartfelt words viewed in these wild surrounds moved me once again.

IN MEMORY OF JOHN H BÚSST DIED 5-4-1971. ARTIST AND LOVER OF BEAUTY WHO FOUGHT THAT MAN AND NATURE MIGHT SURVIVE.

This book is a lovely tribute to John Bússt and to all those who have fought to save what is left of the natural world.