Book – ‘Defiance, Stories from Nature and its Defenders’

Author: Dr. Bob BrownPublisher: Black Inc BooksPublished: 1 Oct. 2025Reviewer: Brian Morgan

I doubt that there would be more than a handful of people who have not heard of Bob Brown, perhaps, the best known Greens political identity that Australia has known.

As an ex-Tasmanian, I have a personal story to tell, to commence this review.

I was about to open the door to a bakery in a country town in Tasmania, some years back, when the door opened and there was Bob, with a genuine grin on his face, holding the door for me to enter.  We chatted for about five minutes. He spoke to me by name. So far as I can recall, this was the one and only time we ever met which is not to say our paths had not crossed previously.

This chance meeting immediately came to mind as I read this book, the first time. The temptation is to think it is only a book about a well known campaigner and politician. I think it is far more than that. So, my review will have a different focus to many others.

The conservation movement has achieved many goals in Tasmania, some of which are generally applauded and others, denigrated.    There is still debate about the flooding of Lake Pedder and the attempts to create the Gordon below Franklin power scheme as two examples. There is the ongoing furore as to logging of native forests, the trees which are harvested then being exported overseas.

My own personal and ongoing concern, which is mentioned by Bob in some detail, is the harm being done to the Swift Parrot, the numbers of which are decreasing apparently rapidly due to the loss of their habitat.

It is no wonder that the title of this publication is Defiance because it sums up the attitude of the Greens who, by way of one example, had been ordered not to trespass where massive old trees were to be harvested, were charged and bailed, yet continued with their protests and simply did not give in. One example of Bob’s sums it all up. He and another Green went into an area where they had seen Swift Parrots. The terms of the permission to log required that logging cease if Swift Parrots were seen. This rule was ignored. Bob and his companion were fined for trespass. The loggers who broke the law suffered no penalty.

I hear the beat of massive respect for First Nations People, in almost every chapter. Bob sets out some interesting history but the impression I gained was that he had and has a deep respect for First Nations culture.

Bob has been and remains at the forefront of challenges to activities to have them abandoned. He has not avoided arrest and has been imprisoned but, despite all this,  has not been discouraged from his attempts to have proposed non-conservation activities abandoned and  so has been a light and leader for his followers .

This book gives the reader a very realistic perspective on Bob and the Greens movement, particularly, in Tasmania but the latter part of the book identifies some of his actions on the mainland of Australia, in particular, his fight with Murujuga in West Australia where Woodside Petroleum sought to continue processing gas until  2070. And who could forget his convoy into Queensland to try to stop Adani?

Allow me to digress and comment on a chapter which I found rivetting, the subject of which concerns the World’s four most senior leaders (Putin, Modi, Xi Jinping and, in particular, Trump).

This chapter readily fits into the narrative of the rest of the book by providing a comparison between democracy and autocracy where the little person is ignored, imprisoned or worse. Bob compares the four leaders in a very intellectual and enlightening manner.

As you read this book, you are likely to agree with some of the actions taken in the name of conservation and shake your head at others, where you may disagree strongly with the efforts to stop a particular activity or you may agree wholeheartedly with those efforts. This is the one of the conundrums we experience in a democracy, don’t you think? Those who want something versus those who don’t.

My take on the Greens is that they are an important conscience for the rest of the population as their public comments make me, at least, reassess my attitude to a proposed activity. I have frequently had strong views on either side of the coin, namely, supporting their views or disagreeing with them but, unlike Bob, I have not felt sufficiently incensed to march, protest or be arrested. Nonetheless, I have often voiced my views, in relative privacy. Bob has been quite up front in expressing and explaining his points of view.

This publication casts a strong light on Bob and what drives him at an age (80) when most people are slowing down. From his early days as a GP, to meeting up with people such as  Dr. Norm Sanders (said to be on Mt. Wellington where  Bob was carrying out a protest), to his rafting activities on the Franklin River in the South West  of Tasmania where he and his colleagues mounted a very successful campaign,  to his continuing actions to prevent the logging of native timbers in Tasmania, Bob is now a well deserved legend in Tasmania.

That is not to say that he has not been active elsewhere. I have chosen to limit this review to some of his protests in Tasmania but Bob reveals in some detail other conservation activities on the mainland. And don’t forget that he was a Tasmanian senator in Canberra for 16 years and, prior to then, had been in the Tasmanian lower house for 10 years.

Finally I would like to reveal another anecdote of my dealings with Greens members. Some years ago, I was Counsel in a Royal Commission in Hobart where all people entering the Federal Court building, no matter who they were, had to have their bags checked and security screening carried out. As we returned from lunch, there was a long line of Green supporters and their leader (not Bob) who were in front of me. He quietly asked them all to step back to allow me to go to the front of the line even though I was representing people who were not seen as friends of the Greens.

Bob’s influence is very obvious in instances such as this.  I have never heard him speak other than respectfully, even about people with whom he was in disagreement. One might say he has always played the ball, not the man (or woman).

You will enjoy this book immensely.   Bob is a great writer who draws countless graphic word pictures. I have been to many of the Tasmanian locations to which he refers and his words remind me of the grandeur about which he speaks.