Steve Hopper

But I felt after five or six years there, I really needed to better understand Aboriginal material.

In the end, it was a hard decision, but also both our fathers had passed away while we were over in Kew and

grandkids were appearing.

So all of those, the pull of country, the pull of family was very strong.

Oh, there are indeed.

Joseph Hooker actually came, he was on the Ross expedition to Antarctica and he spent time in Tasmania.

He was particularly interested in eucalypts, in frost and cold tolerant eucalypts that might do well in Europe and in the UK.

So there's about 20 species that grow there, several eucalypt species from the snow country in the southeast and Tasmania that thrive in Europe.

Spot on.

We had a circuit that was about a mile, mile and a half, that we would walk each day and got into a routine on that.

And walking through the Eucalypt Arboretum was part of that joyful experience.

It was quite something.

I was with another male colleague from Whadjuk country from Perth, Noel Nanup.

He was the first Aboriginal national park ranger in Western Australia and has been preeminent in leading a number of initiatives to

try and instil respect for Aboriginal culture across the state and beyond.

And he and I had travelled together.

He was the first Noongar to take me on a song line journey through southwestern Australia.

And when I did anthropology in the 1970s, the professor of the day said, if you want to understand Aboriginal culture, forget southern Australia.

It's all gone.

You know, you have to go to the centre or to the tropical north.