Matthew Higgins ‘Ainslie to Kossie: Window on a wonder wander.’

Matthew, a professional historian, will give an illustrated presentation on the natural values found between Canberra and Mt Kosciuszko.

He has been working in Canberra as a professional historian for 30 years.  He has worked with the Australian War Memorial, the Australian Heritage Commission, and the National Museum of Australia where he was a senior curator.  He has completed many freelance projects (including oral history interviews for the National Library of Australia), and has contributed articles to the Canberra Times for more than 30 years and is the author of a number of books, the most recent of which is Rugged beyond imagination: stories from an Australian mountain region (NMA Press 2009) which was shortlisted for the ACT Book of the Year Award 2010.  Matthew's work on the ACT Border in 1996 was recognised with an ACT Heritage Award.  Among his short films are several nature documentaries, one of which won a national audience-vote best film award in the CSIRO Scinema Film Festival.  Matthew is passionate about the Australian high country and he bushwalks and cross-country skis as often as opportunity allows.

His illustrated presentation focuses mainly on the natural values of the straight-line route between Canberra and Mt Kosciuszko, looking at animals, birds, plants, geology, water, snow, fire, climate and some underlying human stories of our high country.  Cultural aspects of some species' stories will be discussed, and a little bushcraft thrown in.  As well as celebrating biodiversity along the route, the talk will look at several key issues including feral species, local extinctions and climate change threats.