y separately published work icon The Blue Plateau : A Landscape Memoir single work   prose  
Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 The Blue Plateau : A Landscape Memoir
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The Blue Plateau is a lyrical exploration of a classic Australian landscape - the Blue Mountains - and its people, and the story of one man's journey to find home.

'The book's evocative narrative follows the author's attempt to settle in this difficult terrain, yet The Blue Plateau is a book of many stories. Through the fascinating characters the author meets, he traces the history of the Blue Mountains over decades, and beautifully describes the incredible connection between the people and the land.

Written in a time of drought, The Blue Plateau captures the essence of an iconic Australian place and its inhabitants, and reconnects us with this amazing land we live in.' (Publisher's blurb)

Notes

  • Dedication: For Maree and for Roland
  • Epigraph:

    I am what is around me ...

    These are merely instances.

    - Wallace Stevens, 'Theory'

    'No one likes erosion anymore ... now that all the scenery is made.'

    - James Galvin, Fencing the Sky

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

To Sing, to Say : A Lyric Ethics for Coming into Country Mark Tredinnick , 2023 single work essay
— Appears in: Griffith Review , no. 80 2023; (p. 172-181)

'I AM A poet and an essayist, a teacher of writing and a father of five children, who visit like rare birds these days, and I live with my partner and two spaniels and a cat along the Wingecarribee River (one of its many much debated spellings) on Gundungurra land, country never ceded, 125 kilometres south-west of what is now mostly called Sydney, which sits on the stolen ground of the Gadigal. I am, as far as I know, a non-­Indigenous Australian man, a fifth-­generation descendant of Cornish and German immigrants. They settled land that was not theirs to settle, though that’s not what they were told; I live on land to which nothing but love gives me any kind of title, and I own none of it. Who can afford to own it anyway these days, even if one felt one had the right?' (Introduction) 

Place Management for Nonrepresentationalists : Using Landscape Theory to Rethink Creativity, Economy and Place Eduardo de la Fuente , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Axon : Creative Explorations , December vol. 9 no. 2 2019;
'There is growing recognition in the social sciences that place and its qualities should be thought of as ‘an actor in cultural work’ (Luckman). However, getting mainstream academic thought, urban renewal consultants or cultural planners to take the qualities of place seriously has proven more difficult. This article outlines an emerging view within landscape theory that rather than seeing landscape as some inert or fixed object, sees it as a dynamic process or mode of ‘dwelling’ (Tim Ingold). Drawing on the case of the Blue Mountains region in NSW, the second part of the article attempts to flesh out what the nonrepresentational sensibility might mean for rethinking creativity, economy and place; and why such a perspective might be all the more important, in the case of landscapes where there is a history of relying on tourism and the ‘visual gaze’.' (Publication abstract)
Encounters with Amnesia: Confronting the Ghosts of Australian Landscape Inga Simpson , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Griffith Review , January no. 63 2019; (p. 272-281)

'Nature writing has never been more popular. In recent years it has become an international publishing phenomenon, with titles such as Helen Macdonald's 'H is for Hawk' (Jonathan Cape, 2014), Robert Macfarlane's 'Landmarks' (Hamish Hamilton, 2015), Amy Liptrot's 'The Outrun' (Canongate, 2016) and Sy Montgomery's 'How to be a Good Creature' (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018) scoring significant worldwide success. Australia, too, has its own rich history of nature writing. For more than a century, nature writing was 'the' primary literature for writing the country; a vital part of the ongoing process, for settler-Australians, of coming to feel at home in what were initially unfamiliar environments, and of creating a sense of national identity around them. Yet, today, nature writing is not widely known or understood here, and it's apparent that more Australians have read 'H is for Hawk' (18,000 copies sold so far according to Bookscan) than any of our own contemporary works.' (Publication abstract)

 

Belonging in the Mountains : Mark Tredinnick's The Blue Plateau Jessica Ballantine , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: New Scholar , vol. 3 no. 1 2014;
Jessica Ballantine's article explores the theme of belonging in Mark Tredinnick's The Blue Plateau.
Literary Christmas Presents : Tony Birch on The Blue Plateau Bethanie Blanchard , 2013 single work interview
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 18 December 2013;
Untitled Lee McGowan , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , March vol. 88 no. 6 2009; (p. 36)

— Review of The Blue Plateau : A Landscape Memoir Mark Tredinnick , 2009 single work prose
Natural Way with Words Liam Davison , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 6-7 June 2009; (p. 17)

— Review of The Blue Plateau : A Landscape Memoir Mark Tredinnick , 2009 single work prose
Off the Shelf Rod Moran , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 16 June 2009; (p. 6-7)

— Review of The Blue Plateau : A Landscape Memoir Mark Tredinnick , 2009 single work prose
Just the Place for Poetic Prose Claire Scobie , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 4-5 July 2009; (p. 31)

— Review of The Blue Plateau : A Landscape Memoir Mark Tredinnick , 2009 single work prose
True Blue Labour of Love Diane Stubbings , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 25 July 2009; (p. 15)

— Review of The Blue Plateau : A Landscape Memoir Mark Tredinnick , 2009 single work prose
Birth of a Literary Landscape Steve Dow , 2009 single work biography
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 12 July 2009; (p. 10-11)
Profile : Mark Tredinnick 2010 single work column
— Appears in: Writing Queensland , November no. 202 2010; (p. 4)
Mark Tredinnick Interviewed by Sandra Hogan Sandra Hogan (interviewer), 2011 single work interview
— Appears in: Perilous Adventures , vol. 11 no. 3 2011;
‘Singing Up’ the Silences : Australian Nature Writing as Disruption and Invocation Noelene J. Kelly , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Journal of Ecocriticism and Cultural Ecology , Summer vol. 1 no. 2011;
'There is a strong, though not uncontested view, that a tradition of 'place' or 'nature' writing has, until relatively recently, been largely absent in Australia. This essay examines the veracity of this claim, and suggests reasons for this alleged gap or 'silence' in our literature. It also considers the distinctive characteristics of Australian place writing as it has emerged over more recent decades and the ways in which this writing disrupts early representations of the continent as 'empty', particularly of Indigenous presence, but also of sound, of speech, of agency. This essay also suggests the potential for Australian nature writing to function contrapuntally, as both a form of response to this lively and expressive land, and as a means by which this same land may be invoked or 'sung' into the communicative space.' (Author's abstract)
Literary Christmas Presents : Tony Birch on The Blue Plateau Bethanie Blanchard , 2013 single work interview
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 18 December 2013;
Last amended 11 Oct 2010 12:13:44
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