The lively sub-field of Australian forest history is replete with policy, heritage, technological, silvicultural and ecological themes.
Cultural themes are less common and works in the oral history genre rare.
The oral histories presented in The People s Forest are not only a welcome addition to the literature but part of an ambitious extension of the genre further into the multi-media world. Borschmann collected 88 interviews with botanists, bushwalkers, environmentalists, farmers, foresters, loggers and many others for the National Library of Australia s oral history programme. Like oral histories generally, they were collected from older people. The oldest was born in 1899, the youngest in 1958 and most in the 1920s and 1930s. From the interviews, he prepared both this book and an attractive touring exhibition that is on its way round regional centres and folk festivals during 1999 and 2000.