THE life of a politician leaves little time to get out and see the country you love.
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For Bob Brown who had a 26-year state and federal political career and was the leader of the Greens for 12 of that, experiencing more than a few weeks outside of an office or in a continual whirlwind of meetings and engagements, was few and far between.
But on his political retirement in 2012, it was one of his and partner Paul Thomas' key aims, and last year the couple hit the road for three months visiting mainly properties now under the care of Bush Heritage Australia but also camping in relatively isolated, idyllic surroundings.
The result is Green Nomads - Across Australia's Wild Heritage.
A photographic record of their 19,000 kilometre round trip from his former Oura Oura (pronounced like the squawk of a cockatoo) property near the Liffey River, then onto Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and to the Queensland/Northern Territory.
Bush Heritage Australia was started by Dr Brown and friends in 1990 when he bought two bush blocks for $250,000 near Oura Oura to prevent them being logged but due to the nature of his job "I certainly hadn't seen 90 per cent" of the areas now under the group's protection.
As the founder, Dr Brown remains an active board member of the group that manages over one million hectares of properties regarded as being of high conservation value and helps others, like indigenous groups, at almost another million hectares.
While he states he is only an amateur photographer, Dr Brown said he can recall his mother had a Box Brownie in the 1940s and he got his first Kodak camera as a child and has been taking pictures ever since.
Describing himself as an amateur photographer, Dr Brown said the composition of an image was half the battle for him and that he was very much keen to try and capture what he saw in the moment.
"It's about showing people what you've seen," he said.
One of his reasonings for publishing the book was that it gave people an insight into an Australia they may never be able to experience, either because they could not travel to such isolated locations or they may be physically incapacitated.
It is also an insight into the properties and the conservation work being undertaken.
Dr Brown said of particular interest to him and Mr Thomas, was to visit two former cattle stations, Cravens Peak and Ethabuka, that make up about 500 hectares on the Queensland/Northern Territory border.
"Management is a big task: besides fire control and the maintenance of fences and roads, the feral camels, pigs, cattle and goats have to be kept at bay to ensure a safe future for the rare desert vegetation, as well as 220 species of wildlife including the fascinating mulgara, a 30-centimetre-long carnivore related to the spotted quolls that live around our home back in Tasmania," he wrote.
"The camels invading these Bush Heritage properties are coming north and east through the desert from the feral population in central Australia, which is estimated to be more than two million and growing.
"Cravens Park and Ethabuka and the rest of the Simpson Desert have more species of reptiles than any other desert on Earth."
One of Brown's favourite spots, and one which he said they came across by accident, was the upper, "bronze-green" Burdekin River where he admired ancient paperbark trees and described it as "the most beautiful camping surprise of our three months away" but it may not be like that too far into the future.
"These giant paperbarks need help. There are no seedlings because of the cattle. Fencing and regeneration is required or before long this will be just another bare, eroding riverside landscape," he wrote.
While this trip was focused mainly on South Australia and the east coast, Dr Brown said he and Mr Thomas were making plans to visit Bush Heritage sites in the west in 2017. Dr Brown will be signing copies of Green Nomads at Petrarch's Bookshop, Launceston on Wednesday, November 4, at 11am.