How the tales of Tasmania are being told by an architect turned poet

"You're always writing about your work," Hurburgh said.

"If I'm trying to design for you, I need to be able to describe it, often in writing. I'm making a proposal for what this building will look like; well, then I need to be able to tell you what it will look like.

"So, really I've been training to be a writer without knowing it."

And his new collection of short stories based on Tasmania seems to suggest the training has paid off.

The life-long, award-winning architect turned poet turned short fiction writer released his latest book, Tall Poplars, at the end of November - a string of stories revolving around his passions: his home state, design and history.

Taking on everything from the murky past of early Van Diemen's Land through to today's picturesque Apple Isle, Hurburgh's book travels the extraordinary stoicism, heroism and entrepreneurship of Tasmania and its counteracts of violence and shocking betrayal.

Tall Poplars follows Hurburgh's first book of poems, Disruptions: Tasmania in Poetry, and is a play on words of the Australia phrase tall poppy syndrome.

The seven story collection provides fresh and sometimes controversial insights into the history of Tasmania that the writer has both unearthed and expanded on with his imagination.

"I looked for the stories of real life people from real places like the Derwent Valley and I wanted to expand on them," Hurburgh said.

"These were often interesting stories that weren't told, like a particular tale about the wife of a famous architect who was really important in his life and got little credit for her input.

"The story revolves around their relationship but also her prowess in architecture that was often credited to her husband.

Tall Poplars is filled with real-life quotations from newspapers interspersed among Hurburgh's writing which serves to heighten the historical fiction's realism.

And each story within the book is supported with original photography from Tasmanian photographers Matt Sansom, Chris Shurman and Adam Gibson.

"We were extremely fortunate to have them contribute and enrich my stories, which are concerned with the natural Tasmania, too," Hurburgh said.

The "tales" - as Hurburgh calls them - in Tall Poplars are concerned deeply with the people below history, those who aren't given their due in most historical accounts but whose stories are just as riveting.

"These were real, known people and I want to pay honour to them," he said.