The Living Forest – 1973.

During the late 1960s, recreation and conservation on State forest was receiving greater community focus.  A key moment for the Forests Commission came in August 1970, then under the new chairmanship of Dr Frank Moulds, with the creation of the Forest Environment Branch.

This initiative was a first for any Australian Forest Service, and its brief soon widened. By 1971, it became the Forest Environment and Recreation (FEAR) Branch, firstly under the stewardship of Athol Hodgson and later Stuart Calder.

In January 1971, Tom Morrison became one of the founding members of FEAR which was based at Treasury Place in Melbourne.

They say, “apples don’t fall far from the tree” and there seems little doubt that Tom was strongly influenced by his father, Philip Crosbie Morrison, the legendary naturalist, educator, journalist, broadcaster and conservationist.

In 1973 a colour film entitled “The Living Forest” was released. The Forests Commission sponsored the film and Tom provided technical direction with support from other FEAR Branch staff including Kester Baines, Paul Sholly and Kris Lysenko.

The film was produced by the talented Ken Widdowson from Educational Media Australia, while David Morgan from the Melbourne College of Education provided advice, and professional cinemaphotographer, David Cork, was engaged to make the short educational film.

The 22-minute film portrays, beautifully for its time, Victoria’s forests and woodlands including its flora, fauna, water, soils, recreation and tourism use, fire management and economic values, including the timber industry. 

The film also briefly examines the Forests Commission’s “multiple use” philosophy and explored the importance of balancing the environmental and economic demands that community’s make on State forests.

Some of the footage for The Living Forest was taken in April 1973 at East Warburton where forester, Gregor Wallace, was posted. The artful film making was near Mt Donna Buang on a roadside in the head of Myrtle Creek, looking down to Yarra Junction and Millgrove. It turned into a family affair with Gregor’s wife Norma, their daughter Kerryn, and even their personal Holden car appearing in the film.

At one point, the script required rain dripping from leaves, but it was a sunny and warm day, so Gregor and Kester used a knapsack full of water as a prop to create the desired effect. A reminder maybe not to believe everything you see in a film, not even in a government documentary.

Gregor also reminisces –

On another day the FEAR Branch needed a sequence with a family arriving in their car at a survey point in the forest and being greeted by a forester; no speaking parts required with the narrator of the film doing all of the persuasion stuff. A convenient spot was found on the Woods Point Road at Starvation Creek.  I was the smart young forester and was filmed welcoming Tom Morrison, driving my car, with my wife in the passenger front seat, and my daughter looking out of a rear window.  Well did I ask just what was going on !!!!!

These few seconds in the film, near the end, took half a day to make and provided a good bit of amusement. I think that this was Tom’s only appearance in the film.

A closing piece in the film is of a group, well a small crowd really, of young folk at O’Brien’s Crossing on the Lerderderg River, downstream from Blackwood. I understand that Tom organised a picnic day and a small bus load of Head Office staff and their families as the film “extras”.

This film was the last in the noble tradition of public education that gave us ‘Calling VL3AA’, ‘Harvest of the Hills’, and all of those others that were taken on the road and shown in country halls and schools.

The film was innovative for its time and proved popular with a very strong demand for showings from schools and other groups.

These photos were taken in April and May 1973 and are from the amazing archives of Gregor Wallace.

The Living Forest – 1973.