Cloud Land

A sweeping account of Australia's wet tropical rainforest country, from deep time to the legendary time of Australia's first peoples; from the killing times and maniacal destruction of the forests by European settlers, to the present time of growing awareness of forests as the life-force of the planet.

Wreathed in morning mist, the rainforest is a place where evolution and legend rule. Here the thunderbird once roamed, now kangaroos climb trees and towering trees strip water from clouds.

On their property on the Atherton Tablelands, Penny van Oosterzee and her husband are regenerating rainforest from paddocks, reconnecting fragments into a living corridor that will run to the Daintree and beyond. She weaves this personal experience into a sweeping account of Australia's rainforests, from their swampy birth millions of years ago to the present.

Creation stories and science bleed together for rainforest people who remember through legend the volcanic creation of the…