As John Woinarski, of Charles Darwin Universityhas stated: "The most formative book for me was H.H. Finlayson's 1935 classic The Red Centre... Finlayson was the last to collect and record many of these mammal species: he witnessed this loss. But in his many scientific papers, and in The Red Centre, he also foretold it, explained it and mourned it...Musing in The Red Centre on the losses: ...The old Australia is passing...
The environment which moulded the most remarkable fauna in the world is beset on all sides by influences which are reducing it to a medley of semi-artificial environments, in which the original plan is lost and the final outcome of which no man may predict.From more than 80 years ago, these words still haunt; and they still describe the ongoing loss of Australian nature - due to what we have done to this country...It is a classic of Australian writing on the environment, an exquisite and poignant account of a now-lost nature, an enduring blueprint for understanding our country. I owe a lot to it.
