Tall Poplars

Tim Hurburgh’s Tall Poplars: Tales of Tasmania’s fabled River Derwent Valley provides a fascinating fresh take from the murkier days of Van Diemen’s Land through to today’s picturesque Apple Isle.

Stories of extraordinary stoicism, heroism and entrepreneurship but, painfully also, violence and shocking betrayal. It is a Technicolor vision with images by Matt Sansom, of Tasmania and its Van Diemen’s umbra seen through the eyes of an author who lives there.

As lifelong architect published poet and from a sailing family who arrived in Hobart in 1826, Tim’s perspectives told with heart and humour expose the fissures and folds of the Island’s exotic terrain. His words are replete with love, mild admonitions and episodic astonishment, sharing delight, shame and dumbfoundedness at his island home and the motley crew that rub shoulders around it.

About the Author

Tim grew up on the Derwent River north of Hobart, across the water from the estate that all Tasmanians know today as internationally celebrated private art museum MONA. Following a period in the United States studying architecture on a Harvard University scholarship, Tim returned to Australia. After years of successfully running two of Australia’s foremost architectural practices in Melbourne, his passion for writing evolved. Inspired by the lush undulating farmlands on which he now resides and evoking remarkable personal episodes for Tim in our unique island state, his books provide vigorous life spectres of present-day Tasmania and its shrouded past.

Over recent years, Tim has been informally mentored by renowned Tasmanian poet and writer Janet Upcher and well-known Melbourne writer and editor Jack Taylor. Both have inspired him to develop his writing and poetry voice. His first book was Disruptions: Tasmania in Poetry. This collection of short stories is his second.