Heartlands Conversation
Vivid Conversations on Life’s Journeys
HEARTLANDS is a cultural stream of the Blue Mountains Music Festival developed in association with writer, radio producer and oral historian, Gregg Borschmann. It’s a meeting ground for people and ideas, for reflection and inspiration.
With John Wamsley & David Lindemayer
Saturday 15 March, 11:30-12:30pm, The Shed
Saturday: The Price of Caring
John Wamsley and David Lindenmayer have ruffled a lot of feathers in their time. For their efforts, they’ve been revered and reviled yet Australia owes both men a great debt. The species and landscapes that we manage to save in 50 or 100 years’ time will owe much to their efforts over a lifetime.
They’re an unlikely pair of courageous visionaries. John Wamsley trained as a mathematician before perfecting the feral-free sanctuary model that has since bought time and hope for many of Australia’s most threatened mammals. David Lindenmayer has become one of Australia’s leading experts on wildlife conservation and biodiversity after being taught how to truly listen to the language of birds by his father, a rocket scientist.
So how do they imagine Australia’s best conservation options for the future?
PROFESSOR DAVID LINDENMAYER
With long-term studies in Australia’s native forests, David Lindenmayer has upended our understanding of Australia’s forest ecosystems. His work reveals what he calls an ‘ugly truth’ – that native forests have been degraded, dried out and made more fire prone by industrial logging, subsidised by the taxpayer. Lindenmayer has been defamed, abused and sued for his science. But now he’s fighting back.
JOHN WAMSLEY, OAM
John Wamsley became known as ‘The Cat Man’ after famously wearing the pelt of a feral cat as a hat to the 1991 South Australian Tourism Awards. Wamsley wanted to make a statement, and he did, but he eventually paid a huge price for being ahead of his time with his conservation vision, losing everything apart from his wife, Proo. He rebuilt his life by finding solace in the bush. Using his mathematician’s brain, he’s now calculated that Australia’s biodiversity will reach a catastrophic ‘tipping point’ by 2050 – and has some suggestions for how we can avert that crunch.
Sunday: Faith & Joy
With Ruthie Foster
Sunday 16 March, 11:30-12:30pm, The Shed
From a family of gospel singers, it’s not surprising that Ruthie Foster has faith. American roots music informed her musical childhood but she once sang in a U.S. services band, Pride – playing pop and funk hits - after joining the Navy. Even so, she’s never compromised, or taken the easy road. She refused to sign a record deal with Atlantic records who wanted to make her a pop star. She gave up music for three years to be with family and help care for her ailing mother. Affirming her status as an American legend, after five nominations this year she won the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
She once revealed the formula for her song writing and storytelling: “I’m real people, I want to sing about real people situations.” So if hard times hit, what song will Donald Trump inspire?
ABOUT GREGG BORSCHMANN
Gregg has spent decades travelling in and writing from all corners of remote Australia. Since the 1990s, he’s worked as an oral historian for the National Library of Australia. In 2020, he left his position as a senior producer on ABC Radio National Breakfast to pursue writing books. His current project on the koala will be published by Simon & Schuster. Together with Penny, he’s grown up a family and lived in the upper Blue Mountains for the past 30 years.