BOOKS

The Ancients

Discovering the world's oldest surviving trees in wild Tasmania

Andrew Darby

RRP: £16.99

5 March 2026

Published by Allen & Unwin

ISBN: 9781761069239

Deep in Tasmania’s remote valleys and mountains grow trees whose direct ancestors lived with dinosaurs. Many are thousands of years old, some over ten millennia. Prize-winning nature writer Andrew Darby takes us on an island odyssey to discover these ancient survivors: the mysterious King’s Lomatia, perhaps the oldest single tree alive; the primeval King Billy, Pencil and Huon pines with their stories of human admiration and destruction; and the majestic giant eucalypts. He shares tales of the scientists and nature-lovers who identified these ancients and now work to protect them from climate change and fire, offering hope for their future.