writer and photographer DAVID NEILSON
My early bushwalking and climbing adventures in south-west Tasmania played an important role in my growing desire to photograph wild places and especially mountains in distant corners of the planet. Patagonia, Antarctica, Greenland, Karakoram and the Alps of New Zealand and Europe are some of the places I subsequently visited.
In February 1968 I went on my first climbing trip into Tasmania’s south-west. With three friends, we were hoping to make the first ascent of Blade Ridge, the spectacular knife-like ridge that abuts the north-west face of Federation Peak.
After walking in over the Picton Range, we climbed up onto the Eastern Arthurs and camped at Béchervaise Plateau high on the north-eastern side of Federation Peak. After a week of bad weather, we headed down to the valley of the Northern Lakes, found the foot of the Blade and started the climb. The steepness of the rock was immediately noticeable and this, together with the small stances, made the climbing demanding. The rock was quartzite and its firm sharp nature a joy to move on.
Late in the day, we were close to the first of three horizontal steps on the ridge and decided to traverse into a gully on the side of the Blade and bivouac for the night. In the morning we started negotiating the horizontal steps.
Traversing this knife-like ridge was remarkable. The valley floor was now way below us and because we were still out from the main face, it felt incredibly airy, as though we were attached to terra firma by a slender thread. Eventually we arrived at the foot of the north-west face, and from here we were following in the footsteps of a group of Victorian climbers who had climbed it in 1961.
Late in the afternoon we reached the summit. We were excited to have completed the climb. At more than 600 metres, it is one of the longest rock climbs in Australia. It is undoubtably the most rewarding route to the summit of Federation and we had been fortunate to make the first ascent of the lower half.
We hoped to do more climbing but after a week of bad weather it was time to leave and we walked out from the Eastern Arthur Range via Lake Pedder, the beautiful mountain lake then under threat of flooding by a hydro-electric scheme.
Arriving at the lake after dark, we walked along the broad sandy beach with the moon casting its spectral light over the scene. During the night the mist came down. In the early morning sun, the lake and its surroundings were clothed in a diffuse cloud that lent a soft colour to everything. Gradually the mist lifted, the still waters reflecting the surrounding peaks. The colours became stronger: the rich, dark red of the water, the pink and white of the quartzite sands and the vivid greens of the trees and vegetation. It was a beautiful scene and we wanted to stay longer but we were short of time and left for the walk out over the Sentinels to the Gordon Road.
This brief visit to Lake Pedder had an important impact on the future direction I would take with my life. It was the catalyst for my decision to leave my civil engineering career and become a photographer, conservationist and eventually small publisher.
A year or so after our climbing trip, it became clear that the Tasmanian Government's hydro-electric scheme was going to flood the lake unless the spirited community campaign then underway could stop it. I helped a little with this campaign but decided that I would try and get a book of photographs published that would show how beautiful Lake Pedder and its surroundings were. In my naïveté, I assumed that if only the decision-makers could see how beautiful this region was, they would legislate to preserve it rather than destroy one of its crown jewels.
In the summer of 1972, I made several photographic trips to various areas of the south-west, including to the south coast, the Southern Ranges, the Eastern and Western Arthurs and Lake Pedder. I then returned to Melbourne and started work on the book. It gradually came together and by the beginning of 1973 it was ready to show to publishers. The title was South West Tasmania: A Land of the Wild. Eventually Rigby Ltd, based in Adelaide, accepted the work for publication. The publication date got pushed back to 1975 and unfortunately by then Lake Pedder was well and truly flooded. I was pleased to have my book published but disappointed that it would not play a role in helping to save the lake.
After my Tasmanian adventures, more distant wild places beckoned, especially Patagonia in southern South America and the Antarctic. From 1974 to 1978 I made three journeys to Patagonia. My final trip involved joining a Scottish mountaineering expedition, sailing by yacht from Edinburgh to the Strait of Magellan, climbing in Tierra del Fuego and then making a crossing of the Southern Patagonian ice-cap. Patagonia: Images of a Wild Land was published in 1999.
From 1990 to 2009 I made six journeys to Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic. I received two Antarctic Arts Fellowships from the Australian Government which enabled me to spend two summers photographing based at Mawson Station. From 2002 to 2008 my partner Karen Alexander and I organised three expeditions chartering a yacht and sailing from Ushuaia in southern Argentina to the Antarctic Peninsula and to the island of South Georgia in the south Atlantic. Southern Light: Images from Antarctica was published in 2012.
In 2007 we visited the Karakoram range in north-east Pakistan which contains some of the most dramatic mountains on the planet including K2, the second highest peak in the world. Starting from the village of Askole we trekked up the Baltoro and Godwin-Austen glaciers to the K2 base camp. Photos of the Karakoram mountains are a feature of my most recent book Chasing the Mountain Light: A life Photographing Wild Places which is a retrospective collection of my best black & white landscape and wildlife images.
David Neilson is a Melbourne-based photographer and is the author of five books: South West Tasmania, Wilsons Promontory, Patagonia, Southern Light and Chasing the Mountain Light. He has received two Antarctic Arts Fellowships from the Australian Antarctic Division and in 2021 was one of four Antarctic Arts Fellows to be featured on a set of Australia Post stamps.