About me

Why the kookaburra?

Every dawn and dusk where I live is announced by a rousing kookaburra chorus. Perching in branches high above my house, their raucous laughter begins and ends the day. Over time I have come to know the pairs of kookaburras that live around my house and also to realise that there is a deeper significance to their presence in my life than just the sharing of space.
Kookaburra is the messenger of the bush.

I try to put into practice through my writing the lessons that kookaburra brings: observe patiently, focus carefully, be swift and decisive in execution. Kookaburra also tells us not to take things too seriously. It’s important to approach life with a sense of humour and to laugh out loud from time to time.

I have travelled a lot over the past twenty years or so, and I have been to places where I’ve thought I could live quite happily. In the end, though, it is the raucous call of the kookaburra as dawn breaks and darkness falls that I miss most when I’m away, and it is that which will always call me home.

About Robin

 ​Robin Tennant Wood is a writer, journalist and editor living and working on Yuin country. She has a PhD in Political Science and International Relations and has published widely on issues of society, environment and culture.

She is the author of Following the Sun: the pioneering days of solar energy research and is the current editor of Braidwood’s Changing Times newspaper.

Follow Robin's blog Rubrica, on matters of environment, arts, food and feminism - and whatever else she happens to be thinking about at any given moment.