A Hostile Beauty

There are few places today that are truly wild.

Macquarie Island is still one such place a small, wind-blasted rocky outcrop between Tasmania and Antarctica. In exquisite pictures and words, A Hostile Beauty tells the story of this extraordinary Australian outpost teeming with life.

Alistair Dermer's stunning photography gives us an up-close look at the lives of the inhabitants: gentle gentoo penguins, engorged elephant-seal bulls and scavenging skuas, and takes us deep into a landscape that is as beautiful and life-giving as it is hostile and pitiless. Let these superb images, from the fury of the squalling Southern Ocean to the warm, trusting eyes of a seal pup, transport you to one of the most remote and spectacular places on Earth.

About the Authors

Alistair Dermer spent six months on Macquarie Island over the summer of 2001-02, working as a research assistant and living in a small cabin on the east coast, each day capturing the rugged beauty of the island with his two analogue cameras. He works in natural-resource management and is devoted to our natural heritage. He has worked with the Australian Antarctic Division, Conservation Volunteers Australia, Greencorp and most recently with Bush Heritage Australia.

Danielle Woodlectures in writing at the University of Tasmania and is author of the award-winning fiction books The Alphabet of Light and Dark and Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales for Girls. She visited Macquarie Island in 1998 while working as a media officer for the Parks and Wildlife Service and the island's beauty and wildness have been an ongoing inspiration for her writing.