Congratulations to Iain McCalman on the publication of John Büsst: Bohemian Artist and Saviour of Reef and Rainforest (NewSouth). Known to his enemies as ‘The Bingil Bay Bastard’, John Büsst, a Bendigo-born Melbourne bohemian artist, moved to tropical Bedarra Island in North Queensland and underwent an extraordinary transformation to become one of Australia’s most successful conservationists. In the 1960s and early 70s Büsst led campaigns to protect two of Australia’s most important and endangered environments — saving lowland rainforests from destruction and the Great Barrier Reef from reckless resource mining for oil, gas, cement and fertiliser. A plan Büsst likened to ‘bulldozing the Taj Mahal to make road gravel’. Mark McKenna calls this an ‘eye-opening’ and ‘inspiring’ story. Congratulations, Iain!