It’s three weeks after Christmas and rain is falling softly at the Sumac Blockade, a small circus of tarpaulin pitched on a logging road in the Tarkine wilderness. Located in the north-west of lutruwita/Tasmania, about three hours’ drive from Launceston, the blockade was established in September 2018 to halt deforestation by Forestry Tasmania for the international timber company, Ta Ann. The Tarkine’s first name is takayna; many areas within it are heritage-listed as Western Tasmanian Aboriginal Cultural Landscapes. The rainforest is vulnerable, immense, elusive. We sit in a circle around the fire, eating bin-dived mince pies while giant trees sway above us. My abused copy of Into the Woods by Anna Krien is open in my lap. Krien’s work of narrative journalism tells the story of Tasmania’s decades-long forest battles, a testament to the wildness of the state’s politics and ecology.

I’m finding it almost impossible to read as the smoke seethes in my direction. I cough into the filthy collar of my jacket, and fantasise about taking a dip in the creek. I notice a fellow walking towards us from his parked red Land Rover. He’s wearing rumpled shorts, his stocky calves sticking out from dusty climbing boots. His hair is the colour of buttermilk. I recognise him: it’s Ed, who does odd jobs and maintenance at my apartment block.