Ross Lockyer, now in his late 70s, spent his working life living and working in the forestry and logging industry in remote locations of South-East Asia and the Pacific, including Papua New Guinea, Irian Jaya/West Papua, Borneo, Sumatra, Burma, Thailand, The Philippines, Kiribati and others.

With a gung-ho approach to life, Ross threw himself into his work and immersed himself in the local cultures and communities wherever he went, learning the languages and customs that helped him fit in and do his job. He had many hair-raising adventures and close scrapes, and he encountered many amazing people wherever he went – which he has documented into five books.

Set in the early 1960s, Ross’s first book, An Accidental Bushman, tells about some of the incorrigible larrikins, precarious predicaments and hair-raising exploits that shaped his training and early career as a Forest Ranger in New Zealand. This month he retells some of his early experience from the book at Gwavas Forest - situated over sixty kilometres from Waipawa in Hawkes Bay, covering much of the Wakarara Range and bordering the Ruahines. He was transferred there from Te Wera Forest in North Taranaki, where he had been stationed for the first six months out of his Ranger School induction course. There he was met with different terrain, different soils and different planting systems, along with a deer or two. 

For the full story, get your copy of the April 2023 edition of NZ Logger magazine, on sale from 3 April. Check the link on this page to subscribe to either a printed or digital copy (or both).