Meet the Authors - Chris Binks

Chris has lived in Tasmania since 1948. He attended Launceston Church Grammar School and he later moved to Hobart to study at the University of Tasmania and become a teacher. Chris studied part time while he was teaching at the Hutchins School in Hobart and he graduated with from University with Honours in 1958. Chris later moved to teach at Devonport Hight School. He then  moved to The Don College in Devonport where he taught for 24 years. At The Don College he  helped form a bushwalking club, taking students to see the remote parts of the Island. Chris has spent a considerable time walking and climbing amongst Tasmania's mountains, valleys and coastal regions.

Chris Bink's main pastime has been the study of Tasmania's history, especially its physical environment. This led him to write three books. Explorers of Western Tasmania (1980 and 1989) details the processes and participants in the exploration of the mountainous west of Tasmania from 1820 to 1880. Pioneers of Tasmania's West Coast (1988) is a broad study of the way of life of the prospectors, travellers, miners and settlers of the remote mining districts. Finally, Hills of the West Wind (2007) examines the interaction of people with the Tasmanian landscape from Aboriginal times to the present. Chris maintains that although the people of Tasmania have stewardship over the Island, there is at the same time a national and international emotional, spiritual and physical investment in the land.

Chris now lives in Devonport with his wife Mary. He maintains his abiding love of Tasmania's beautiful and fragile landscape.