“Those who drink from the buttongrass water, always return.”
-Deny King
Thwaites Plateau, Eastern Arthurs, Olympus Em-1, 2016.
Dear Melting Billy Readers,
My humble apologies for my absence and the lack of posts for the last two weeks. Since I started sending out the weekly posts about five years ago, I really haven’t missed that many. It is a weekly commitment which I take seriously, so you all know you can wake up on a Sunday and find the Melting Billy post there in your inbox at six am.
When I go on trips I usually schedule my posts in advance to make sure the posts still go out. This time I did go on a trip but life just got a little bit too busy in the lead-up for me to write two extra posts. Hence the interrupted service. But now I have returned, the schedule will resume as per usual.
A famous tree. Olympus Em-1, 2017
Dan Haley, Quartzite cliff in mist, Olympus Em-1, 2016.
One of my favourite places in the world is the South-West of Tasmania, and it was here that I was fortunate enough to visit over the last three weeks. Please note that the photos in this post I have taken years ago; my film from my trip I have just sent off to get developed; with some luck I will have some photos ready for you starting from next week.
The South-West seems to me to be a land of its own. On some of the first maps, the large blank spot was simply marked as ‘Transylvania’. It is a place that is unforgiving and also infinitely generous. It is a place that is not to be taken lightly, yet it gets under your skin and draws you back once you have been there, time and time again. It is a vast and open landscape, with countless mountains, buttongrass plains, and ancient forests sheltering along its waterways.
The details of our packrafting trip I will save for future posts; enough to say it was a difficult but highly rewarding trip, which took me across the South-West from one end to the other and allowed me to visit a whole array of places I have never been to before.
That is all I have for you for now, but more will come.
I hope you are all keeping well.
Yours Truly,
Andy Szöllősi
22/11/2025, Brushy Creek
Pandani Grove, NE Ridge, Mt Anne. Olympus Em-1, 2016.