Philip Hewett explains why our most famous shade dweller was well ahead of his time.

“Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong; under the shade of a Coolibah tree,” wrote ‘Banjo’ Patterson in 1895. A puddle of cool water and the shade of a gum tree in a parched land. A hundred years later you’d think shade would still appeal but it seems not. Australia has the world’s highest skin cancer rate with $294 million spent on skin cancers in 2001 and over 1,500 deaths in 2003 alone. We’d be better off in the shade of trees than in the sun yet all that planners, developers and politicians give us are treeless environs. Our oldest urban trees need replacing, and drought, diseases and pests are emerging threats as climate change alters nature’s dynamic balance.