'Once when I was doing fieldwork on French Island, the ranger pointed out to me that around 1995 he noticed a striking change taking place in some of the island forests and woodlands. The dense heathy understorey had begun to die away and ‘fall over’, leaving a more open understorey dominated by grasses or bracken. However, in other woodlands this was not happening. This led me to realise that French Island was experiencing a remarkable ecological development that needed to be investigated.'