For more than sixty years a small group of dedicated people have been fighting to defend Australia's unique wildlife. Those conservationists battle indifference and hostility from government and developers, whose actions are responsible for the decimation of spectacular natural beauty. Although much has been lost, the conservation movement has won great victories and secured the preservation of some of the world's most pristine, and ecologically important landscapes.

Patriots is the powerful and provocative account of this nation-defining struggle. William J. Lines charts the emergence of a national movement whose campaigners and members are forging a new Australian identity enmeshed in nature and committed to its survival.