Greer's campaign to save the bush comes at a huge personal cost TRAIL-BLAZING feminist Germaine Greer had been running short of money as she struggles to keeping funding her mission to restore 65ha of rainforest in Queensland, but that work has been boosted by a deal to sell her extensive archive to the University of Melbourne for more than $900,000. Not that the sale should be taken as a sign the renowned firebrand is bowing out. The ink was barely dry on the deal signed at the university yesterday when Professor Greer sought to ridicule Tony Abbott, seeking to paint him as a throwback to pre-feminist times. The attack came as she recalled the "contempt" shown to her book on the repression of women, The Female Eunuch, when it was published in 1970. The issue of family planning, the issue of reproductive choice, all of these issues that have now changed fundamentally. So that now when Tony Abbott speaks about abortion he thinks he is talking about people having a scrape 40 years ago. He hasn't even heard of the morning-after pill yet. He really thinks you can count the number of times it has been issued. Well you can't because it isn't a public matter. That is how different everything is," she said. She said the archive, of 180 drawers of letters, manuscripts, appointment diaries and recordings, had to be sold to be properly housed or burned as she downsized and her rainforest project ate into her finances. She said proceeds would go to the Friends of Gondwana Rainforest charity she established to support the project. I have given so much money to the charity that I haven't got any clothes, I don't have any medical insurance, I don't have holidays. I had to start being a bit more sensible because the chance was that we'd all crash and burn, the charity and me," she said at the signing. The deal is a coup for Melbourne which has committed to raising the $3 million to buy the archive and set it up at the university. Most of the cost will go towards transporting and cataloguing it. Melbourne is seeking donations to finance the deal and has raised more than $900,000 in a drive led by former Qantas chairwoman Margaret Jackson. Neither Professor Greer nor the university would say how much of the $3m would go to Professor Greer, but The Australian understands the initial $900,000 doesn't fully cover the acquisition cost.