Invasion Day ( Australia Day)

A Welcome fire ceremony

I inadvertantly found a good way to celebrate Australia Day. I had planned to go on an Indigenous "Walk through the landscape" the day before and after taking part in the event discovered that that was the best way to celebrate being born to this ancient continent. I took Aurora down to a place called Pt Nepean, which is the Northern arm of the entrance to port Phillip Bay.


Beach at Pt Nepean, looking towards the Heads.

The site has an interesting layered history. The Boonerwurung people have been here for a very long time. Even though the land is now coastal the Boonerwurung were originally known as river people. The Yarra (a river that flows into Port Phillip Bay) used to travel all the way to the site which is now the entrance to the bay. There the river flowed down a 90 meter drop, keeping the area around it in a perpetual mist. The marine mapping is revealing how the geomorphology of the region reflects the oral stories of the descendants of the people here today. The area where the waterfall was is now known as the Rip and is a very treacherous stretch of water. It is now the narrow entrance to a huge embayment, with massive quanities of water squeezing in and out with the movement of the tides.


Echidna who we passed by on our walk.

A military camp was first established near here in 1803 and denotes the first landing of the English to these shores. This first group found it very hard to subsist and eventually took off to join the colony in Tasmania. One man stayed behind and ended up living with the Wathaurong people on the other side of the bay for 30 odd years before the great land grab began in earnest, with the arrival of Batman and Fawkner. William Buckley was his name and I will post about him another day!


Magpie, also a local.

Many moons later a quarantine station was established at Point Nepean, followed by a Military training camp, which was decommissioned in 1997. All this has meant that an amazing site has been left fairly much to its own devices (well, except for all the unexploded ordinances, introduced pests etc, etc). But it is now being handed back to state control and being turned into a National Park. Indigenous custodianship of this transition is in place and there is hope to be able to set up an Indigenous Cultural centre there.


Walking group looking at a midden (a campsite used by the Boonerwurung people many moons ago)

The walk was great. After learning many things about the traditional uses of the plants that we were seeing and some of the implements, we ended up on a beautiful beach. Here we were given a traditional welcome ceremony by Carolyn Briggs, a Boonerwurung Elder. Each participant was given a gum leaf passport as a sign we were free to be in the area and welcomed by the Indigenous people present and their ancestors were acknowledged.


Aurora, checking out a cave on the beach , holding a digging stick.

So, what better way to celebrate our national holiday, that by one camp is called Australia Day and by another Invasion Day!?

looking up...

Here's a pic of my daughter and an older friend at the first of the Two Bays pier visits. We have just completed a 10 day project, conducting water quality studies all the way round both Western Port and Port Phillip Bays on Pelican1. We visited seven piers to talk about water quality and share information about the project. We also had two days taking volunteers out to monitor the health of seagrass and had on board the boat, a broad range of people all connected by a mutual desire to look after the bays. I had thought that I would be hopping on and off the boat but I managed to stay for most of the project as my daughter was able to stick on with me the entire time. It was certainly a very different kind of holiday for her, a real working holiday!

Two Bays launch

I used to pride myself that I could take an occasional photo worth looking at but today, at my own launch of a project, I managed to wreck every single shot. But as the skipper said, "At least everything else went well."

I have been working, with the Pelican crew, on a project that takes in the two main bays in Southern Victoria, Port Phillip and Western Port Bays. We have got together about 5 government agencies who are now working with us on the boat, to create a water quality survey of the Bays. The project will also be interacting with the community through a series of pier visits and we are running two community science events. Anyway, it is all about all working together and trying to convey environmental stuff in a fun way.

I will get on board tomorrow for a short stint around Western Port Bay.
We are also having fun with the Weedy Sea Dragon, who came to the launch and is pictured above in a photo semi-saved from oblivion. Watch out for some nerdy science over the next few posts!

wilddogvalley view

Looking towards the Wilddog valley.

mirror world

Somewhere between the old year and the new year, I try to get in a final post for the passing year.

I have been so caught up in the day to day affairs of getting projects up and running a family that a lovely line of thought or even an interesting picture, which enables me to commune diaristically in cyberspace, has been noticably absent.

Australia is in the grip of a 10 year drought, affecting some regions more than others. Suddenly climate change and water are high on the political agenda.

From mid December, 2007, the state of Victoria was on fire, with nearly a million hectares burnt. Fire behaviour was extreme and frenzied, furies created by the complete lack of moisture in the soil. The only reason the fire fighters, volunteers, parks personel and other concerned agencies had Christmas with their families was because the prayed for rain fell like an enormous Christmas present. The fires are still burning and even though in Melbourne, we experienced the coldest Christmas day on record, will be an everpresent threat this long Summer ahead.

People in the city were made aware of the fires due to the smoke reaching the streets and bringing burnt forest smells and haze to mingle with the urban fumes.
It is sometimes hard to remain hopeful.

My project work keeps me working passionately for change and seeking creative means to help myself and others face the challenge that seems to me to be the most pressing question of our particular period of history. The environment and its degradation, to the point of catastrophic climate change has to be one of the biggest threats around that I can see. Besides nuclear war , bird flu, and serious posts like this one that is!!
Crikey, it's enough to send me back to the old canvas board. Forget the whole thing and make paintings!!
Who knows, 2007 might bring some welcome time for that.

Happy New Year to All!!

The light goes on...

As our federal and state leaders (bar the example you can see if you follow the link in the title) start to react vocally to the threat of global warming, we get snow in November in Queensland!!

Some one is laughing somewhere...

It seems to me extraordinary that I could be involved with Government employees on a project only early this year, in which we were specifically told that none of the scientists could mention global warming. We could, because we are the dingbat public, but not the official scientists! And now, even the great leader, John Howard is talking about it. He is even in Vietnam talking about that which was not allowed to be named yesterday. The damned hypocrisy is made worse by the fact that everyone just seems to sleepily go along with the titanic change of course.

It all started when Al Gore came to town... Mind you Mr Howard, who only saw it the other day, said that it sounded a bit like the mutterings of a peeved politician. Ooohh, that got him!
Al Gore replied to the dagger in the back with a very diplomatic well at least he is starting to listen, let's see how he acts.

Hope Vale

Plateau shadowing Daarba lands.

I reckon it is about posting time again. Aurora and I have just got back and trying to get used to life without a campfire.
I've got a link to a Melbourne newspaper that has run a story about the project that I am involved in so if you are interested you can follow the Hope Vale link with the title. My experiences up North are a little hard to transcribe tonight but I will attempt some stories over the next little while. So I will put up a picture of Daarba Aboriginal lands that I had the privilege of staying in. And another picture of a gaggle of Pelicans who represent our gang coming together for the first time up in Cape York. And finally a picture of Aurora getting to know some of the Dingaal mob at Cape Flattery.


Link to Hope Vale blog on Pelican Expeditions.