As I sit on a small boulder at Snow Gum Corner a cool
easterly cools me and wafts traffic noise up from Kingsford Smith Drive. Some
of the other boulders and rocks have been turned over as sacrificial reptiles
were sought for amusement and personal gain. Cockatoos have pruned a Wattle
whilst sharpening their beaks and seeking seeds from the copious pods.
Flowers from a little group of Clustered everlasting
daisies manage to shine bright yellow even though the sky is overcast. They,
and the groups of native Sorghum I found a bit later amongst rank weedy
grasses, are inspiring reminders of Mt Rogers’ pockets of grassy woodland that
have escaped being swamped by Canberra’s settlement and expansion.
Ecologically the Snow Gums, Eucalyptus pauciflora, shouldn’t be here but parent trees were
planted when Mt Rogers was revegetated after Flynn, Fraser, Spence and Melba
were built in the early seventies. The species belongs further south, the
nearest natural group being south of Aranda Bushland and near the Glenloch
Interchange.
At the nearby seat there are a few bottles and pieces
of rubbish left by the care-less. Litter and the rock-turning are evidence of
Mt Rogers visitors with different agendas to the hundreds who enjoy “the hill”
for its own sake each week. (By 29th the rubbish had been removed:
more evidence that the reserve’s carers quietly collect others’ mess as their contribution
to a purer nature).
My intention, after our family gathering yesterday,
was to pull out St Johns Wort (SJW) today and return to collect and bag the
drying plants later. I realised the patch I headed for had been sprayed by
Steve D as the plants looked browned-off, with the stamens of any remaining
yellow flowers shrivelled to a blob in each flower’s centre. I GPS’ed the site
and another which I didn’t know about. Its plants are now pulled as an interim
measure and awaiting collection.
Steve is an accomplished wildlife artist, and regular
classes prevent him from attending monthly Sunday working-bees where we make a
difference against other environmental weeds as the seasons dictate. On Mondays
Steve’s usually at work. That he is prepared to undertake Chemcert and weed
identification training and chase up supplies of the required chemicals, shows
Steve’s a dedicated land-carer in the very best local and Australia-wide
tradition.
Ginninderra Catchment Group (GCG) has organised and
funded official spraying of blackberries, honeysuckle and SJW which boosts Mt
Rogers Landcare Group’s mission; to continue what we began….loving,
appreciating, caring for and enhancing the special place Mt Rogers is for its
other species and for us. Steve quietly and effectively donates time and
spraying expertise which complements the regular working bees and GCG’s
program.
As we are so closely in tune with nature and aware of
the seasons’ and time’s changes here we know that others show similar
stewardship and love for reserves throughout the ACT. Canberrans are not alone;
landcarers of all origins respect the land they have farmed for generations.
Indigenous people survived by reading Australia’s unique landscapes, by knowing
the land supported them and by taking only what they needed from each place in
order to survive. The ancient but surviving tradition of being sustained by the
land and respectfully managing species offers a direct link to our
relationships to Mt Rogers as individuals and groups care for the land and draw
strength from the place itself when we need to withdraw from life’s stresses
and be surrounded by the natural world.
You don’t need to have read The Future Eaters, Affluenza, On Borrowed Time, High and Dry, If You Love
This Planet, Silencing Dissent, Treading Lightly, The Biggest Estate on Earth,
Big Oil, Oil and Honey or to have
seen First Footprints to know that since
September 2013 the increasingly illogical systems which order our lives are
placing pressures on land, oceans, country, ecosystems, climate, the
environment and people with an income of less than $100,000 per year (‘the rest
of us’) as never before.
Those who know instinctively or from their experience,
study and training how to care for land, habitats, species and humans are being
ignored and scorned by the powerful. ‘The rest of us’ have felt the effects of
climate change and know its consequences include an uncertain future. We are
seeing human rights, and any rights other species may have had, eroded. Places
we love are threatened by irreversible change.
Yet…..Millions of organisations and numerous individuals
around the world know we are part of and witnessing Paul Hawken’s Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social
Movement in History is Restoring Grace, Justice and Beauty to the World. We
are witnessing the playing-out of the saying, attributed to Gandhi, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at
you, then they fight you and then you win.” Countless people are being
bullied, exploited and displaced by corporations who see their traditional
lands as resource-rich profit
opportunities. Countless people are becoming activists when they’ve never been
so before. They each are making a stand because to do less is not an option.
Lives are at stake as never before.
Mostly these activities are at local levels and are
ignored by media moguls’ corporations. Increasingly local activism is powered
by Internet connection and supported by millions through globally-circulated
petitions which attract signatures from ‘the rest of us’ for local issues. We
know what is going on, on an unprecedented scale. Acting locally connects to global
situations.
‘The rest of us’
fight with people-power, often passing on strong messages through stories
backed-up by reliable facts. Corporations, which choose not to see the effects
of fossil fuels on the planet, fight with lobbying, money and spin to protect
their profits.
Landcarers, such as Steve and our Landcare group,
quietly getting on with battles against weeds and providing species data from
their special places, are the Mt Rogers versions of people-power. They’re now
being increasingly recognised and appreciated locally and beyond. Farmers who’ve
battled weather-variability and insulting produce-prices for decades in order
to provide food & milk for millions have often been forgotten. Farmers and
market gardeners who nurture soils and keep artificial chemicals out of their
production processes have been laughed at for emphasising quality rather than
quantity but are now heroes and heroines to thousands who seek natural,
nutritious food. Groups of everyday people whose lives and land are threatened
by coal seam gas exploration and the expansion of coal mining are fighting for
their health, survival and rights, in Australia and the world over.
Mt Rogers folk have created a strong community which
is bound together through caring and sharing daily conversations with
observations of the natural world as catalysts for interaction.
I think the next year will show that similar ‘conferences’
are agents of change and forces for action everywhere. We are not alone in knowing that the natural world is
too beautiful, too mysterious, amazing and essential for ‘the rest of us’ to
allow undemocratically powerful corporations to cause change and destruction.
On New Year’s Day I was amazed and delighted to find a
keen bushwalker who had travelled from the southern part of Canberra to cut, daub and remove
environmental weeds from the Hall approaches to the Centennial Trail. Quietly
and fully-equipped, this unknown landcarer made a difference for native
species. “I couldn’t bear seeing the weediness again” was his explanation. Volunteers,
daily, feel and receive more dividends than corporate shareholders.
Pat reports enjoying flights of Superb Parrots on and
from Mt Rogers, and there are numerous other reports of fledglings in
“automatic-begging-mode” as our gardens provide insect and seed-food via parents’
foraging. The Frogmouths have roosted in Schwarz Place trees on several
occasions to the delight of their hosts. These are some of the dividends we
receive from being naturalists and landcarers who take the time to see, stop,
muse and wonder.
Rosemary, Mt Rogers Landcare Group 6258 4724.
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