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A song to start with. Albany to Perth via Lake Towerrinning, Darkan, Williams At the end of the last instalment, we were visiting an inland lake ecosystem degraded by our culture’s activities both at the lake and in its catchment. We noted that the destruction we can clearly see from a biocentric perspective is mostly …
I’m an Australian biologist, conservationist, educator, writer and “doomer” who would like to take decent people on a journey. If you’re a “doomer” you will already understand and none of what I’m going to say will especially surprise you. You will already have seen all this in your own part of the world and you …
There are two stories here: The tribulations of off-grid smallholders attending a metropolitan concert for the first time in aeons, and the actual concert review. You can skip straight to the latter subheading if you’re mostly interested in the concert. Well – it took me a while to finally catch live a band whose music …
Continue reading “Rare Concert: The Church, Fremantle, June 11, 2023”
May 25, 2023 NUYTS WILDERNESS WALK/THOMPSON COVE Finally, exactly two months after my birthday, we had the time, headspace and energy to do the Nuyts Wilderness Walk that was my birthday hike choice for this year. We had done a gorgeous reconnaissance hike in preparation for it a couple of months back, and it was …
Continue reading “South Coast Wilderness Walks 2023 Volume 5”
This letter to you all has become somewhat longer than intended, so I have inserted topical music clips to listen to if you’d like a break or for related contemplations anytime. You will need your favourite beverage and a comfortable place to read.
In the 12 years since moving off-grid to protect remnant woodland/heathland and run a smallholding, I have listened to countless podcasts on all sorts of subjects. One long-standing regular programme is about people born into a fundamentalist religion growing up, encountering different world views, and having faith crises – where everything they ever believed is necessarily up for grabs.
Typically it is a very painful process, involving feelings of betrayal and an erosion of trust in a person’s community and in the wisdom of their elders and experts. While many find it a relief to let go of their religion’s unfair ideas and bigotry, a critical re-evaluation of an inherited belief in endless life, eternal love and eventual justice is far more difficult…
May 18, 2023 MEHNIUP NATURE RESERVE HIKE From late February to mid-May I have been incredibly occupied with a long overdue farm fencing repair and upgrade. Finally, there is a proper wire carrying a consistent voltage on outriggers along the entire road boundary, and proper wire in what used to be turbobraid-only internal fencing, now …
Continue reading “South Coast Wilderness Walks 2023 Volume 4”
Letter written on behalf of GetUp to various government ministers regarding fracking in the Betaloo. The middle bullet-point section is the standard material suggested by GetUp, the rest is my own. Please write and add your voices. As usual, they will mostly ignore and “know better” – but they don’t deserve to do that without …
April 13, 2023 AQUATIC WALKING NEAR PEACEFUL BAY Today’s outing was meant to be a reward for a week’s hard toil, still on the fence repair/upgrade job that’s occupied much of my outdoors time these past six weeks, since there are over 2km of fence to attend and I’d never wire fenced before I started …
Continue reading “South Coast Wilderness Walks 2023 Volume 3”
April 6, 2023 WOOLBALES LOOP If you’re perfectly sane, what do you do on your day off after three days of farm fencing repairs and various other general chores? Why of course, you go on a 19km hike. And you don’t let yourself know you’re going to do that distance, because your journey is open-ended, …
Continue reading “South Coast Wilderness Walks 2023 Volume 2”
Do you ever wake up on a day off without having a clue that you’re about to have an unforgettable day in an ancient ecosystem?
There are sadly so few areas left in the world like this. We are such a terribly destructive culture. 250 years ago Australia was still unmarred by European civilisation and its large-scale annihilation of native ecosystems and cultures. Many people don’t think it’s even a problem. It’s not helped by the fact that Australia, like the US, has a highly urbanised population. Most Westerners essentially grow up in captivity and have little exposure to or understanding of natural ecosystems. I met kids in socially disadvantaged parts of London who had never seen a tree that hadn’t been planted by humans, and who didn’t even have an interest in such things. I went on bush camp with privileged high schoolers from Sydney’s Northern Beaches who screamed when they saw insects and who immediately got out their pocket wet wipes when they got a bit of mud on their legs when we went hiking. They were ecstatic to get back to the shopping complexes that were their natural habitat. People can live and die entirely swallowed up in dystopia, so far from their roots as biological beings that they may as well live on a space station…