wilddogroad

One Fish, Two Fish... Biodiversity and training

2012-02-06T23:48:00.001+11:00

Paddy Hernon- Marine Intern for Parks Vic with a Mosaic Leather Jacket a Mosaic Leatherjacket.

Parks Victoria ran professional development day with ranger staff, scientists and volunteers on the fourth day of Two Bays 2012. Many of the rangers were from regional Victoria, so it was a chance to connect across the organisation, meet others and share the different needs of the regions. At the same time, staff were involved in habitat mapping, image collection and biodiversity surveys of both Pt Nepean and Pope's Eye Marine Parks.

Parks staff from the coastal regions in Victoria are spread over a great distance and can sometimes find it hard to be heard. It was a way to give staff both a learning opportuntiy and the possibility to share across many levels of management and across the regions in an informal and fun way.

On the MESA (Marine Education Society of Australasia) site there is a good map and an outline of the five Victorian bioregions that determined the placement of the marine parks 10 years ago.

Sometimes at the beginning of the day I wonder how we get all the equipment on and off the boat...

Setting up the day- discussions on the trampoline and briefing for diving

in the Pelican1 saloon.

Getting tanked up.

We had Sea Search ID cards to take underwater...

Seen on the day... in Pt Nepean

Depth of 5m- scattered low rocky reef- mixed algae and sea grass cover [sea grass predominately -Amphibolus antarcticus] encrusting pink coralline algae

Fish [common names]

blue throat wrasse [ male and female]

scaly fin [male and female]

leatherjackets - yellow striped , horseshoe , mosaic

zebra fish

moonlighters

herringcale [ male]

bluedevil

Port Jackson shark

Invertebrates

red throat ascidian

sand sponge

abolone

Moonlighter fish

Habitat mapping

See the full gallery on Posterous

Exploring Pt Nepean Marine Park. Divers found under a rock ledge - 40 resting Port Jackson sharks.

Pope's Eye

Looking at the fortification that has now turned into a very productive marine habitat and base for a large Gannet colony. This was our second dive site for the day.

Photo: Mark Rodrigue

The ever curious Australian Fur Seal

Cowfish - photo- Mark Rodrigue

An Old Wife

The beautiful underwater landscapes that make you want to stay under water for a long time to take them in.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Strands of Giant Kelp (Macrocystis angustifolia) used to abound around Pope's Eye but is now reduced to a few handfuls of tall strands. This species was abundant along the coastline of Tasmania but has declined to perhaps 5% of the original size. The research about how much faster the Southern Ocean is responding to climate change may be part of the reason.

Sponge fingers

Puffer fish

Jonno, dive master of the day, very happy that all ran smoothly and safely.

Chinaman's Hat in Port Phillip

As the Pelican crew chatted in the following evening, Garry McKechnie realised that Pelican1 had just clocked 50,000 NM, partly due to the fact that we detoured around Chinamans Hat after diving at both Pt Nepean and Pope's Eye. We toasted the Pelican as we celebrated our many coastal project miles in Australasian waters!

Connecting to Sea Country - Wurundjeri Day

2012-01-29T17:55:00.001+11:00

A sharp, warm and breeezy day awaited our Wurundjeri guests for a sail into the Northern parts of Port Phillip Bay. The day was sponsored by Indigenous Partnerships from Parks Victoria.

David Mullins, riding the stern.

On board we had members from three Wurundjeri families and all were welcomed by Uncle Paddy Wandin.

See the full gallery on Posterous

All the young people on board got involved with learning the ropes and helping us get the boat down the Yarra and out into the Bay. The Wurundjeri creation story is about the formation of the Yarra River and how it flowed down to create the Bay. Unlike the Boonwurrung story which has the rising sea levels creating Nairn.

Brodie was very enthusiastic to be on a big boat and was often asking questions of the crew about Pelican1 and sailing.

Black swan flying near the where the Birrarung (Yarra River) meets the Nairm (Port Phillip Bay). The Wurundjeri

Many of the kids had not snorkelled before, so they were given a lesson first about how to use the equipment and swim safely.

And then they all jumped in!

Golfball sponges

Pelican1 anchored on the edges of the Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary, but the reef was a little deep to see much. But that did not seem to matter to the kids who were all thrilled to master their snorkelling skills.

See the full gallery on Posterous

They also found a butterfly floating in the Nairn and she was brought back on board, travelling home with us to Docklands at the end of the day. Alice Ewing (a previous Two Bays participant) identified it as the Imperial Jezebel, Delias harpalyce

See the full gallery on Posterous

All the kids mucked in with Anna (Pelican cook) and helped her make a Banana cake, which we ate on the way home.

Pelican1 sharing the river with slightly larger vessels!

Last time the Wurundjeri came out with the Two Bays project, Bob (who was on board) caught an Australian Salmon. It was not for lack of trying but this time the fish were not biting!

Aunty Winnie and Aunty Vicky with myself, Natalie, Aurora and Sharon.

Aunty Vicky.

The day was a great opportunity to get out and connect with Sea Country.

Multicultural Sea Country Day- boat journeys

2012-01-26T23:43:00.001+11:00

Aunty Pam Pederson (Yorta Yorta Elder) has been on board Pelican1 many times and she jumped on again to welcome recent arrivals to Australia, who were sailing out to learn about the local Port Phillip Bay marine environment.

All together we had people from 17 different countries on the boat.

The day has become an annual part of the Two Bays project in partnership with Parks Victoria and organisations such as the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre and New Hope. Some of the participants had already taken part in the Park Vic Bilingual Tour Guides program and Amy Mallett, Community Engagement from Parks was on board to encourage others to link in with Parks Victoria and learn about the local natural environment.

Amy Mallet introducing the day.

Everyone was asked to get to know the person beside them and then try to find something that they both have in common.

Amanda Franklin showing everyone where the sanctuary sits on the Port Phillip Bay map.

We travelled around to Jawbone Marine Sanctuary and divers from Parks got in the water to again film the underwater world to share with Parks rangers talking about what was seen above, as it was projected onto Pelican TV.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Mark Rodrigue from Parks Vic, talked the marine park system and the ecology of the bay. Most of the participants could follow what was shared and if there were language difficulties, they could just enjoy the pictures of the underwater denizens of Jawbone.

Pictured Joseph and Mazin from Iraq, who both work to help settle refiugees into life in Melbourne. They both gave me some deeper insight into contemporary events in the Middle East and in particular Syria.

We journeyed further to Point Cooke and stopped for lunch. Delicious food had been prepared by guests on board, from their home countries and culture shared through the universal language of culinary delights. Nurcihan from Turkey, brought a salad made from things in her garden and talked about how often newcomers to Australia ate many of the plants that are considered weeds here. One example she used was purslane.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Travelling pictures.

One of the younger participants shared a story of how he came to Australia. He had journeyed with his family in a boat as long as Pelican is wide from Indonesia to Christmas Island, jam- packed with 60 souls. His family came from Iran and he acted as a translator for his Mum and Dad, though his Dad's English was good. He was filled with enthusiasm for Pelican1 and everything he learnt that day on board. It seems Australia is the richer for these resilient people being here and they are certainly determined to make the most of their new homeland.

The bay is a big playground for yachts and we found ourselves in the middle of a race.

We returned to Williamstown with what felt like a boat load of friends. Everyone had enjoyed the day and learnt much about the local marine life and the passionate people that give voice to the environment. The lively group on board and the beautiful weather all added up to make this one of the magic days of the Two Bays program

Friends of friends...

2012-01-24T19:15:00.001+11:00

The first day of the Two Bays program was initially as grey as the weatherboards on Gem Pier in Williamstown. The day was planned to combine launch and acivities to celebrate the marine parks in Port Phillip Bay. Two Bays 2012 coincides with their 10th year anniversary. The day was partnered with Reef Watch and represented by Simon Branigan from the Victorian National Parks Association and all the marine care groups.

VNPA played a role in the establishment of terrestrial national parks and contributed significantly to the set up of the marine parks.

There is clear research that the greater the community engagement in marine parks, the better the conservation outcome. In the case of Victoria's marine parks, without the support of community, we would not have the established marine park system we have today.

We sailed to the Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary (Sanctuary is the term for a smaller marine park) on the Eastern side of the Bay, with Friends groups from Jawbone and Point Cooke Marine Parks and met up with people from Marine Care- Ricketts Point and other participants. The groups had invited friends along to encourage them to join and support their local marine care groups.

The day was coordinated by a Parks Vic marine intern, Amanda Franklin (pictured above)- who stepped into the role this year as Two Bays coordinator for Parks Victoria and has done a fantastic job.

It was fantastic to have the still relatively new Parks Vic CEO on board- Bill Jackson. I heard him speak a while back in his role as head of ICUN at the Healthy People Healthy Parks conference in 2010. I was impressed by him then and thrilled to hear he had taken the role of head of Parks in Melbourne. It seemed very fitting for the day that the CEO of Parks was one of the divers. The presence of marine interns this year is part of decisions made by Parks to activate more people on the ground for the marine environment.

We headed to the sanctuary, with our boatload picked up from two jettys on either side of the bay, to share the delights of the underwater denizens through divers filming and sharing images on a screen placed in the saloon of Pelican1.[[posterous-content:pid___2]]It's an interesting experience, moving slightly on a boat and watching the fluid imagery of the life happening just beneath you. The umbilical connection of the cable gave a life and immediacy to the pictures so that it did not feel like TV. Or like the very well-known Leunig cartoon of a person watching a sunset on TV, while the real sun sets out the window.

The divers under the watchful gaze of Chris Hayward from Parks Vic, who managed all the safety aspects of the day. Ray Lewis, seated nearby, is one of the key people behind the thriving Marine Care group at Ricketts. He has also just published a book called Marine Victoria for Volunteers about the marine care groups, volurteering in the bay and a huge amoount of information abot our local marine habitats. (He very kindly donated a copy for Pelican1)

A biscuit seastar brought up by the divers and returned to its home after Marg O'Toole (pictured in 2nd photo) had shared her extensive knowledge of marine creatures.

Janet Bolitho (Port Phillip councilor), pictured above, has been a huge supporter of the Two Bays project and the Pelican gang. She has MC'd every launch of Two Bays so it was fitting to have her on board for the day.

[[posterous-content:pid___1]]It is during the informal chats that happen onboard that some of the best outcomes of the Two Bays program are created.

Bill Jackson, Parks CEO, lugging his oxygen up the Black Rock jetty at the end of the day.

Mark Rodrigue, one of the key individuals within Parks Victoria who has ensured the program's continuity and driven it with an infectious passion for all things salty. Pictured here with Amanda Franklin.

Parks Victoria's ongoing support of the program over the last six years has allowed ideas and networks around it to flourish. The central platform of the program (besides doing lots of science) is the sharing knowledge (across agencies, different cultures and connecting to the general community) and encouraging collaboration. This is a fundamental for working with and understanding the complex needs of dynamic sys and often threatened marine environments.

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Map-Two Bays 2012- the abstract and the particular.

2012-01-19T14:39:00.001+11:00

TB12_Map1-3.pdf Download this file

Two Bays 2012 map.

Pictured: Indigenous Ranger at Parks Vic- Alex Korte, Rebecca Phillips- Research Officer Parks Vic, Carolyn Briggs-Boonwurrung Elder, Ian Cambell- Pelican crew and Aurora Davey- Pelican crew.

Sailing over the underwater waterfall at the Heads in Two Bays 2010.

Every year we head out with our abstract plan in search of the particular in Port Phillip and Westernport Bays. This year's program will include looking at the microscopic plankton near Werribee, seagrass, marine pests, Traditional Knowledge, marine education, community engagement in marine parks, training for Parks rangers and all the while mapping water quality. Check out the program for a more detailed overview and watch out for a hard-working cat in the bay!

Seagrass at Mud Island

Two Bays 2012 schedule- overview

2012-01-17T23:15:00.001+11:00

Schedule_for_Webpage_2012_3.pdf Download this file

Two Bays is launching into the 2012 program without our usual weedy seadragon dance. Instead we are sailing straight into some habitat mapping at Ricketts Point with the Friends of Marine Park groups and hopefully a few newly inspired marine carers.

As you all may know Weedy Sea Dragon is Victoria's marine emblem. The wonderful sea creature has become emblematic for me for the beauties and surprises of life beneath the surface. I hope to post as much as I can as we travel around both bays, experiencing all the conditions the bays can throw at us and getting plenty of people on board. I am sure I will be playing catch up as we have a big schedule and lots of ground to cover.

Weedy photo by Richard Wylie.

Two Bays 2012 Schedule

2012-01-17T21:32:00.001+11:00

Schedule_for_Webpage_2012_1.pdf Download this file

7ism and a bit

2011-11-28T23:21:00.006+11:00

Painting done near the river in Cape York where Edmund Kennedy lost his life during his ill-fated expedition to Cape York 1848. Some of his papers were recovered and the botanist (William CARRON (1821-1876) wrote an account of their journey, which can be found here.
"He is a fine fellow, he will either accomplish his object, or leave his bones in the bush!"
- Comment made of Edmund Kennedy before he left for his 1848 Cape York expedition.

A week and one day ago I made one of my increasing infrequent visits to some of the bloggers I enjoy following. I dropped in to see what Natalie d'Arbeloff may have been up to. She had just started a small movement to inspire her (and others) to begin and finish an art work in 7 days and then share the results.

On the spur of the moment I joined up. After all a manifesto needs supporters and it sounded like a good idea.

But the reality is I hardly seem to find the time to develop and run the programs I do at sea. How was I really to start and finish an art work in 7 days?

So did I do it? Well- yes and no. The water colours above are actually pieces I have worked on up in Cape York and they represent the few moments at sea that I found time to put brush top paper. But I did finish the second one and place both of them onto the wall of my semi-empty studio space in the garden. As talismans of a process that I am determined to return to.

So my art work of the past week was me, padding across my weedy lawn, stopping to rip up more of the lawn and sprinkle fertiliser on basil seeds, finish planting strawberries and lettuce and placing these two pictures up on a wall.

And looking at them.

Whalumbaal Birri - Endeavour River

2011-10-19T15:45:00.001+11:00

It seems fitting that our final day for the 2011 Hope Vale/Pelican project was held on the Endeavour River. The Guugu Yimithirr name for the river, now named by Cook (apparently the only Australian river named by Cook along the Australian coastline) is Whalumball birri - Whalumbaal meaning "you will be missed" or "you will be missing".

It was decided to have a river cruise for people in Hope Vale Aged Care. Starke is a difficult boarding point for most of our older passengers, so we returned to the river for boarding from Cooks Landing, after a few days grace to sail Pelican back to Cooktown. Our inaugural sail with the Hope Vale community was from the same wharf on the 5th Aug 2004 (the link refers to the Captain's Log-just scroll down to the date).

Ella Woibo and Maude Rosendale

Just before midnight on 10 June 1770, James Cook's boat Endeavour hit the Great Barrier Reef. The impact tore a huge hole in her side and it was only through fast, united action by her crew and the lucky bit of coral that broke off in the hole, that the ship was able to limp into the Endeavour River. She was carreened on the bank and repaired, near the contempory township of Cooktown for 48 days.

Gumba Charlotte (Burns) - Charlotte brought some of her beautiful small paintings of local animals on board. They are painted on large seeds.

It was during this time that the Guugu Yimithirr language became the first Aboriginal language that was recorded by strangers. Those words are written down in Banks journal, which you can read for free on the Project Gutenberg Australia website. Cook and Sydney Parkinson also recorded Guugu words.

Daisy Hamlot, Violet Cobus, Leslie Reid and Dorothy Rosendale

Sydney Parkinson's unfinished drawing of a Kangaru

It was also the first time that a kangaroo was sighted, named by the Guugu Yimithirr people and drawn by the visitors to this great Southern continent. The pictures can be seen at the James Cook museum, which is well worth a visit if you ever get to Cooktown. Another first was that Sydney Parkinson painted the first known landscape painting in Australia, here in Cape York.

Sisters: Anna Darken and Mavis Yoren

The time that Cook and his men spent here was one of relatively peaceful though minimal contact with the Guugu Yimithirr people, who kept their distance and kept their women at an even greater remove. Cook had advised his men not to make the first move. The Europeans tried to trade for objects like spears etc but found that the local people had relatively little interest in their objects. In fact, soon before leaving they discovered a discarded pile of the objects they did manage to trade. It was when they decided to trade fish that they exited more interest.

Daisy and Violet

Conflict did occur however, when Cook's men caught 12 turtles to help feed them over the next period at sea and did not understand the necessity of gifting at least one of their catch to the people whose country they were visiting.

Aurora and Maude making origami cranes

When Cook left the Endeavour river he sailed a bit further North and stopped at Possession Island where he hoisted the union jack and declared the coast British Territory. He lalso named Cape York after His late Royal highness, the Duke of York.

Tall mangroves lining the Endeavour River

It would be 100 years before the Guugu Yimithirr would feel the meaning of this act of dispossesion. On the 5th of August, 1872, the last of the old-fashioned Australian gold fevers struck, with the discovery of gold in the Palmer River.

Esmai Bowen and Selica

In a very short and for the Guugu Yimithirr, horrendous period, these people were totally dispossesed of their country, rights, respect and only too often, life.

Esmai and Clarence Bowen

Over the last 8 years of working with the Hope Vale community, we have been fortunate to work with and get to know many Guugu Yimithirr people. In that process we have become much more attuned to these relatively recent events in the history of Aboriginal people. It was not until I spent time in Cooktown, that I learnt of the relativley benign story of this first contact. The general respect and interst in another's culture was, tragically, not to become the story line of colonial Australia.

Tom Moore

On our journey up the river, Tom told me about his role in building the Queensland railways, describing the incredibly tough conditions that working in those times entailed. As he said there was no machinery to help you in those days, only the sheer muscle power of the men.

Returning to Cooktown

I heard from one of the project Elders the next day, that Aged Care all requested the same trip for the following weekends. They also wanted us to come back and teach more origami. We are planning to run similar cruises next year.

Madge Bowen and Grace Rosendale

Travellers on the river cruise

George Dick and Gumba Charlotte

Origami takes off

Looking at the book Cockatoo- My Life in Cape York-Stories and Art by Roy McIvor.

(Retired) Pastor George Rosendale

Sandy point on the river with Mt Saunders in the background.

Clarence pointing out features in the river

Esmai and Clarence looking at pics from the 2010 HopeVale/ Pelican project. Book created by Vanessa Gillen.

Garry and Karl helping people off the boat

Pelican Expeditions would like to thank all the Elders, Traditional Owners and community of Hope Vale who have welcomed us every year to work on their sea country. The program is a collaborative cross-cultural effort to form a creative and exiting project for everyone in Hope Vale, particularly the youth. Over the years we have had so many people involved and helping and nothing would happen without their enthusiastic support.

Farewell sun and farewell Hope Vale /Pelican project for another year. We hope to be back in 2012!

Sharing knowledge on country

2011-10-10T19:38:00.001+11:00

The planned turtle tagging expedition of the day was curtailed due to the conditions. Working on country means that the country - sea or land - dictate the tenor of every day. Today the wind was whipping up 25 to 30 knots, blowing in an East-South-East direction. Luckily we had thought of alternatives. It meant that a few of the hardy, older kids were still going to go out and tag with the turtle team from the smaller boats while everyone else was going to do a walk around the catchment to learn about the local coastline.

Turtle boats coming up to Pelican to plan the day.

As Pelican traveled further from the coastline to find shelter for the day, our group set of on a walk down the beach towards the mangroves and the Starke river.

Pelican Expeditions had organised to have seagrass scientist Christina Howley come along for the last two days of the program. We are very fortunate to have some occaisional private supporters that allow us to integrate people like Christina into the program without us filling in for onerous grants. This same supporter enabled us to bring the turtle scientists along as well. Christina also brought Jason from the South Cape york Catchment group, who also added to the day with his knowledge of water quality and his enthusiasm for teaching. A common thread of the walk was the love of sharing knowledge by all the participants and everyone's enthusiasm in learning on country.

Chris Roberts from Balkanu began by talking about all the plants we passed along the way.

The photo shows Chris talking about a succulent creeper and just prior to that he pointed out the Blind Your Eye mangrove. Esme (seen below) shared her traditional knowledge of the plant. And in fact shared traditional knowledge about most of the plants that Chris talked about. The kids listened to both stories with equal attention and interest. Esme (in photo below) pointed out the toxitity of the Blind Your Eye (or Mulpil in Guugu Yimithirr) was well known and was as good as its name. The poison is contained in the milky sap of the plant.

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Another one to avoid eating is the wonderfully named Gidee gidee or Crab's Eye.

The photos above show Dodder laurel, a twining parasitic plant and Goats foot or Beach Morning Glory. Esme told us that the leaves of the Goat's foot can be crushed up and warmed to be used as a treatment for the pain of stingray wounds and jellyfish stings.

Chris with Shaunica as we headed deeper into the mangrove tangle. I asked Shaunica about what being part of the project meant for her and she said- "It's a big opportunity for me, being out in the bush, being away from all the things that happen in Hope Vale. I think it is alright for a little teenage girl like me."

As we talked the boys fossicked and brought stuff out for us all to see.

They found some very cute baby mud crabs.

And some examples of Large Mud whelks (Family Potamidea)

Harry holding to Mud whelks.

Terebralia palustris is the only mud whelk that can eat fallen mangrove leaves directly. The icecream cone-shaped Telescopium has much finer teeth on their radulas (this is a beautifully engineered microscopic toothy tongue that it licks the mud with. Each tooth is like a tiny feathery bucket.) The third species is Terebralia sulcata, which favours drier more infrequently inundated areas. The fourth species in the family is Pyrazus ebaneus, which tends to live in front of the mangroves on sandier areas. In this way all four species can make a living without undue competion. (Thank you Chris again for your erudition)

Rodenta Burns on the walk, showing me her bracelets. Chris finished off the mangrove talk by telling us about all the different types of mangroves we encountered and their importance to both the local ecology and the health of sea country. Without healthy mangroves, you cannot expect healthy fish, turtle and dugong. This led neatly to the next part of the walk, which was water quality testing.

On the way to the estuary edge, we passed the Hickory wattle. Esme explained that the seeds were used traditionally to make flour.

Everywhere the colours and intricacies of form were singing out to be enjoyed for their own sakes.

We settled in shade near the water that we were going to test. Christina and Jason began with a talk about how important water quality is for the health of the river, the reef, fish, turtle and dugong. The rivers on the Eastern Cape are all in very good health, especially compared with those further South. The main threats to water quality come from cattle disturbing the soil (there is extensive erosion on the Normanby and other cape rivers from cattle disturbance) and also tourism creates issues by uncontrolled four wheel drive access to rivers.

Jason and Christina showed how their machines worked and what data they were gathering (oxygen levels, turbidity, salinity and Ph). Then they asked the kids to work with them to collect the data.

Christina was alarmed to see an oxygen reading of 200% in the small lagoon. At first she thought the machine was wrong but after calibrating it turned out to be a true reading. This meant that at night the lagoon would be -200%. Quite an extreme environment, though the algae we could see in the shallow water seemed to thrive in it.

On our return to the camp we saw the turtle scientists again and they took Christina out with one of the kids to gather some seagrass to talk to the kids about back at the camp. They had managed to tag a few turtles in difficult conditions.

Back at the camp some of the Elders asked Jason to test the tank water at the camp. hH could not test for bacteria but all the other signs showed that it was healthy water.

Meanwhile Christina made it back to the camp with some seagrass samples. Some of the kids refused to believe that turtles ate it. It seemed incongruous to them. But at the same time they could not think of anything else that they could eat!

Chrisina and the kids found 6 varieties of seagrass in one short excursion. We found 7 altogether from later explorations. In Cape York there are a total of 13 species. The sample above is Cymodocea serrulata. Below are a number of others including Halophila minor (Dugong food). All these samples were found to the south of the Starke river mouth. Christina told me that all the kids were very exited to find out what seagrass looked like and what was happening beneath the water that they could not see. She also spoke about the importance of monitoring healthy rivers.

In all our Pelican projects, we strive to create a broad platform for the sharing of knowledge about the marine world and catchments. It was great to hear from both the turtle researchers and the seagrass researchers, how valuable it was that they could all meet up.

And meanwhile Fangwei had perfected the art of baking a cake in a camp oven!

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The doctors had also bought along face paint and my daughter Aurora began a face painting session.

Replete with face paint, the kids somehow still had energy to play on the foreshore for the next hour until the tide was high enough for the mothership Pelican to come inshore and the Pelican crew to go back to the boat.

Return to Lizard (Dyiigurra)

2011-10-08T21:50:00.001+11:00

Lizard on Lizard Island (Gould's sand monitor ) Photo: Emma Tippet

The Guugu Yimithirr Bama, particularly the Dingaal tribe have a long and deep connection with Lizard Island. Or in Guugu Yimithirr 'Dyiigurra' which means 'stingray'. The island had been a sacred site for initiation of young males and for the harvesting of plentiful shellfish, turtles, dugong and fish. Their connections to the island were brought to a brutal halt when in the late 1800's Aboriginal men murdered the chinese servant of Mrs Watson, who lived on the island with her husband, a beche-de-mer fisherman. This event led to her and her baby's death. The story goes that after finding her servant speared, she fled the island with her baby and other badly wounded servant in a beche-de-mer tub. We have just sailed past Watson Island where the tub landed (North-west of Lizard) and as they saw no passing ships ,the unfortunate people died of thirst.

The result of this incident was a terrible massacre at Cape Flattery on the mainland, where the Hope Vale/Pelican camp has often been held. None of the attackers were killed but over a hundred Guuggu Yimithirr men , women and children were slaughtered by whites seeking revenge.

Louis Charlie- Dingaal traditional owner

The island was named Lizard after James Cook landed there and found the Sand monitors. It is now home a very upmarket resort.

The Hope Vale/Pelican project has been visiting the island nearly every year since 2005, giving both traditional owners and local Bama the opportunity to visit and sometimes camp overnight. This year we were camping for one night. An elder from Hope Vale, Trevor Bambi, told me it was his first visit. Traditional owner (Louis Charlie- brother of Johnny Charlie- who shared the Dingaal story with us last year) on board with us, had not had the chance to go there for a very long time. In the past, we have visited the Research Station on the Island but this year we did not have enough time. Also we had Chris Roberts from Balkanu handy to talk about the Island from a biologist's perspective.

Before every journey on the Pelican there is the obligatory safety talk by Garry McKechnie- Skipper. He somehow always manages a laugh when he talks about what people are meant to do if they are going to be seasick. He warns that it is unsafe to rush to the side of the boat as you are likely to be disoriented. Instead the person needs to grab a bucket, find a comfortable place and "hug the bucket". Fortunately, though a couple of people felt a bit queasy as the conditions were quite big on the crossing, no one needed to this trip.

Raising Pelican's sails.

Louis with Ignatious Burns.

Eddie Naylor- his traditional country is the Starke region where the camp was held this year. Pictured here with Sean Gillen from Balkanu.

Rodenta Burns dreamily taking in the beautiful turquoise waters of the island. The other beauty of Lizard is that you can generally swim without fear of crocodiles. The Starke river region, on the other hand, is next to impossible as there are crocodiles everywhere. Chris Roberts nearly stumbled on a big one on a walk near the camp and the older women told me there were at least 6 that they knew of near the camp.

The path to the camp site with Pelican anchored in Watson's Bay.

The camp site was shaded by these beautiful trees (Barrington calyptrata)- the blossoms carpeted the picnic tables and grounds.

After lunch on board Pelican of the mackeral caught on the journey over, everyone jumped in. We had some snorkel to give the Hope Vale kids an opportunity to glimpse beneath the crystal waters to the underwater wonderland of the reef. This photo and all the following underwater ones were taken by Michelle Quach, our environment scientist chef!

Staghorn coral- there are more than 450 species of corals that have been recorded from the waters of the GBR, eastern coastal Australia, and continental and Coral sea islands.

Octocoral. Beautiful pic of the polyps opening like flowers to catch their food. Food sources for coral include planktonic organisms and incidental detritus.

The lip of a clam shell. The bright blue circles are an algae that lives symbiotically with the clam.

Saden and Austin after their swim.

After a night onshore, packing the dinghys, ready to return to Starke.

We journeyed around the whole island as the elders had not seen the island from that perspective before.

Eddie Naylor and Louis Charlie.

Austin caught the first of quite a few fish that were taken back to feed the camp.

Eddie Naylor, Trevor Bambi and Ursula Burns.

Shaunica Lee Cheu took to Pelican's bow for most of the journey home.

Returning to Starke camp, just before the light faded. The wind quietened on our journey home and by the time we came to shore, everyone felt relaxed and happy with the journey to Dyiigurra.

Intertidal architects of life

2011-10-07T17:29:00.001+11:00

I have not mentioned, so far in this blog account, the complexities that we have faced working this part of the coast from the boat's perspective. Starke river flows out onto a shallow extensive flat which meant that we can only bring the boat near shore with the right tide heights. We were fortunate the wind direction stayed fairly constant as if it had shifted a bit too much to the East we would not be able to work at all. This did happen, just on one day, and we could fortunately shift our activities to the smaller turtle boats and do water quality studies in the river as a fall back. As it was, the wind stayed in the south-east, blowing us day and night but not too hard to make our work impossible.

[[posterous-content:pid___0]]Above is a view of the Starke River and connected waterways meandering to the sea. You can make out the shallow bay beyond. You can also see the dunes system that makes up part of the coastal geography of the region.

Hugging coast and river systems and ringing all the small islands or cays in the upper half of the intertidal zone of coastal areas worldwide are complex networks of mangroves. Mangroves are masters in dealing with the intertidal world of shifting waters, sediment and salinities. Turtle island group, which we visited again with another group from the camp, has three main species working their mangrove magic. But first the journey out.

As we were travelling Chris gave a short talk about coral (staghorn coral-pictured) and showed some living coral as we had only been looking at all the skeletal remains of coral on the shoreline. You can see in the second photo the living polyp emerging from the coral form.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Landing on the island we headed off to explore the edges and familiarise ourselves with the mangroves. 'Cape York has one of the highest speciies diversity of marine vegetation in the world. It contains 36 mangrove species compared to nine in south-east Queensland and one in Victoria (Duke 1992)' (From NATURAL RESOURCES ANAYLISIS PROGRAM (NRAP) MARINE VEGETION OF CAPE YORK PENINSULA. Karen F. Danaher Queensland DPI 1995 )

The stunted bonzai mangroves were Avicennia marina or Grey mangrove. They are the only species that extend as far south as Victoria (in fact the only species as we only have Grey mangroves there.) They are characterised by pen like pneumatophores or aerial roots, which in the case of the Turtle group are also bonzaied daily by chunks of coral and calcareous debris, scarifying the upper reef flat. Chris was saying that he would not be surprised if 100 year old trees are barely a meter tall in that environment.

Above the rubble zone Ceriops tagal var. australis or Spurred mangroves occur. They have small strong buttresses to hold themselves upright in more extreme weather and tend to prefer a little more leeward and protected areas.The large stilt rooted mangroves occur where sediment begins to be able to drop out of the water column and to some degree produce their own environment as the stilt or prop roots of these Red mangroves (Rhizophora stylosa) slow the water enough to allow sediments to drop. These trees are found in the front line where their seeds can take root. Behind them we find Brugiera gymnorrhiza (Orange mangrove) which has tell tail "knee roots".

Much information was shared over the project about the importance of mangroves systems to the health and ecology of the coast. '75% of the total seafood landed in Queensland comes from mangrove esturine related species.' (From The Great Barrier Reef - Biology, Environment and Management-Pat Hutchings, Mike Kingsford and Ove Hoegh -Guldberg)

They are literally the architecture for a host of marine and intertidal species who shelter and feed in their dense forests and complex roots. Researching this I also discovered that the Green turtle is known to eat mangrove propagules during high tide.

A recent study has found that tropical mangroves store more carbon dioxide than most other forests. Which is another reason to both understand and protect these ecosystems. Unfortunately these systems are under threat. In the Great Barrier reef region this is not only due to global warming and coral bleaching but due to a century of large scale land clearing and the conversion of 'GBR catchments into agricultural, port, urban and industrial developments.' (From The Great Barrier Reef- Springer)

Below is a photo of a Bristle worm reaching tentacles into the rising tidal waters of the island.

Other inhabitants of the island foreshore. I should title this picture. Rubbish and Irony!

Chris making his way back to the boat after another day's teaching on the island, carrying some interesting found objects. In his left hand is an example of the largest shell in the world-which he used as a teaching tool before dropping it back on the island. An interesting fact about molluscs in the GBR is that there are no non-native or introduced species among them.

Pelican readying for the journey back to the mainland.

Portraits of some of the Hope Vale participants of the days events. Trisha Gordon, Tellisa Pearson, Shaunica Lee Cheu, Teresa Thompson, Shaunica again and Ronan Bally with Austin Bally.

Turtle and Dugong management- yarning up.

2011-09-29T11:41:00.001+10:00

The Northern coasts of Australia are home to populations of the vulnerable Dugong and a number of endangered and critically endangered turtle species such as the Green and Hawksbill turtles.

Our program on Pelican took us back out to the Turtle group of islands to anchor in the shelter of the islands and yarn up turtle and dugong management to young Hope Vale boys and men. Chris Roberts form Balkanu set up the session by talking about the international view of these animals and then looking at the current Australian laws and regulations, that aim to look after the sea country and animals within Australia. Before starting the day's participants were asked to list the threats to these animals. As they spoke young Mark Bowen created the picture above of the Dugong with all manner of threats including rockets!

The list of threats that they came up with were as follows:

Trawl nets

Gill nets

Purse sane nets

Boat strike

Pollution from the catchments (catchment health)

Sediment from erosion and cyclones destroying seagrass

Over hunting

Chris shared examples of Aboriginal management of Sea Country and some of the processes for setting them up. Hope Vale actually had a Sea Country plan set up a number of years ago, which was never activated due to cultural and political reasons.

'• The preparation of a Dugong and Marine Turtle Management Plan by the Hopevale Aboriginal Community in 1999, which won the Prime Minister’s Environment Award in 2000124. This Plan has not been implemented consistently for several reasons, including: death of key elders and individuals, personnel changes at Hopevale and GBRMPA, lack of resources, and a federal ministerial decision in 2000 that prevented the managing agencies from issuing community hunting permits, even though such permits were a central part of the Plan125. Hopevale Community has collaborated over many years with researchers at James Cook University and staff of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) in relation to research and management of dugongs and turtles.'

From- http://www.nailsma.org.au/nailsma/downloads/Dugong%20and%20marine%20turtle%20handbook_Part3.pdf

Some of the general constraints to setting up Indigenous marine resource management include:

‘• Lack of recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authority over local marine estates and marine resources;

• Competition from commercial and recreational fishers and other marine resource stakeholders;

• Declining knowledge of traditional management practices and protocols among some younger Indigenous people;

• Changing social and economic conditions, including the relocation of coastal Indigenous groups to large communities, some of which are inland.'

Quote also from Nailsma handbook- link above.

91Dugong and Marine Turtle Knowledge Handbook February 2005

He talked about using ideas from the broader Pacific region to resolve some of the complex internal pressures involved in setting up Sea Country management plans. In particular using ideas from the Locally Managed Marine Protected Areas from Fiji and other Pacific islands.

It happened to be Austin Bally's birthday, so our Pelican cook Michelle made a peanut butter and chocolate cake and we all sang a Happy Birthday who was very happy to be having it on board. Austin is pictured above holding a Dugong rib.

We managed to fit in some fishing during the day and had a Bristle worm clamber aboard who was trying to feast on the bait.

Dugong and turtle hunting is an important cultural activity for the Bama along this coastline and their Elders are as concerned, if not more so than the average person, at the potential threats to these animals. The recent announcement of more funds to support Indigenous groups in their ability to monitor and care for their own Sea Country is timely. But much more needs to be done to support communities who are also struggling with many other social issues. Traditional Owners need to be listened to and supported as well as being given the resources and training to enable Bama to keep caring for their own country, using traditional ecological knowledge and the latest scientific tools.

Message in a bottle-Turtle Island group

2011-09-26T12:13:00.001+10:00

We have had two day trips out to the Turtle Island group over the last few days. The group of either substantial coral cays or islands, lie about 14 nautical miles east of the Starke bush camp. On our first visit we landed on one of the outer islands. As we approached an Osprey came over and circled the boat. On later walks on the island we found a huge nest for the pair of Ospreys. Below is the image of the nest figured by the mass of twigs and angled away from the prevailing trade winds.

Anchoring can be quite an exiting moment for project participants. Pelican has to be maneuvered to maintain exactly the right position and the outer island provided a shelted spot (free of reef) to weigh anchor and go ashore.

The island has extensive mangroves (I think three varieties) and a dried hardy inland grass, threaded through with dodder -laurel; like a giant weaving.

On the eastern side of the island there were some stands of caurinas and on both sides evidence that this island cops a lot more weather than Pethebridge as it is further out from the mainland. The kids and Chris from Balkanu collected lots of tropical seeds as the island also picks up flotsom from further South. There was also heaps of pumice, from volcanic blasts in the Pacific and perhaps even dating from Krakatoa exploding!

We gathered lots of the shells and flotsom to undersatnd the story of the island and the sea country around it.

And listened to the stories the sea was whispering.

Pelican1 safely anchored offshore.

Mark and Sebastian with their show bag from the day

Sean, from Balkanu- found a bottle on the island with a message inside. Once we got on the boat we opened the bottle of jack daniels and unfolded the paper inside. I wonder if anyone can tell us who this is and why someone would put it in a bottle to be cast onto a remote Cape York island?

After a full day exploring we made the two hour sail back to the Starke camp and ferried our tired participants to shore.

Tales of trails, shells and endless curiosity.

2011-09-23T16:21:00.001+10:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

On our journey from Cooktown to Starke river we passed browned-ribbony trails of algae (trichodesmium oscillatoria- if you really want to know). This is a seasonal phenomenon here but can be the result of higher nitrates (from run off) or high temperatures.

Sometimes their dried remains on land as seen here, can be confused with an oil spill, as I thought when I first encountered it. On the second day of the project we headed out to Pethebridge Islets with a large group of kids from the camp. Pethebridge is a short sail from the mainland and for such a small space, it holds a plethora of marine and land life. Perthebridge is either an island or perhaps a coral cay with a rather large tail that swishes in the direction of the prevailing winds and currents.

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I could have called this post- the best classroom in the world. From my time with Pelican I am now a total believer in learning by being in the environment with people that can help guide the natural curiosity of the learner. It has also been fantastic to be able to have Chris Roberts from Balkanu on board, who is a marine biologist, share his extensive knowledge.

The morning was spent exploring the island and beachcombing. Oh and fishing! [[posterous-content:pid___3]]

Hazel Bowen found a few things!

See the full gallery on Posterous

As we found things Chris was on hand to tell the kids what animals lived in the shells, or what the polyps on the seaweed were for, or how the cone shell kills its prey, or how the coral is an animal and how they make the coral form, and what the island was made of and how the cuttlefish can control its depth. It was an endless feast of interesting detours around the astounding ingenuity of nature and evolution.

Once back on Pelican1 the kids were shown how to identify some of the shells they had found and made drawings of them and wrote their names.

Through picking up leaves on the tail of the island we could tell there were three species of mangroves before we walked over and explored them. The groves of trees on the island were filled with many types of birds including the brilliant blue kingfisher.

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By the end of the day my head was ringing with information. The kids all had a great day out and had heaps of fun learning. Hope Vale kids are in their element but with the added insights from Chris married to their own curiosity, everyone gained more knowledge about their sea country.

The lost and found language of reefs

2011-09-21T22:29:00.001+10:00

We have been fortunate to meet many wonderful Elders during our time working with the Hope Vale community. Phylamena Naylor was on board with members of Hopevale Congress for our journey from Cooktown to Starke river, where the annual Hopevale/Pelican project is being run this year. The trip is the first day of the program involving Pelican.

Phylamena was recounting her time spent with an uncle along the coast we were travelling. She is a good Guugu Yimithirr speaker but she said her uncle knew the language names of all the reefs along this coastline. She expressed her sadness that she never thought to write it all down. He passed away quite a long time ago and she feared that all that knowledge was lost forever.

A participant in this year's project, Chris Roberts from Balkanu, who I was talking to about the loss of language, said that " language is a code that links people to country".

The found part in my blog title refers to a conversation I had today with Des Bowen, who is one of the key Elders, involved in this project (his wife Estelle being the other pillar). He told me that the name of the reef in language between the McIvor river and Guumbunie (Chronicle Rock) is burreeka (pronounced with a silent l- burreelka). I look forward to seeing Phylamena in the next days and sharing that parcel of knowledge.

Brian Cobus (pictured on the left) is the chair of Hope Vale Congress. Both Brian and Phylamena were teaching me words in Guugu. As we were talking a black and yellow sea snake appeared and I learnt the Guugu term 'uurri' for sea snake.

Some of the sea country traversed as seen in the Pelican wheelhouse. And outside the wheelhouse...

Program for the 2011 Hope Vale/Pelican project

2011-09-12T16:18:00.001+10:00

HOPEVALE 2011 ACTIVITY PROGRAMME -4.pdf Download this file

Kitchen Garden

2011-09-06T13:27:00.007+10:00

I made a new friend recently who made a throw away statement that has since stuck in my head. Something about intelligence being cultivated by the amount of time your hands are in contact with soil. If you dig soils, so to speak, here's a link to a recent program on Radio National's Science program about Soils, which is well worth a listen.

Anyway, on Wednesday mornings, I often volunteer at my daughter's school as part of their Kitchen Garden project. This project is part of the larger Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden foundation. which has now helped fund 191 programs in schools all around Australia.

Chook watch

The program is integrated into the school curriculum. The children in my daughter's Grade 3 class spend an hour working in the garden in the morning and then two hours in the kitchen, once a week. At the end of this process the volunteers, teachers and children join together to eat a magnificent feast.

Home made Ricotta and Silverbeet Ravioli with Sage and Butter sauce.

I am sure that when I look back over the year my moments in the garden and kitchen with the kids will be my highlights. It is absorbing to witness how much a child can learn within the parameters of Nature married with good education.

Fog

2011-06-30T18:21:00.004+10:00

Apparently Melbourne has a particularly unique type of fog, known as the Spillane eddy.

Pondering fog and all things unique to a time and place, I wonder if I could describe the condition of my heart in a similar way. The Austin eddy.
Conditions that cause such events include a complete inability to understand the workings of my own heart.
One day the fog may lift and all will be revealed.
One can live in hope.

In the meantime I just get on with things and look with tenderness on the strange gripped sensation that is me.

Building the architecture of the dead

2011-05-31T16:11:00.004+10:00

Fans of yellow ginkgo
abstract the blue.

Below, workers mine the soil,
real estate for the dead.

The shifting tenure of letters,
cling to marble and stone.

The earth moves for no one.

Mirror

2011-04-22T21:15:00.003+10:00

Hold your breath

2011-03-21T00:06:00.002+11:00

Autumn

2011-03-13T23:11:00.008+11:00

Pelican is heading North for her home in Southern NSW in Bermagui. Two Bays is over and done with for the year though there is much follow up and hopeful chasing of funding for next year to be done. Our thoughts are turning North again to plan for our annual trip to Cape York.

But meanwhile it is a long weekend here in Melbourne. I have stayed home and am not on board to help deliver the boat as I hoped to catch up on many things. My daughter has gone away to stay with her Dad in Apollo Bay. In fact to Wild Dog Rd which was the inspiration for this blog.

But I have found myself a bit slow to get done what I need to do. I can blame the end of a cold but mainly it is the utter distraction of the tragedy befalling Japan at the moment and events in the Middle East that have consumed my time in front of the computer. I suppose it would be far better to have been producing positive steps rather than immersed in these far away events. But that is how it is.

A break in the weather came this afternoon and the rain and wind is bringing Autumn a step closer. The spider who carefully and quickly creates his web in my front garden is feasting on the abundance of insects from the wet Summer and Autumn. Yesterday I saw a butterfly struggling in the remains of last night's web. I couldn't help myself and ran out and managed to release the butterfly without damaging the wings.

I have been struggling in a net of emotions around separation and my difficulties getting used to shared parenting. I miss my daughter when she is away and miss the ideal of our old family retreat in the hills behind Apollo Bay.

But to end this self-pity as I did not write this to wallow but to try and clarify. I am thankful and appreciate that I have time to reflect. That I can continue to attempt the work we do with Pelican and have space to still wonder about the way life is. It is but a luxury while the ground shakes and waves bigger than houses can smash and destroy the unremarkable and remarkable realities that make up our daily lives.

Citizen science in action- Mud Islands

2011-03-01T20:09:00.002+11:00

Photo taken from Mud Islands with Pelican1 and Authur's Seat in the background.

This Port Phillip Bay landmark was the first site that Mathew Flinders climbed to orient himself, after sailing into the bay in 1802.

Mud Islands has become one of my favourite stops of the Two Bays project. You become aware of them before you see them by the many birds overhead winging their way there. They are an important home and breeding ground for Pelicans, Ibis, Terns, Cormorants, Royal Spoonbills, Storm-Petrels and Silver Gulls.

They are made up of three shrubby islands that rise up out of and are part of the Great Sands in Port Phillip Bay. The islands enclose a shallow tidal lagoon that is fringed with salt marsh. Despite their name the islands are in fact made up of shelly sand and resemble an atoll. The islands are situated closely to the Heads.

The islands were formed by wind and wave action and kept firmly in place by outcrops of phosphate rock. The phosphate rock formed beneath the guano deposits (bird droppings) as guano leached below and combined with shelly sand below to form hard calcium phosphate. This rare rock type is able to withstand marine erosion. The islands are reknown for their bird life and it is interesting to note how strongly birds feature in the creation of the islands themselves. When visiting you can almost imagine a conference of the birds type scenario where they all decided to contribute to building a site for themselves.

The islands are protected under various conventions including the Ramsar and the Register of the National Estate. They are managed as part of the Port Phillip Heads Marine Park by Parks Victoria.

Pelican1 headed out from Queenscliff with a new young Skipper learning the ropes. The boat was almost as full as the belly of Pelican is surveyed to hold (in enclosed waters). Including crew we were 44 people. I have observed since the end of this year's Two Bays project that the period of the program contained some of the best possible weather. If we had held it any earlier or later we would have lost days to bad weather. The winds were perfect to visit the islands as they cannot be too strong to be able to do the observing work and to land people safely in the dinghies. It was in fact, one of our loveliest days on the water.

Morning scene on the way over to the islands. Jan Carey creating a slide plate to check the cell structure of the Codium species (also known as Brocoli weed or even more endearingly, Dead Man's fingers) on the table, as it is only through seeing the cellular structure that you can tell whether it is the introduced species or not. The image below was taken by Chris Hayward from Parks (standing 2nd left above) which shows the waisted cellular structure of the invasive Codium fragile. The pest species originated in Japan and probably travelled here in ballast water. It presents a danger to native species by taking over their habitat. I have also read that overgrazing by sea urchins may provide sufficient disturbance to native seaweeds to enable their getting a toehold.

And the real thing below (Dead Man's Fingers) on the shores of Mud Islands.

Jan Carey is currently working on an ARC linkage grant to develop optimal monitoring methods for citizen scientists to detect non-indigenous marine species. She has been coming on board Pelican for the last few years with her PhD student Kim Millers who is also writing her PhD on developing methodologies for working with community to detect pest species. On this trip to Mud Island they were both on board to gather more data with members from Sea Search and the Friends of Mud Island group. Below Jan shares her knowledge with the group of volunteers.

Below Jan is setting up the Marine Pest survey site.

Below a picture of a star of pest stars. The Northern Pacific Sea Star has invaded Port Phillip and their numbers apparently have more combined weight than all of the rest of Port Phillip's biomass put together! Anecdotally the volunteers reported more numbers from our counts last year.

And never confuse the Northern Pacific Sea stars with our indigenous 11 armed star fish below. One of the Parks rangers was sharing the story that in early media reports about the Northern Pacific Sea stars the newspaper posted a photo of our Indigenous sea star and well meaning locals pulled many of the wrong kind out of the water. There were also early attempts to eradicate the Pacific sea star by chopping them in half and then throwing them back into the water. Also a big mistake as they can regenerate from a single leg.

On board too were Peter Menkhorst and volunteers for Birds Australia to carry out some shorebird monitoring. Below Peter leads the way to the inner lagoon of the Islands.

Peter was the first person to record pelicans breeding on the islands in 1983 and has been monitoring the bird community on Mud Islands for 28 years. He has recently completed a survey of the 10 waterbird species that now breed there. Here are some quotes from Peter from a DSE Media release - 22 Dec 2010 about Mud Islands.

“Mud Islands have grown dramatically in importance as a waterbird breeding site over the past two decades with an estimated 95,000 pairs, belonging to 10 species, nesting on the islands in 2008 and 2009. The most abundant species are the Straw-necked Ibis (with 56,000 nests) and the Silver Gull with perhaps 30,000 nests,” Mr Menkhorst said.

“When I first found pelicans breeding on Mud Islands there were only 10 nests, but the number of pelicans breeding in Port Phillip Bay has risen to around 800 pairs as the species becomes increasingly adapted to living in close proximity to humans.”
“The breeding pelicans are now using the islands for around 10 months of the year and, if possible, we’d like people to keep away from the breeding colonies and avoid disturbing the birds with boats or jet-skis.”
“Mud Islands are an amazing sight when the birds are breeding with thousands of birds sitting on nests which are built on the ground or in the low saltbush shrubs.”
“Many Victorians wouldn’t realise that this important bird breeding colony is right here in Port Phillip Bay. We want to increase community awareness of this significant site and we want visitors to respect the needs of the breeding birds and to avoid causing them to leave their nests. Eggs or nestlings in unattended nests are vulnerable to being eaten by other species.”

“They also host significant numbers of breeding Pied Cormorant, White-faced Storm-Petrel and Crested Tern as well as smaller numbers of Royal Spoonbill, Caspian Tern and Little Egret. Over the past 20 years Mud Islands have also lost one species as a breeding resident with Fairy Tern no longer breeding there.

“Mud Islands are also nationally significant as a feeding and roosting site for migratory wading birds including the Grey Plover, Double-banded Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Grey-tailed Tattler, Ruddy Turnstone, Great Knot, Red Knot and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.”

The friends of Mud Islands, Sea Search and Parks Victoria completes some seagrass surveys as well.

My daughter Aurora snorkelling in the wonderfully clear waters around the islands.

Sailing home our young Skipper turned into a scientist!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

The group on our return to Queenscliff pictured. We had set out to do so many things in one day (the usual Pelican feast) and with the blessings of the weather gods we did it all!. We were also travelling on country with Traditional Owners from the Wada Wurrung who had not had the opportunity to visit the island before.

The day the councillors met their dolphin constituents

2011-02-10T12:54:00.001+11:00

On the 22nd of January, Pelican headed across to Sorrento to pick up Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors and senior managers, Parks Victoria staff and people with valuable knowledge to share about the Bay environs. The day was coordinated through Parks Victoria's Bays and Maritime division to share and collaborate from the Bay's perspective, issues around caring for the coastal environment. For many councillors it is an educative trip to connect with the Bay and to understand management issues from a marine perspective. A pod of inquisitive bottle-nosed dolphins arrived early in the day to underscore the sea focus. On board, our resident Port Phillip dolphins had one of their champions on board, Jeff Weir, from the Dolphin Research Institute.

There is something so bewitching in the way dolphin's eye you as they fluently keep pace with the bow of Pelican.

The day was spent zig-zagging across the Southern area of Port Phillip Bay, between Queenscliff, Rye and Sorrento, visiting some of the infrastructure (piers, jetty's, channel markers etc) that Parks Victoria maintains. The South Channel pile, pictured above, is a restored version of a 19th C channel light, that used to guide ships into Port Phillip Bay.

It may not be widely known that Parks Victoria, not only has responsibility for the Parks that they manage, but is also the Local Port and Waterway Manager for Port Phillip, Western Port and Yarra and Maribynong Rivers. This means that the organisation oversees all the commercial activities such as berths and moorings, manages more than $200 million worth of marine infrastructure, facilitates more than 80 million bay and river visits annually, coordinates 400 on water events each year and assists with emergency response on the bays and waterways.

Local Government is of course connected to all these services and many of their services supply or overlap the responsibilities of Parks. Bringing people together on the Pelican is a lively, informal and creative way to engage diverse peoples and bridge some of the perceptual boundaries that can exist between different organisations. Richard O'Byrne from the Maritime division coordinated the day, bringing rangers, councillors, scientists and other agencies together for informal discussions. Mark Rodrigue from Parks Vic was on hand to provide a detailed perspective of the Marine Parks and to give an overview of the Two Bays program. Libby Jude, who is the manager of Mornington Peninsula National Park , also shared the perspective from the terrestrial park point of view. Stuart Hugh, also from Parks, who is overseeing the National park at Pt Nepean , gave a thorough briefing of the plans for this park which is still in process after a hand over from the Federal Government. Much of the land previously was a military site. It was through strong community activism that the land remains in public ownership and will keep its environmental, cultural and historical values alive and intact for everyone to enjoy.

It is interesting that the mini talks that people give on Pelican are given greater context and liveliness by the sheer fact of being in the environment, rather than in a neutral office environs. Information becomes active, engagement is real and things are understood on a visceral level rather than just abstractly.

The councillors were given a tour of South Channel fort. The structure was built in the 1880's as part of a network of outer defences for Port Phillip Bay. The fort is an artificial island (with the claim to fame that it is Victoria's only artificial island) built up on 14,000 tonnes of bluestone boulders and concrete with sand overburden. It was actually used for storing dredging explosives until the 1980's. The interior of the fort is a series of tunnels with connecting rooms. There is a lovely story in The Age archives about the last person to live on the island here. The island is now one of three important breeding sites for the vulnerable White-faced Storm-Petrel and is surrounded by some healthy seagrass sites. It is also occasional home to the Little Penguin, Black-faced Cormorant and the Australian Fur Seal.

The day was viewed as a great success by all the participants and the proof of that will hopefully be in the increased dialogue and understandings developed between the different organisations involved in the day. This is the third year that the Bays and Maritime Division from Parks have used the Two Bays program to increase council awareness and connection to their work and gain knowledge of issues from the council perspective. The last two years we have worked in the Southern part of the Bay, connecting with councillors through the ABM (Association of Bayside Municipalities). The ABM have been keen supporters of Two Bays over the last 6 years.

All photos in this post are by Michelle Quach.

Two Bays launch tomorrow...

2011-01-14T16:19:00.007+11:00

Here is an open invitation for any Melbourne bloggers to come along to support the launch of Two Bays 2011

Hope to do some sea time blogging as we travel both Port Phillip and Western Port Bays over the last half of January.

Over the past weeks the Eastern Coast of Australia and especially Queensland has been on high flood alert. Brisbane has just experienced the worst flooding since 1974. Though the peak was a bit lower than the 1974 flood, the impact will be as high if not higher as the city has grown so much in the intervening years. Personally, all the people I know there and in environs are safe and mostly dry. But so many others are not as lucky.
The flood event is being linked to the fact that we are experiencing the La Nina weather pattern which is influenced by the Pacific Ocean. There has already been a lot of interesting science commentary linking the ferocity of the flood with climate change. It fits predicted patterns of weather behaviour even on top of the extremes predicted with a La Nina cycle.

Two years ago I was caught in a flash flood scenario in the Currumbin Creek Valley. I was staying with a friend in a cottage that had supposedly been built above the 100 year flood line. But the plans did not reckon with four lows sitting over the mountain looming behind and letting the heavens pour down on country already saturated by constant rain. This created an immediate torrent which transformed a peaceful babbling, platypus inhabited creek, into a raging river.
We survived due to a combination of luck and a bit of common sense. But luck was the more powerful factor of the two. That night a woman died just above us as she was swept off a culvert in her car. Along with some cows and horses.
Towoomba suffered the same type of event earlier this week, which was also not on the radar of the meteorologists because the cascading events occurred all too swiftly.

Time will tell to what extent these terrible floods are driven by local cycles and how much they have been exacerbated by climate change. All I know is that as I am not there on hand to help people mop up I can only feel slightly useful by working in the way we are with Pelican. I hope that by adding to the knowledge of the Marine environment and connecting people to the importance of this process with shared understanding and collaborative learning will aid in the task of getting to grips with the challenge of our rapidly changing world.

Conversations with the sky

2010-12-18T00:06:00.006+11:00

Putting on the dusty coat of my neglected blog and shrugging the load of unsaid thoughts into my hands to throw skywards.

On reflection I see the year has hurtled by. So much has been spent in angst about getting projects up, paid for and attempting to pool as many elements together to create rich and meaningful times at sea. Both in a cultural and scientific sense. Lovely time has also been spent growing my daughter up. Following her journey through 2nd grade, watching her friendships, sometimes struggling to help her make sense of separated parents. But always sharing, talking and doing lots of things together.

The next Pelican project Two Bays starts up again in January and most of the last two months has been spent in frenetic activity to get all the pieces together.

But I found myself lagging a little behind the tasks I had set myself. Starting to stare at screens rather than reeling off e mails or making the important phone calls.

And perhaps the antidote to a niggardly sense of leaving something of importance behind is to give a few more moments to cloud gazing. Waiting and letting a quiet repose attempt to shuffle this unquiet mind.
This year has flown by and it is also incredible to reflect that this time last year my sister was dying. She held on for Christmas and passed just two days later. She is all around me at the moment, illuminating her absence.

I want/need more absent mindedness to give me a space to have the presence of mind to reach under/ behind the curtain of the daily tumult. And then perhaps I can gather the leaves of the year and throw them skywards and watch them fall ever so slowly.

Paean

2010-11-01T22:25:00.004+11:00

My daughter lies curled up on the trampoline of Pelican,
She is tired after many days at sea, sun and constant movement.
So she curls up and rests.

Posting with posterous on Pelican- Cape York

2010-09-10T21:18:00.005+10:00

I am off on a Pelican project and most of my posting is at this point through the active expedition posting site of posterous here,

but here are some photos so my good old blog doesn't feel quite so neglected...

Conferences, conferences, conferences---

2010-08-03T23:00:00.007+10:00

Leonie Sheedy presenting at SNAICC conference

IPMEN delegates with Fijian school children at Taqage District school.

I have just been through a bit of a presenting binge starting with the Healthy Parks Healthy People Inaugural Congress in Melbourne, then IPMEN conference in Fiji and finally SNAICC conference in Alice Springs.

The three conferences managed to cover topics ranging from Parks Management, community engagement in both management and study of Marine parks, marine science (particularly water quality), sharing knowledge about Caring for Sea Country, Traditional Knowledge and social justice issues.

I am not quite sure how I have got myself entangled in these terrific themes. I think my job description must certainly be Generalist by now. The years of studying fine art, putting brush to paper or canvas and always feeling a deep uncertainty about my Art stuff has resulted in me branching out a little.

Perhaps it is also due to being the child of a young colonial nation with Ancient underpinnings which have called me from any path I could have predicted within my particular framework of schooling and social environment. Just goes to show what can happen if you have an open mind.

But it also means that the path is not smooth on a personal level. I now move with more surety in the world, feeling that what I am doing is the best way to respond to the incredibly complex times that we live in. And that I am blessed to be able to have the freedom to work in the way I do and learn.

I sometimes wish that the illumination and determination I feel in relation to my actual work could be translated into certainty around some of the major painful issues in my life. My heart is becoming a strange soldier, standing on guard, watchful.

Caterpillar dreaming

2010-08-01T01:26:00.003+10:00

Grandmother's gaze

2010-06-13T22:19:00.004+10:00

My grandmother as a child, in an unknown backyard with unknown woman.

Self portrait by my grandmother, Shirley Nicholas.

I am lucky to possess quite a few things that have been passed down from my grandmother (Mum's mum) to me. Some are books that I treasure but most are photographs and film. These two pictures have held a real fascination for me as they both seem to articulate the mystery of self. I look at them now and see my grandmother as a young girl and woman and wonder who she is and was. The photos also have the powerful quality of trapped time and seem to offer some clues to her real identity. And yet at the same time they are held in an endless bubble of that moment, never to be repeated.

My love of photography was inspired very much by Shirley (who I called Nangy all her life as when I was introduced at a young age to say "Hello to Granny" I said "Hello Nangy" and it stuck). She was the chronicler of the family and also had a talent with the lens which has meant that many of her pictures are interesting in themselves.

Sometimes I take a photo today and wonder if my daughter's daughter would still have access to the pictures or interest.

Anyway I leave you with these pictures and hope to post more about the mysteries of image making and pay homage to more photographs of my grandmother.

Man and fish

2010-06-12T23:06:00.004+10:00

The first time I scuba-dived,
a fish swam nearby
and oggled me,
swam a bit closer
and oggled me again.

Another darted past,
pretending not to notice.

On surfacing I realised I would never
think of fish in the same way again.

Suddenly I remembered..

2010-05-08T23:44:00.006+10:00

...that I had a blog.
Scanning old pictures of mine and thinking my obsessions or interests really haven't changed much.
I have only really changed what I am doing.

So here are some cartoonish sketches from the time when I used to sketch a lot.

Tangles

2010-04-03T23:47:00.012+11:00

Easter is upon us again though it was only Christmas yesterday. My daughter was born on an Easter Sunday eight years ago and has just had her birthday and tomorrow is Easter Sunday. I travelled with my ex and daughter up to my Mum's farm to celebrate her birthday. This was a wish of my daughter as she wanted to share it with all of us in a place we love. We all obliged and as we have always managed to get on pretty well, we had a peaceful and happy celebration day.

The exercise was not totally painless as even though I instigated the split from my daughter's dad, I still find myself embroiled in many conflicting emotions when we all get together. My ex's father died only a couple of weeks ago and I was pulled back into the orbit of his family for his funeral. This began the process of revisiting old strong connections. I loved his Dad and treasure all the time in his company. I know in his way he did too and also that he was upset and angry when left his son. I feel guilty about the impact that this decision had on his parents and his death certainly made me feel it all the more keenly.

Interestingly my ex is moving forward now and has perhaps found someone new and I know this has exacerbated my own strange chemistry of regret and need. It is not a very pretty picture and I wish I could be freer and less tangled.

Which leads me to the pictures above.

My daughter had a rough night last night with ear pain and we ended up at a local hospital till all hours. Things have sorted today and her ears are much better. So I thought we should make a fun excursion into the wilds of my Mum's place. Her Dad has returned home so at this point it is just the three generations of female family here. So we packed some crayons and took of to explore the 'wild'.
Mum's property is really an environmental project and she has spent much energy restoring the land to original health, particularly the riparian areas along the creek. So we meandered through very tall grass and soon found ourselves in the 'wild'. As we clambered over the areas photographed above I marvelled at the writhing tangle of vines and the extraordinary mesh of left over branches and debris from a recent flood. My daughter wanted to get deeper into the 'wilds', so we stumbled and slipped and giggled our way into the tangle till there was no sky to see.

And I realized that it is all right to feel the messiness of life. Things are never perfectly ordered. We are always slipping up, losing our way and finding it in a different way.

It is hard to accept sometimes and I know I lose a lot of sleep struggling against the tangled order of things. But there it is...

The Archivalists

2010-03-02T23:25:00.011+11:00

Inside the Library of the Cairns Historical Society.

The Skipper of Pelican had flown back to Melbourne after our meetings in Cairns with Hope Vale Elders and Balkanu about this year's project. I was due back in Brisbane as I had planned to visit my Mum and hopefully meet my brother in law, Mark with my daughter for the weekend. But I just could not get on the plane. My Mum had warned me that things were flooding near her and advised me to stay an extra day. My brother in law was not able to get time off work and my daughter had to stay in Melbourne.

I did not need much prompting to stay for some extra time on my own. Solitude is a rare and to be treasured thing. It is the reason I had time to wander in Cairns. During this time I found the Historical Society of Cairns and its Library and ended up spending the afternoon researching Sea Country and looking up information about Cape York. A lovely older gent took all my slips of paper and diligently searched as I found more and more material. Some of the material was from anthropologists, one of them being Ursula McConnel, who worked up the Cape in the early part of last century.

As I buried myself in the piles of materials I had to reflect on the riches that were saved and archived by these wonderful volunteers working in the Library. You could see they had no money, surviving on the tuppences they get from the entry fee to the Museum. The main guy had worked there for 24 years following his retirement as a paid librarian. I just wanted to post a huge thank you to all those passionate volunteers in all walks of life. Our world would be impoverished without the dedicated work of these mainly unsung diligent people.

Falling averages

2010-02-10T23:04:00.004+11:00

Think it is time to get a bit of a move on here, or the old Wild Dog road will curl in on itself. I think the scarcity of posting only attests to the fact that I am not getting the breathing space to meander in blogland. So to give my averages a lift here goes with some pictorial reflections of the last month. They are taken on or in the water during the Two Bays project.

I had blogged directly but often obliquely about my sister's illness last year. It was a terrible year for her and for us to watch her go through so much both mental and physical pain. She managed to shine through all the time which always astounded me. As she was hammered by the cancer; her sense of herself only seemed to grow, to catch up with what was happening to her. She died on the 27th of December, beating the odds to get that far. We held her funeral a week later and four days after that I was launching a 24 day community project on Pelican. I really did wonder if I would get through it. Having witnessed what my sister had been through it also made me more determined to make a good shot of it.

So the first month of the New Year has passed. Now over a month since my sister died. And it is still impossible to let go.

I can only float when I have the opportunity to immerse myself in watery moving worlds. Enjoy watching the way light travels through water and catches the myriads of gardens that are normally out of sight.

Underwater waterfall

2010-01-22T23:22:00.003+11:00

Crossing the Rip

I wonder what is the unconscious motivator for the things that we end up doing. How is it that I start out studying how to paint (or think) and end up working in the marine world? I will answer this conundrum when I have had a little bit more sleep. Till then I will leave you with a pic from midway through the Two Bays program and write up a bit more soon,

Looking out the window...

2009-11-22T00:32:00.009+11:00

Picture of me by my daughter, Aurora.

Soon I will write about the upcoming Two Bays project but before that I am enjoying listening to the sound of rain. Covering the town, like the snow at the end of the story "The Dead" by James Joyce. I vaguely remember the wonderful movie made of the story but I still have the ring of James Joyce's language as he describes the shroud of snow falling on the living and the dead.

Thought I would add a few of his actual lines and that I could easily find them with google but instead find myself lost in a maze of study guides. Either no-one reads the text anymore or the intellectual property rights are far more sophisticated than the absorbing texts I find openly on the net.

So instead of getting all Irish and metaphysical I will concentrate on the constant sound of rain on my roof. Soaking the parched Melbourne earth that has already felt the onslaught of the coming Summer. The ongoing drought in this part of the world from my amateur meteorological standpoint seems more a symptom of global warming. And hence not a drought but a new climatic condition.

So rain keep falling and remind everyone that we are all connected and particularly by water.

And I am also glad I fixed the leak in my roof!

Hope

2009-11-22T00:03:00.004+11:00

Wondering about that feathery word. It hovers above our days with ever sharper brightness.
Sometimes it seems the moment between life and death is purely one of hope.

Life as a painting

2009-09-28T22:16:00.008+10:00

View from Cooktown hill, Cape York looking toward Cape Bedford

Life as a painting

It is good to know that the annual Hope Vale Pelican project that normally Pelican has been involved in is right at this moment happening on Ellim Beach. Just around the cape in the image above!

Pelican Expeditions has had an incredibly rough year really. We have lost one of our key people (and friend!) to cancer, lost our funding for a cornerstone project and struggled with solving issues around a report which we had commissioned and which turned into a complete nightmare. This nightmare took up most of our resources to resolve and resulted in us landing in a dead end of academic parsimonious silence. Just as we picked ourselves of the floor and took some heart in the ongoing energy of projects to come, my younger sister began a fight for life with a secondary cancer diagnosis. She has had a very unlucky journey with the disease and is now suffering terribly from the impact of bone and liver cancer.

My own struggles to pursue what I see a positive projects in the world begins to fade into insignificance in the face of the ongoing suffering of someone close to me.

Last night I sat beside her in a big public hospital as she finally seemed to reach some kind of rest after an exhausting day of medical procedures and pain. The cool blue light of the hospital night was punctuated with the beeps, moans and sighs of patients and machines. I sat there, conscious that I could be conscious without pain and aware of the more settled breathing of my sister. Thankful for that respite but alert to the next wave of potential suffering. I felt it all today as I threw myself physically at my garden. As if to compensate for the hours of passive suffering of my sister, I tugged, pulled, carried, dug and chopped through the endless tangle of weeds, ivy and clutter around my house.

And life as a still painting, life as a balance of forces, life as a still life, life tilting into imbalance with our first world settled bargaining with nature, tilts.

Beloved

2009-08-24T00:21:00.003+10:00

If I were to sing the praises of the beloved there would be no sunrise in the morning. The sun, like a shield of fire, sits firmly on the horizon of dreams.

The world is free from my melancholy thoughts

2009-07-12T22:43:00.004+10:00

The world is free from my melancholy thoughts,
the world just is.
The beach, with sand eroding from the fierce tides, cannot see
my young amorous shadow,
hiding naked in the dunes.

Nor the form, pensive and sturdy,
studying the violet Winter hues,
gathering ocean air,
before the return to
the familiar city.

Head in Light

2009-06-07T00:04:00.004+10:00

Photo: Shirley Nicholas

I am up late, attempting to write/organise a presentation for next week. Planning for Hope Vale. Problems of funding LOOM as they always do. One of the elders that we work with is going to co-present with me and hopefully some of the kids that come to the camp.

But I can no longer think in terms of capacity building and sustainability and multi-disciplinary and disadvantage and partnerships etc

Instead I will now travel back in time.

The photograph above is one that I have saved from an old glass transparency taken by my grandmother in the 1920s.

Tree listening...

2009-05-26T21:21:00.002+10:00

It seems I only have time to tweet these days or maybe my thoughts have just coagulated.
So I am reduced to tweet tree blogging.
Hope to regain blogging consciousness soon.....

Loss of Nature words

2009-04-10T11:26:00.005+10:00

This was brought to my attention in a twitter from Orion Magazine. The latest edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary is getting rid of the following words, many of which pertain to Nature and replacing them with words also listed below. The replacement vocabulary does not look very inspiring even if it is more reflective of a the contemporary experience of growing up in an urban environment. The thinking seems to be the as children are more often growing up in environments that are not connected to Nature that the words that used to be useful are no longer required. Sad I think. And also dangerous as you would think in this period of climate change that children more than ever need to be connected to the natural world and understand the importance of that relationship to them. The loss of words signifies that deeper loss of connection.

Words taken out:
Coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade, carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe, dwarf, elf, goblin, abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar.

Adder, ass, beaver, boar, budgerigar, bullock, cheetah, colt, corgi, cygnet, doe, drake, ferret, gerbil, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, heron, herring, kingfisher, lark, leopard, lobster, magpie, minnow, mussel, newt, otter, ox, oyster, panther, pelican, piglet, plaice, poodle, porcupine, porpoise, raven, spaniel, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren.

Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker, county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse, hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek, liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats, pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish, rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow

Words put in:
Blog, broadband, MP3 player, voicemail, attachment, database, export, chatroom, bullet point, cut and paste, analogue.

Celebrity, tolerant, vandalism, negotiate, interdependent, creep, citizenship, childhood, conflict, common sense, debate, EU, drought, brainy, boisterous, cautionary tale, bilingual, bungee jumping, committee, compulsory, cope, democratic, allergic, biodegradable, emotion, dyslexic, donate, endangered, Euro.

Apparatus, food chain, incisor, square number, trapezium, alliteration, colloquial, idiom, curriculum, classify, chronological, block graph.

Kid turns seven

2009-04-05T23:37:00.003+10:00

Just the other week my little girl turned seven!! My daughter who started out as a very tiny scrap, arriving prematurely two months early. Easter Sunday, full moon baby.

Seven years seems to mark a very definite slice of life. She is now nearly the tallest in her grade, filled with wit, energy and fun.
I could not imagine my life without her and felt that way from the moment she was born.

If ever I am questioning the magic inherent in being alive I transport myself back to the moment before she was born. I had a normal birth, except it was too early. Only in the last stages of labour did the doc notice that her heartbeat was getting a bit weaker so he asked me to try to get her out in one push. I closed my eyes and let out a kind of haka yell and as soon as I did that I was transported into flying galaxies and shooting comets. I couldn't believe this sense that I was really out in the far reaches of space and light. The doc asked for me to be quiet as the little one had arrived and I opened my eyes to see Aurora.

I didn't have any drugs so it was just either a moment of hallucination brought on by all the birthing hormones or ... that's where we come from! Who knows but it was a rather fantastic feeling!!

Two Bays 2009

2009-03-17T16:59:00.005+11:00

Invitation to Launch of 2009 Two Bays project.

Two Bays 2009 has come and gone. It was a difficult project to get up due to the fact that we got our funding only a few weeks before the project was to commence. This meant that the program suddenly grew from one week to two and a half and jumped in complexity overnight.

Common Sting Ray- photo Freddy Leeong

But even with the short lead time, I think nearly all participants were happy with the resulting overall project. The picture above is from the first day when we did some work at the Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary. The Marine Park system in Victoria is now six years old. We had many scientists and people who are involved in the sanctuary come on board to help document the health of the sanctuary and take note of the animals living there. In less than two hours over 25 species of fish were seen and recorded. People who know the area are very exited about the health and biodiversity that this small protected space now reveals.

Divers entering the water from Pelican - photo Freddy Leeong

This year we again had a focus on the Boonwurrung knowledge of the area and directly involved Elders and young Koories in the program. Pelican Expeditions also received a grant from the Federal government to create curriculum out of the synergies between the Traditional Knowledge of the Bays and the science that we are doing during the project. We are also working with young Koories (Victorian Aboriginal) to make some digital stories about Sea Country. These stories will eventually become part of the curriculum and will also eventually go up on the Parks Victoria websites.

sleeping in blog land

2009-02-19T00:06:00.003+11:00

And when one falls asleep it seems it is like a dream of sleeping beauty but there are no blog princes or princesses that wake you up!
One just slumbers on...
Well, we shall see if one eye opens..

Making Links

2008-12-04T16:31:00.005+11:00

presenting at Making Links

At Hope Vale primary school, Cape York.

Well I reckon the only reason I have not been blogging is because I have been talking too much. I have one occasion above where I co-presented about the Digital Story Telling (DST) project in Hope Vale with Samia Goudie. This was at the Making Links conference in
Melbourne (Link above). Before that I did my first ever international keynote at a Marine Educators conference (IPMEN).
And also presenting at Hope Vale school the DST project that the kids made, again with Samia.

And all this talking and sharing leads to more sharing and talking. And you always end up learning more and becoming more inspired to carry on.

Because sometimes it seems overwhelming the amount to do and learn, the current threats to the wellbeing of this groaning over- populated planet. All the personal issues of being in the middle of your life or maybe more and seeing a huge momentum developing and realising how finite our individual terms are.

So maybe I'll go back to having a bit of meandering time on my blog. Hope so.

Oh and good news. Just won a grant to help us develop curriculum from the Two Bays project that links the Old ways with the New. Linking traditional knowledge, understanding Sea Country with Science practices in a model of Ocean Literacy principles to create innovative curriculum for kids. Yay.

Tidal Ancestor

2008-10-24T23:54:00.006+11:00

Tidal Ancestor

If the tides had an answer
to the unfathomable question
and the tides, toing and froing
conjured up the perfect shell;
would the heart be open to it?

Tidal pull, tugging at the heart's complexity
dark, somewhere trying to hear itself,
within sounds continuous, insistent motion.

Silence, is a streamlined space
garnished with shaker insects
and water flow.

Saltwater, transparently clear to crocodile murky in a couple of hours;
light today so clear you could see every tree on Cape Flattery.

So, we all emerged from the tides,
pulled shorewards by the desire to walk
on this land.

Connectivity and separation,
sunlight fusion,
the stranded starfish, found by the
children at low tide and left out
to die slowly in the sun.

Land and sea, land and sea, land and sea,
land and sea

Connies Beach,
Cape Flattery,
Cape York,
October, 2008

Packed and ready to go..

2008-09-14T22:35:00.003+10:00

I have been in Queensland for a week now and hope to make our way to Cape Flattery tomorrow for a month long project with the Hope Vale Aboriginal Community
We have been getting ready in Cairns and I had planned to have a bit of down time beforehand. This was not to be, as my daughter Aurora was very ill with fevers, so we were in and out of emergency and doctors surgerys and had many nights of no sleep. But she is now much better and we are now in Cooktown. Ready for the big sand dune drive and our time in Guugu Yimithirr Country.

This year the program is very full and we have extended it by a couple of weeks. I am very involved in the digital story telling project and am working as one of the trainers as well as helping run overall program. The link in the title is worth following if you are interested in finding out in more depth the aims and also methodolgy of the DST component. There will be lots more about what is happening on our Pelican website.

I am looking forward to setting up my tent and getting my feet on country and being part of our once a year camp community on the beautiful coastline of Cape York.

A delicate triumph

2008-08-15T22:16:00.002+10:00

Dare I celebrate with this gentle unfolding of a magnolia bloom? Dare I celebrate a Winter that is passing? Dare I celebrate this early warming of blossom and flower?
Dare I think that my time, my year of difficulty could result in something resembling a delicate unfolding of good possibility and certainly good intent?

Catchments to Coast - Triabunna

2008-06-01T10:45:00.006+10:00

Pelican is heading for home. The East Coast of Tassie pictured above is now slipping under the horizon behind us as we motor sail across Bass Strait. We were escorted by dolphins as we sailed into Banks Strait towards Tasmania and this morning were shadowed into the vast sea paddock between Tasmania and the mainland by a big pod of squeaking, whistling Bottle-Nosed Dolphins.

Our stay in Tasmania was all too brief, particularly as we have sailed all the way down here. We did two events, one from Swansea and one from the port town of Triabunna (Aboriginal word for Native Hen). Both towns are part of the East Coast catchment of Glemorgan Spring Bay.
And it is with the Natural Resource Managers of that particular council that we may be setting up a new Two Bays kind of project. Triabunna sits in a wonderful deep harbour and we thouroughly enjoyed meeting the people from there and having a tiny bit of time to explore on land.
Below is a photo of a woodchip pile. This enterprise is situated just outside of Triabunna. Some people may be aware of the controversies surrounding the logging, woodchip, pulp mill industries in Tasmania. These industries are the mainstay of the economy and there has been a constant struggle between the green movement and the people who run and are employers in these industries. The Australian Greens party was formed in the 70s in response to the planned damming of Lake Peddar and the Franklin. A company called Gunns basically has the monopoly of the forestry industries and also many agricultural projects (wineries) and is a big player in Tasmania. In fact, the Premier of Tasmania, who resigned while we were there, left his position in the main due to his too obvious connection with these powerful industrialists.

For me the highlight was meetinig a local artist, Vita, pictured below with one of our crew, Julia and Aurora.
She is nearly 92 and going strong, painting very interesting abstracted landscapes with a joyous sense of colour. I hope to meet with her for longer if the planned project takes off in early 2009. She thought that our boat, Pelican, was the most beautiful boat she had ever seen. And she added that she hasd seen plenty of boats in her lifetime. We think so too!!

the crossing

2008-05-23T19:37:00.003+10:00

It is pitch dark outside as Pelican gently rocks to the long slow swell of Bass Strait. The cook is reading, my daughter is making paper dolls with our new volunteer on Pelican; Julia, a young Marine Biologist from Germany. The skipper and first mate are in the wheel house, making sure that we don't hit a tanker or a whale . Estelle, another of the old Pelican crew is tidying up the galley. And I am blogging! I will put in my communal time after dinner and do the dishes!

We are sailing down to Tasmania to hopefully develop a Two Bays project on the East Coast. But it really is just a wonderful excuse to be out on the ocean , on a cold late Autumn night, sailing under a lop sided moon.

My personal life is still in a bit of freefall but being out here is slowly giving me a much needed feeling of peace. Sometimes I wonder about what I am doing and feel like I am floundering in a sea of good intentions.

Particularly now as I am crossing this stretch of water, created during sea level rises over 10,000 years ago, and traversing my own internal changes that are in their own way causing a complete change in the geography of my own life.

Ahh the grandeur and tininess of me, ahh, the joy of watching an albatross skim the surface of the wave - wing outstretched in graceful pleasure of motion and control.

A Fringe of Leaves

2008-04-06T23:27:00.005+10:00

Probably my bad memory but I seem to recall a Patrick White novel of the same name about Eliza Fraser? And if that is so I would like to read it as I also seem to recall that the novel is based around the true story of a white woman who was shipwrecked near Fraser Island and ended up living for some time with the Gubbi Gubbi people of South East Queensland before being rescued. I may be completely wrong but that would not be new or novel either but ithe title set up a train of thought for this blog.
I have just come back from spending some time at Dangerbridge, which is the name of my Mum's farm in South East Queensland. A family holiday. And it was that, even though it was undertaken at a time of a lot of stress between my husband and I. This was the same area for those events described above.
But I don't want to dwell on the complexities of my marriage but rather at the level of unknowability which hovers in our lives and can make life even more of a mystery than it already is.
At a point in my own life which is demanding deep attention to the emotional life. I find myself drawn to the possibility of understanding these hidden currents and attempting to navigate the swirling waters in the truest possible way.
True to whom?
Is a good life one that is lived by being true only to the self or to the idenified good of others? Is the good of others also good for the self?
I know that I am happiest when acting and being in accord with a strong feeling of connection to others, often through sharing, working together, being together.
It is too late for me to go on with this muddled form of diaristic thinking so will just end on the note of meditation. Of looking out through this pagoda window, through a fringe of leaves, to the world beyond.

Sometimes...

2008-03-21T18:58:00.005+11:00

Dam at Mum's place

Sometimes it is good to stop for a bit and sometimes you are given space and time to do so. Sometimes the sun shines and sometimes it pours with rain from a dark sky.

Sometimes the moon is etched behind gentle clouds and still manages to shed some Easter moonlight on a field. Sometimes the trees are so very tall and one is brought into the present by the buzz of a dragonfly.

Sometimes one does not know what is up or down and can only muster the strength to stand rock still.

Am I still and how do I know stillness? If I ask these questions, if I ask them enough , will they ever be answered?

Perhaps some time.

Old Ways, New Ways

2008-02-11T23:35:00.001+11:00

Carolyn Briggs-Boonwurrung Elder and Joy Murphy-Wurunjeri Elder, leading the procession at the Welcome Ceremony

Here is the talk I gave at the Yalukit Wilam Ngargee (People Place Gathering) - Wominjeka Ceremony
and Two Bays Forum

Old Ways, New Ways.

This event is being held on the traditional lands of the Kulin Nations and I wish to acknowledge them as the traditional owners. I would also like to pay my respects to their Elders and the Elders of other communities who may be here today.
I also would like to thank the City of Port Phillip for hosting and supporting the Indigenous Festival. I feel very honoured to be part of the opening night of such a wonderful, creative festival. I have been particularly impressed that it is also a sustainable festival and is consciously monitoring and auditing energy use and creating a carbon neutral event! Finally I would also like to thank Bo Svoronos - for embracing us and bringing us in as part of this event.

I want to give a brief potted visual history of Pelican Expeditions and share some ideas behind our work, before I launch into talking about the Two Bays project.

In 1997 a small group of people came together with the intention to make a documentary about homeless teenagers.
This group included the then filmmaker Garry McKechnie, now Pelican 1s skipper, Peter Malcolm, Tim Oddie and myself
The documentary, If It Doesn’t Kill You, was filmed on an old pearling lugger called Redbill in the Bass Strait wilderness, with 6 teenagers on board.

This experience inspired our group to build a boat to create further projects at sea.
We took 5 years to build Pelican 1 and with the help of trusting shareholders, we were launched by our patron, Andrew Denton, in May of 2004.

As we were building we developed our intentions which can be boiled down to the following vision

● To provide an inspirational focus for the involvement of people with the sea.

• To integrate industry, government, scientific and cultural participation in marine conservation.

• To provide innovative marine education and promote a sustainable future for the world’s oceans.

During this period we received a letter from a young woman from Hope Vale, an Aboriginal community situated north of Cooktown in Cape York.
She had seen IIDKY on TV and wanted to know if we could do a sea program with the youth from her community. At that time Hope Vale was in the middle of a suicide epidemic and she felt a sea program could work with the kids as a suicide prevention program.

This idea has now evolved into an annual two week event during the September school holidays, sponsored by the ANZ bank. We are currently heading into our 5th year there. The project is led by community Elders, who discuss the needs of the youth, and direct the focus of each year’s project. The program involves connecting Elders and Youth on the traditional country of the Dingaal people on Lizard Island. The traditional owners had sometimes not been able to visit this country for up to 3 generations. The opportunity to visit Country and share stories with the young people has proved an important and healing one.
photo: Sandy Scheltema

The program also includes a partnership with Queensland Parks and Wildlife and in particular with Dr Ian Bell. We work with Parks Rangers who engage the young men in a turtle -tagging. During the project a community camp is set up at Cape Flattery and Ian also gave talks in the evening about turtle conservation.
We are talking to Elders about further linking in with their sea country management plans and working with scientists studying water quality.

Last years project saw the community camp grow to include a weaving group, involving creating natural dyes and weaving bracelets and mats. We also started a digital story telling project which aims to give the kids the tools and means to begin to tell their own stories in their own way.

In 2006, Pelican Expeditions, in partnership with GBMPA, joined forces to study coral bleaching. This expedition was the most comprehensive ever undertaken on the Reef. At the same time we took on board 4 indigenous trainees. The young men were on board with the scientists and boat crew for 6 weeks. By the end of the project, the trainees were working alongside the scientists, diving and collecting data. The scientists, too, were given an insight into indigenous culture through sharing stories and working alongside the boys. Photo: Sandy Scheltema

Pelican Expeditions also ran a website to link with remote schools on the Cape, so that other Indigenous kids could follow the project and join in the trainees adventures and learnings through an on-line blog. The science data was also posted online for schools in general.

I now would like to lead into Two Bays with a story from our very first project.

On board Redbill, the pearling lugger, we had an Aboriginal teenager, who had not had any contact with the Aboriginal side of his family as he was growing up. His father had died when he was very young and he had lived with his white mum and a series of step dads. Troy had a profound experience on Erith Island, a beautiful Island in the Kent Group in Bass Strait. On his return we asked him if he would like to connect with the Aboriginal side of his family. He wished to so we contacted Albert Mullet, a well- known Gurnai-Kurnai Elder,. Albert immediately understood the nature of Troy’s experience and said “ But of course, he was on country”.

Troy’s experience and Albert’s understanding of it is not so obvious for a “white fella”, as it spans the reality of a culture that lives way beyond the time of the pyramids. Eons ago or over 10,000 years ago, people could walk across Bass Strait, hunting and gathering. Implicit in Albert’s response is the knowledge that his people’s history is so woven into their beings that a young man with no cultural upbringing will be intuitively connected to it.

This story had a big impact on me and the team.

The story also connects with an ongoing vision of Two Bays to link the recent science work with the creation stories that have been told here tonight. I feel that these connections bring us all closer to the environment that is crying out for more understanding and protection. It is also important to give the vital recognition deserved to the Indigenous people as primary guardians and knowledge holders of this cultural heritage.

Two Bays is an initiative of Pelican Expeditions in collaboration with Parks Victoria and the EPA in partnership with the Westernport and Port Phillip Catchment Management Authority, Melbourne Water, People and Parks Foundation, Victorian Coastal Council, Central Coastal Board, Marine and Freshwater Fisheries Research Institute and the Association of Bayside Municipalities.

The project is a marine science and community engagement program designed to improve understanding and promote awareness of the links between human activity in the catchment and the health of the bays. The work of the scientists and messages about the values of the bays and how to protect them were shared through a series of pier stops in both bays.

Pelican sailed around both bays over three weeks in December of last year, launching from Docklands.

The full-scale project followed a pilot Two Bays, held in January of 2007.
The science program, developed by scientists from the EPA, Melbourne Water, the Freshwater Fisheries Institute and Parks Victoria, had much of its focus developed out of the earlier science work in January of the same year.

The scientists continuously monitored water quality in both bays and the results will be presented at a future forum when all the data has been calibrated and properly analyzed. Mark Rodrigue , from Parks, who is speaking after me will give a rounder picture of the science involved.

I can say that the early tests in January actually pointed to slightly better all round water quality than expected. Due to the drought there is less flow from the catchments and therefore less contaminants flowing into the bay. Also, due to the drought, the bays are hypersaline, making Port Phillip Bay, for example, saltier than Bass Strait.

Many people may be unaware of the very deep, now underwater, waterfall at the Heads. It was spoken of orally in Boonwurrung stories, but it was only when underwater mapping of the area was completed that scientists became aware of the geological fact. The people around Pt Nepean used to be known as “The people in the mist” as it sent up a magnificent spray (this was over 10,000 years ago)

One hypothesis that came out of the early study was that perhaps the waterfall, at the heads, might be flowing again. This would be due to the fact that as the water flowing out of the bay was heavier (salty water being much heavier) it may be recreating the waterfall, rather than flowing closer to the surface, as the bay exchanges with bass strait, which has been the case in recent times.

I was rather exited about that possibility, as it linked with the bays creation story in such a tangible way! Our tests in December, only looked at one channel in one tide flow at the heads, and so we cannot conclusively say it is not. But the test performed suggests that the waterfall is not flowing as I imagined.

The bays are complex systems and the more we seem to understand, the more questions arise. One of the best aspects of the program, to my mind, was that it allowed many of the people, who are involved in managing and looking after the health of the bays, to interact and exchange ideas, while out on the water. Many members of the public are unaware of who has responsibility for what and Two Bays enabled people to come on board and gain some insight into those networks. It also allowed them to understand the science involved in monitoring, giving also the scientists a boost , who often work very quietly , in the background of things.
It also enabled people within those agencies to interact and share information in a more informal way.

The best example of that was the Western Port Catchment tour, run by the Port Phillip and Western Port Catchment Management Authority. This involved a day circumnavigating French Island in Western port bay with a very diverse bunch of people on board. This included people from government agencies, local scientists, environmental groups, educators and local farmers. During the voyage much information was shared both formally from prepared talks and informally through networking.

The program included an evening, again lead by the PP and WP CMA, to discuss setting up of a full environmental study of Westernport Bay. The event brought together all the major stakeholders on Pelican. This study is much needed as the last major study was undertaken in the early 70s (The Shapiro report). There are a number of organisations that have been interested for some time in a new scientific study. Graeme Rooney, representing Melbourne Water’s interests, is focused on better understanding the bay, so that it (Melbourne Water) can in turn, fine tune its waterway management in the bay’s catchment

As most people will be aware Western port is looking at being developed as a major port and a study needs to be undertaken way in advance to asses the best way forward. The study also needs to engage with the knowledge and direction of local people and scientists.

Two Bays involved community directly in the science research through working with Sea Search, which is part of the People and Parks Foundation. This organization actively engages the public in data collection and involves a broad range of people. The data collected is placed on a website and becomes helpful public information. Sea Search was involved in looking at some of the seagrass communities in Western Port Bay and also helped with some of the Habitat mapping in Port Phillip Bay.

Finally we have scheduled to hold a mini forum about Port Phillip on Pelican, with some Primary school children, to be run by the junior Mayor of Kingston. She is being mentored by the current mayor of Kingston, Topsy Petchey, who has a deep commitment to environmental issues. We plan to run the pilot event some time in the next couple of months.

I hope to be able to run Two Bays annually and develop more links with schools. This would also involve getting the data we collect more immediately on a website to allow for school kids to get involved and learn some science and cultural knowledge along the way.

As most people are aware we are holding this forum on the eve of the dredging of Port Phillip Bay and debate is raging on the potential damage that will be done to the Bay. People are also feeling at a loss with the broader perceived threats of climate change, making them feel powerless. There is plenty of room to worry on all those scores. But I think it is also important to remember that one of the biggest long term threats to the bays health and the future of all the creatures both big and small is our own unsustainable behavior in the catchments and population growth. In other words, there are many small actions that can be taken to help preserve the precious pool of biodiversity at the foot of our big city.

Bunjil’s warning to his people 10,0000 years ago is just as prescient today. We need to look after each other and the environment. And in the case of science, I hope, with our work, we can add to the store of knowledge that aids us in looking after and caring for country as well as we can.

The Event

2008-02-11T23:13:00.001+11:00

Musicians greeting the boat as we arrived at St Kilda Pier.
Drummer and the new Pelican puppet at the smoking welcome ceremony.
Nyet nyets with Weedy Sea dragon in the Background. Nyet nyets are bunyips. Very scary beasts!
Aurora helping Aunty Joy (Wurunjeri Elder) prepare for the smoking ceremony.

Well, Womenjika, came like the blasts of wind that accompanied the day, and is now a memory. And it was a good afternoon. Filled with the initial wild sail ride there. A boat filled with Elders from the Aboriginal community, young Koories and various other peoples invited on for the ride who were supporting the event.
Then onto a Welcome ceremony and finally to the stage set up at the St Kilda Baths, Here we had a combination of Music, Creation stories and stories from the Two Bays project. It is hard to transcribe the feeling of the night but suffice to say it all came together and everyone was happy.
I will post the short speech I made as it is a quite clear summary of some of what Pelican Expeditions has been up to and what drives us or more particularly, me.

Wominjeka

2008-01-28T01:33:00.002+11:00

Ahh the joys of cramming. Will post a bit more when this festival event is over but at the moment I am madly getting ready for the Two Bays Forum. I am working with the St Kilda Indigenous Festival and we are hopefully creating an interesting hybrid-style event.
Follow the links in the title for more info and will have some blogging time soon. Maybe.

What lies Underneath

2007-12-18T20:52:00.000+11:00

Young Mangrove underwater in Westernport Bay, Victoria.

How do you know what lies beneath until you look.
And then when one looks under the turbid waters how does one interpret what one sees?

I am on a boat with many intrepid lookers, who don their wetsuits in all conditions and enter the water to gain an insight into the world beneath the surface. The data they collect will add to the always increasing store of knowledge about unseen worlds and help the people who are engaged to manage these places more effectively and sensitively.

I am diving too. But I do not have a wetsuit. All I have is deep curiosity and a wide open heart. And of these places underneath. I am finding spaces that I never dared dream existed.

photos by Thierry Rolland

Two Bays

2007-12-08T12:48:00.000+11:00

Boonerwrung Elder Carolyn Briggs - Welcome to Country - Two Bays Launch, Docklands, 2nd December, 2007.

Andrew Denton getting to know Weedy at the Launch.

Weedy Sea Dragon, photographed by Guillaume Martinez an EPA scintist on the project. Flinders Pier.

The Nerd Centre of the Project

Two Bays is now well underway. We launched last Sunday, almost a week ago now. The State Environment Minister, Gavin Jennings, helped launch as well as our patron, Andrew Denton and a Welcome to Country and Ceremony by Carolyn Briggs. The event ran incredibly smoothly and I think I finally relaxed about the whole deal the following day. It is amazing how much time and effort can go into 45 minutes!

Time for blogging has been very scarce as I have been frantically putting this project together and at the same time been in a period of personal crisis. Matters of the heart.

The project is falling into place and as I write I can hear the chirpy sounds of a bunch of volunteer divers who have just emerged from snorkling, studying and exploring the Yaringa Marine Park in Western Port Bay.
I hope to blog a bit more over the next few days, but just wanted to get up that Two Bays is up and running and we are finally out on the water doing fun things!

As for the matters of the heart I am learning a process of being able to sit with complex feelings and allow the body and heart time to absorb, meditate and hopefully clarify. It is all one can do besides travel with as much honesty and hopefully integrity as possible.

I wrote a poem to try and capture a bit of this called-

FEET ON COUNTRY

One foot in front of the other,
stumbling on loose rock,
reminding me of one foot in front of the other.

Warmth, light and shadows on the path,
a Currowong calls, and I pause to listen.
I hear up ahead the returning call, "I am here, I am here."

The trees stretch up into the heat of the first day of Summer,
the forest speckled with the fresh green crowns of fern trees,
flickering pale limbs scarcer amongst the Ironbark.

I find a place to pause, a road carved in the forest,
making a seat.
I sit.

Return from Cape Flattery

2007-10-26T22:36:00.000+10:00

Cyril pointing to Pelican, heading off South at the end of the project.

Aurora, getting painted up as "White Cockatoo"

I feel I have been on the journey of a lifetime. The project was tremendous fun this year and I felt so welcomed to Country by the Bama people there. It was an absolute gift to have time to share and help create a small pilot project of Digital Story Telling with all the kids. I had a new friend join me, Samia Goudie, who has tremendous experience with Digital story telling and who has worked in Indigenous Health for over 15 years. Together I feel we embarked on the beginning of a very fruitful team endeavour. If you are interested in the project overall please have a read on our Pelican website which is mentioned in my links.
I realise now the wonderful power of collaborative work. The Pelican team just slotted into a web of relationships and we all together made many important connections and understandings.
Hope to write more soon about it all but the reality is that I am now emeshed in bringing Two Bays to life.

It's past the middle of the night....

2007-09-14T01:33:00.000+10:00

and I can't sleep and what better way to while away the insomnia but to end the cliffhanger of my last two blogs. Spring has again sprung and it looks like a long dry Summer ahead.

These beautiful star magnolias in the photo were bursting forth in Hobart. I travelled down to Tasmania to talk about a Two Bays kind of project along the East Coast.

Meanwhile Two Bays has been reborn in Victoria as the new Minister seems to like the project and it looks like we have the go-ahead. Hence another reason for sleepless nights as there is now so much to plan.

Just as well I have decided to make my way up to Hope Vale again this year as I am hoping to set up the Digital Story Telling component of the project with a new friend, Samia Goudie. I can forget about meetings for a week and enjoy the campsite again up at Cape Flattery.

The Bridge

2007-08-08T22:46:00.000+10:00

So, I'm looking for The Bridge.

Curve upside down bay

2007-08-08T22:38:00.000+10:00

Blogging seems a mile away from me at this stage. I had got the planning stages of the next project into some kind of control but unfortunately the main political player who was supporting Two Bays has suddenly resigned.

So, the bay is upside down for a bit!!

Bare Bones

2007-06-24T00:42:00.001+10:00

Photo of Marine Park at The Rip, Port Phillip Heads. Photo: Greg Blair.

Project Idea!

I am planning a larger project based on the Two Bays pilot project that we ran on Pelican in January this year. I am using this post to think out loud as I want to develop an aspect of the project around the known oral history of the Bay from the Boonerwrung people and link it with the understandings being developed from marine mapping. That's the bare bones.

The fleshing of the bones takes me back to an earlier post which gives a bit more detail on the links between the indigenous oral history relating to the geomorphology of this region and our current knowledge developed through marine mapping. During our project this year we were carrying out a large water quality survey and the results for Port Phillip Bay were that the bay is hyposaline, in fact, it is the saltiest since the EPA started monitoring 30 odd years ago. This is due to the fact that we have been in a very severe drought and the usual amounts of fresh water are not flowing into the bay. The bay is now saltier than Bass Strait (the ocean body at the entrance).
Usually the water from the bay flows out at the upper most level of the water, but as salt makes it heavier we are theorising that the water flowing out will be on bottom.

If you did go back to my earlier post you may now get an idea about why this exites my imagination. The water flowing out at the bottom may be recreating the original waterfall underwater. We will be able to test this with a wonderful oceanographer's tool called an acoustic Doppler current profiler, which will hopefully be able to capture the data to give us a true picture of the exchange processes taking place in the Rip.

The Boonerwrung Elders tell a story about the changes that happened here 10,000 years ago when the seas rose and created the bay and Bass Strait. Here is that story.

Bunjil is an Aboriginal god of creation

"Many years ago this land that we now call Melbourne extended right out to the ocean. Port Phillip Bay was then a large flat plain where Boonerwrung hunted kangaroos and cultivated their yam daisy.

But one day there came a time of chaos and crises. The Boonerwrung and the other Kulin nations were in conflict. They argued and fought. They neglected their children. They neglected their land. The native yam was neglected. The animals were killed but not always eaten. The fish were caught during their spawning season. As this chaos grew the sea became angry and began to rise until it covered their plain and threatened to flood the whole of their country.

The people went to Bunjil, their creator and spiritual leader. They asked Bunjil to stop the sea from rising. Bunjil told his people that they would have to change their ways if they wanted to save their land. The people thought about what they had been doing and made a promise to follow Bunjil. Bunjil walked out to the sea, raised his spear and directed the sea to stop rising. Bunjil then made the Boonerwrung promise that they would respect the laws.

The place the Kulin then chose to meet as a means of resolving these differences is where this Parliament [of Victoria] is now located. The Kulin nations met here regularly for many thousands of years. They debated issues of great importance to the nation; they celebrated, they danced. "

It seems that our time now is not so different to the crisis that is painted for the Aboriginal peoples. These strong warning stories (not dissimilar to the story of the Ark) have a strong resonance today as we face issues such as global warming and environmental destruction. I am hoping to amplify the science that we are doing in the Two Bays project through these deep cultural histories to help to bed us deeper in the place we are in and help support our efforts to protect it.

Bare bones still....Next comes the how, where and with whom!

end of the rainbow....over,over

2007-06-22T21:34:00.000+10:00

Wild Dog Rd meandering towards the sea.

If visiting, please visit the link on the title and while viewing recent wild dog pictures, have a listen to Israel Kamaawiwo Ole's version of "Somewhere over the rainbow"...

slow time

2007-06-04T15:32:00.002+10:00

I was joking recently that I wanted time to slow down for everything except my teenage step-daughter (I wouldn't mind if we jumped a couple of years for her sometimes!).

This picture of Aurora gives a sense of time slowing down for me. I like to try to create a sense of slow time in some of my photos. Trying to capture a moment which expands beyond the frame, be it through the composition, light or an indefinable something which just feels right.

Already this year is half way gone and I wonder at the speed of events and valiantly hope to gather pockets in which I can breathe deeply and feel a sense of quiet.....

I met an artist the other day...

2007-05-17T00:02:00.000+10:00

"April"
I met an artist the other day, she spoke of form and shape and work, of materials, of things and she listened to me. I spoke of how I was no longer playing with form and light and ideas but was trying to work collectively on many ideas. She listened and then she began to encourage and I felt thrilled by her thrill. She understood what we were doing in a way that my old painting professor may have. Somehow her approval means a lot to me. It bouys me and gives me energy.

Below is a portrait of my shadow. The house is the front of a wonderful gallery that is just outside of Young in N.S.W. A friend and I made a road trip last weekend with our kids and drove 8 hours from Melbourne. A Mother's Day getaway.
What fun we had and what wonderful people we encountered!

Annabel Wallace Gallery.

Suitable Transport

2007-04-16T23:04:00.000+10:00

Aurora and I travelled today to the city to support some friends who are taking part in a project called Suitable Transport. On the way while waiting for suitable transport (a tram, which unfortunately was running late), we were stationed at a tram stop with a fellow traveller (pictured below). She kept her jacket over her head and kept muttering things to herself. I could only make out what she was saying when she raised her voice to swear which she started to do quite frequently as the time stretched. I wanted to share a bit of her frustration as we too wanted the tram so that we could hear all the speeches and be there in time to throw confetti over all the bike riders. Anyway it is another photo I could not resist. I'm glad though that Aurora seemed oblivious to the mutterings and was a little surprised I took the photo.

Frustrated commuter.

The bikes line up.

Stephen Gale (pictured 2nd on right), who incidently has helped us a lot (Pelican Expeditions) over the years of building the boat Pelican1, recently started riding a battery powered bike and was so impressed with them that he thought up the project so that lots of people would learn about their transport potential. He has gathered 20 people to ride with him from Melbourne to Sydney to press the point. He also gathered this impressive dome (pictured below) to help launch the project. It is none other than Peter Garrett (ex Midnight Oil singer, present Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Heritage and the Arts -catch breath) Or at least the back of him!
So...Go Bike Power!!!

Theory of Painting 1

2007-04-10T13:55:00.000+10:00

"Lookout"

This is one of a series of paintings I did quite a while ago. All the pictures played around with letters in a landscape, mainly the letter P. This letter appears everywhere in an urban setting as you are roaming around looking for a parking space.

The old "Where do I belong? " chestnut became aligned with the simple process of composing, seemingly arbitarily, these urban pointers in an incongruous setting .

Anyone reading this will probably be thinking "This girl should stop right there!" I don't paint at the moment but similar questions still haunt me in different ways. It is why whenever I am taking photographs, I am still drawn to photos of signs which seem abstracted in the landscape. I respond with my old painter eye which delights in a flat shape in space that resonates with my old way of feeling myself into the world (with a level of distance,disbelief and irony). All those elements have changed in me today which is why the photo below seems a little warmer. Anyway I couldn't resist taking it.

Sign.

Pandora

2007-04-08T14:44:00.000+10:00

Artist - Tom Shirley

I've just recently discovered this music listening site which looks great. I can't check it out properly until I get home onto broadband. Something to look forward to in the Big Smoke at least.

Pandora

Here is their rave...

"Ever since we started the Music Genome Project, our friends would ask:

Can you help me discover more music that I'll like?

Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that we were now their personal DJs.

We created Pandora so that we can have that same kind of conversation with you."

meanwhile back at the farm ...

2007-04-02T22:57:00.000+10:00

Aurora enjoying the farm.

Native cotton.

Dam with lilies.

It has been a busy few years. Before my blogging days and before my daughter turned 2 (she is now 5) I used to visit my mum's farm in SE Queeensland at least once a year. Unfortunately life has been too busy to slow down and get down onto the farm!! We have finally been able to get here as a family and I am absorbing every quiet moment as deeply as I can!

The farm grows macadamia nuts but it really grows trees and my mum has slowly been returning most of the land to original health.

Mum's farm is close to the sea and my husband Paul has borrowed a long board and enjoying the amazing surf.

Do you believe in magic?

2007-03-28T22:43:00.000+10:00

At the end of March, my daughter had a 5th Birthday party. It is a milestone birthday in so many ways. As she is very interested in magic I found a magician who came and entertained Aurora and a group of her friends. This year she handled all the invites and it was the first time that she lots of playmates from her kinder. The topic of magic comes up all the time and I love hearing the way her lively imagination concocts theories about everything! Though she has a good lashing of healthy skepticism, seen here as she contemplates the magician's hat!

Our offshore processing nightmare....

2007-03-16T21:28:00.000+11:00

The Christmas Island Detention centre - due to be opened mid 2007. Another out of sight - out of mind stroke of genius by the Liberal Government.

The 82 Sri Lankan asylum seekers (see earlier post) are now to be removed from Christmas Island to Nauru. They have not had any access to legal support or advice. The process of identifying and sorting out their claims will take a much longer period on Nauru. People have been left on Nauru for up to 5 years before their claims have then been recognised. Kevin Andrews, our Immigration Minister, has stated that even if they are assessed as bona fide refugees they will be sent to any other country except Australia.

The history of recent events points out that the majority of asylum seekers who have been placed in these offshore centres have been judged legitimate and have ended up in Australia or New Zealand. Our government takes the view that if we processed these applications humanely and in decent time, it would encourage and reward the people smugglers who manage to bring these desperate people all the way to our shores. And that the people who make it here by such means are queue jumpers, illegal etc etc. I doubt that one of these government boffins has attempted for one minute to put themselves in the shoes of these so called "illegals". They seem to forget that we are not such a desirable or easy to get to target for people who are fleeing. We are a long way away and are surrounded by sea. It seems to me that the process of criminalizing people who have already often suffered is an arse about way of dealing with people in dire need.

Offshore processing began with the Tampa , which conveniently dovetailed into Howard's strategy of creating an atmosphere of fear ("the illegals probably harbour terrorists among them") during an election(2004) campaign. And this year is an election year in Oz!

Just adding that as worrying as the conditions on Christmas Island are, the Asylum Seekers are desperate to stay there and not be shipped to Nauru.

Image below by an asylum seeker at Nauru.

Ali Raza at the fence 2005 Nauru detention Centre - Artist Syed M Ali

Cockroach post

2007-03-06T21:00:00.000+11:00

Well, to be precise, a Madagascan Hissing Cockroach, which just happened to remind me of our Prime Minister.
We may be confronting problems on the scale of global warming (which, incidentally, has already hit Melbourne if the increase in the cockroach population is any guage), the horror of the continuing debacle of Iraq, Afgahnistan's plight and many issues close to home , like the lack of good Aged Care services but all our PM can do is hiss at the ascendant Opposition with all sorts of dirty smear tactics and generally avoid any policy development or discussion thereof. I am so sick to death with politics at the moment and the current game playing seems mildly insane and very inane!

Another event to raise my ire has been the predictable weasly responses of this government to the Sri Lanka refugees who managed to get close to our shores in a leaky vessel. Initially the intercepting Navy were trying to shoo them away but when it was obvious they were sinking, they took the 83 Tamil refugees and two Indonesian crew to Christmas Island (where our Government is spending millions to build an off shore asylum processing complex (far away from pesky lawyers that talk about Human Rights etc). But this was also too close as the refugees had been in international waters so we don't want to deal with them so what do we do - we ask the Indonesians to take them because they haven't signed the UN charter on refugees and have much less ability and infrastructure to deal with them. As there has been an outcry from the good public that Jakarta would just send them back to Sri Lanka we are now looking at putting them on Nauru (which has been used to dump our unwanted before and has led to huge delays in the processing of asylum claims.

If I hear one more Minister banging on about the fact that "We will choose who comes here." I will - What can you do, besides write, protest and pull my hair out!!

A little bit of schmaltz...

2007-02-28T13:17:00.000+11:00

The Bridal party with Kissing Cousins.

Blame the schmaltz on Scout who asked me how the Wedding went.
It was a fantastic afternoon and evening. There is nothing like having cause for celebration and then celebrating!!
I read a Traditional Apache prayer before saying some personal words. Here is the prayer...

Now you will feel no rain
for each of you will be a shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you will be warmth for the other.
Now there is no loneliness for you,
now there is no more loneliness.
Now you are two bodies
but there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place
to enter into your days together
And may your days be good and long on the earth.

Dancing Girls

Wedding Day

2007-02-24T22:57:00.000+11:00

Just a quick thought, as I am trying to get some much needed sleep tonight before my sister's wedding tomorrow.
All roads to love tend on the rocky side and my sister has had her fair share of difficulties (including just recently getting through cervical cancer). She has met up with a man, who seems, at least to me, to be a very good hearted and wonderful person. And I will be wishing them both all the very best tomorrow. My post is about the difficulties of saying all I want to say succinctly in the few minutes that I will have to fill, in the middle of the ceremony. Which, in itself, will be brief.
Anyway, I only hope I can rise to the occasion. After that I will very merrily celebrate!

The old shell...

2007-02-18T01:37:00.000+11:00

“If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.”
Gaston Bachelard

I am saying goodbye to a house (which I have just sold) that has sheltered me and many friends over the last 20 odd years. I do not live there now and left it a few years ago but it lives inside me as a treasured repository of many memories good and bad!
The house has a distant view of my old State School and is near a bridge which spans the Yarra River. This bridge was one, I and my adventurous friends, used to scramble under to find the most dangerous way possible to cross the river. It is near the site of my first smoke (I have since given up tobacco) at the age of 12. A parkie, sitting on a bench near the river helped us kids light our first pipe! It helped fund my studies in England and Germany and has held many a fine party.

I managed to renovate the back of the house and transformed it (with help from an Architect friend) into a kind of teahouse space. I found all the recycled wood to build it with and had a lot of joy directing the building. The house always resonated with me and I found it very difficult to make the decision to sell. As I thought about it I realised I had owned it for over 20 years which, is a far longer connection with a house than any of my childhood abodes. I had found my base there in more ways than just physically in space.

So, farewell old shell, and thankyou!

Invasion Day ( Australia Day)

2007-01-29T20:46:00.000+11:00

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...

2007-01-13T22:32:00.000+11:00

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

2007-01-04T00:08:00.000+11:00

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

2007-01-01T00:18:00.000+11:00

Looking towards the Wilddog valley.

mirror world

2006-12-30T00:29:00.000+11:00

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...

2006-11-16T23:42:00.000+11:00

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

2006-10-16T23:50:00.000+10:00

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.

travelling north..

2006-09-26T23:34:00.000+10:00

Photo-Sandy Scheltema
Pelican1 resting near Lizard Island.

I will not be posting for a while (not that I am such a regular poster) as I am heading up North to take part in the last week of a Pelican Expeditions project. This is our third project with the Hope Vale Aboriginal Community in Cape York. Pelican will be working for two weeks and we will have up to 200 Community members involved. I may do a more in depth post about it later but if you are interested you can go to

Pelican Expeditions

to follow the on line blog about it all. I will be taking my daughter, Aurora and camping at Cape Flattery.

Photo-Sandy Scheltema
The photo above is from the top of Lizard Island which is central to the Hope Vale project. This photo was taken during the Coral Bleaching project of the young Indigenous trainees involved.