Such a beautiful sunny winters morning Mother Nature delivered for our walk around Minter gully in Bellbrae. Many of the enthusiastic 26 people gathered there commented on how lucky we all were that morning. The gathering at the 25-acre private property explored the challenges in finding an optimal balance between the needs of humans and other living beings within a shared space.
Photo by Ian Nevin
The first part of the walk was dedicated to delving into establishing a chemical-free thriving food garden, pest control and composting. Winter foods growing included flourishing citrus trees, a productive tamarillo tree, lettuces, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, silver beet, kale, onions, garlic and ginger.
Initiatives for lowering the resource usage of the existing dwelling and inhabitants embraced extensive solar panel and battery storage systems, maximising insulation, installation of triple glazing and reducing the footprint of the house. Challenges affecting water usage from the recent drought affected dam and in-ground water storage were described.
After viewing photographic displays of the incumbent wildlife, indigenous plants, moths and fungi, we considered how all species are interconnected and how precarious their dependence on the diminishing insect world was becoming.
Display table (photo by Liz Fenwick)
Next it was off into the bushland. We stuck to a bark laid track which followed the course of the large dam, viewing the messmate, Eucalyptus obliqua dominated landscape under which we passed a grove of Pouched Coral-fern, Gleichenia dicarpa, Screw Fern, Lindsaea linearis, Silver Banksia, Banksia marginata, Furze Hakea, Hakea ulicina, bejewelled Scented Sundew, Drosera aberrans, Honey-pots, Acrotriche serrulata and Horny Cone-Bush, Isopogon ceratophyllus amongst others. In response to a noted sense of peace and wellbeing in the gully, there followed discussion about what the landscape would have offered our First Nations people and the nature of the gatherings which might have taken place along what was probably, many decades ago, the flowing course of a creek.
Walking along the track (photo by Liz Fenwick)
Wandering back along a pathway through the indigenous landscaped garden we spotted a couple of loved-up Corellas, Cacatua tenuirostris and Galahs, Eolophus roseicapilla high in the naked tree branches.
Corellas
Galahs (bird photos by Louise Price)
As we stood looking down on the billabong, a Wedge-tailed Eagle, Aquila audax glided above as if to say farewell.
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Liz Fenwick