By Laura Brearley

WORLD Environment Day is happening this Sunday. It’s the day the United Nations established 50 years ago and this year they have returned to their original theme, ‘Only One Earth’. The 2022 campaign is calling on us to celebrate the planet through collective environmental action.

There is a lot of collective environmental action happening right now in our Bass Coast community. People are coming together in multiple ways through different networks. Alliances are forming and critical connections are being made. People are sharing knowledge and pooling their expertise, creating collaborative communities with an ecological focus. ​

​More than 200 locals showed their support for the campaign to Save the Western Port Woodlands with an afternoon of wine, art and song at the Gurdies winery last Sunday. 

The weather gods smiled and two wedge-tailed eagles cruised above a great line-up of talent: Kutcha Edwards, Doc White, Laura Brearley and Friends, Rosie Westbrook, Bass Coast Pickers and the SB Bandibeats.

All musicians gave of their time and talents generously to support the campaign to preserve the woodlands from a surge in sand mining. Men at Work frontman Colin Hay and friends sent a special recording of the Oz classic Down Under in support.

The concert was followed by an art auction conducted by former Bass Coast Mayor Brett Tessari, who used his experience in real estate to extract maximum bids from the audience.

Twenty-two works were sold for a total of $7485, with $4235 to go to Save the Western Port Woodlands. 

Thanks to Bass Coast Shire Council for supporting Save Western Port Woodlands with a community grant used to buy campaign t-shirts, brochures, car stickers and advertising.

By Dr Laura Brearley
 
TERRY and I have been walking and filming in the coastal woodlands over the last couple of weeks. We’ve also been spending time with singing and ukulele groups who have been learning the song ‘Are You Listening?’ for the outro of a film we are making about the precious Western Port woodlands, currently at risk from sandmining expansion.
 
We have been inspired by the community’s willingness to come together and raise their voices in this way. This week, we have worked with two of Mandy Farr’s local ukulele groups, one at the Warrawee Senior Citizens Club in Inverloch and another at the Wonthaggi Neighbourhood Centre. There we were joined by members of the Bass Coast Post community and the Gippsland Singers Network.

By Laura Brearley
 
XANTHORRHOEA is the botanical name for Grass Tree. The name comes from the Greek word Xanthos, meaning ‘to flow’. The name was inspired by the sap that flows from the stem of the Grass Tree.
 
It’s been a week full of flow. Tears of loss and outrage have flowed in the community for the lack of care shown to hundreds of Grass Trees in Grantville, removed to make way for the expansion of a sandmine. Community members who saw them last weekend, said that many of the uprooted Grass Trees were dead or dying from the recent hot weather we have had.
 
Some of the Grass Trees were over 200 years old and pre-dated colonisation. They were beautiful and a significant part of a living and ancient eco-system. We are all diminished by their removal and subsequent loss.

Dr Laura Brearley
 
WE HAVE come to a critical point in the community conversation about the establishment of an AGL gas terminal at Crib Point on Western Port Bay. The issue has been in our awareness for years, but we have a short window now to gather our collective strength, listen to the science and do what we feel the future is asking of us. 
 
My husband Terry and I live on Phillip Island (Millowl) and we love Western Port Bay (Warn’Marring). We love its beauty and its stillness and we love its birds. It is from this place of love that we have been writing songs, making films and bringing community members together in response to AGL’s proposal. 

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​By Laura Brearley
 
DO YOU have a special place that you love? At the ocean, by a river, in the rolling hills?
 
We would like you to tell us about it, in 150 words or less, and to send us an image of your special place in this region. We’d love to hear from you and invite you into the Coastal Connections project.
 
The community-based project weaves together creative writing, musical composition and film-making, with a focus on the natural world. It will result in an exhibition and the development of seven short films about local people and their special places. The new works will showcase our community’s creative gifts and the beauty of our local natural environment.

By Laura Brearley

ONE OF the many things that COVID has revealed to me, is that if you love a place, it will love you back. It’s an extension of Arthur Rubinstein’s idea that "if you love life, life will love you back". This year, Terry and I have been walking close to home more than ever before. We have discovered many new places, sometimes returning at different times of the day, as the light and the length of the shadows change.
 
During the COVID era, my love of this region has grown ever deeper. I love the gentle lapping of water along the Western Port Bay coastline and I love the surf crashing on to rocks at Kilcunda. I love the floating morning mists at the mouth of the Bass River and in the hills behind Grantville. I love the peace of the Rhyll wetlands and the pink stillness of Swan Lake at sunset. 

Dr Laura Brearley
Photos and video Terry Melvin
 
TERRY and I have been doing a lot of walking on beautiful Bass Coast Country during the COVID era. Terry’s been photographing and filming as we go and is in the process of making a series of short films which weave together music, images, words and natural sounds. A couple of days ago, we got up before sunrise and went to the mouth of the Powlett River, where we’ve been a few times over the last couple of months.
 
​Yesterday, Terry uploaded his first film in the series and it features the mouth of the Powlett River, including some footage from our sunrise walk. It also includes some beautiful poetic text written and gifted by Boon Wurrung Elder Aunty Fay Stewart-Muir about Country and its transformative power. The film also includes her translation for the words ‘Heartbeat of the Earth’- ‘Tooroong Marnang Biik’ which we’ve used in the title as well as the Boon Wurrung word for Powlett River – ‘Kugerungmome’.

Out on the Bay
 
Life has its own rhythm. The seasons and the cycles of the natural world keep it steady and balanced. When left undisturbed, this flow of life is beautiful to witness and be part of. When the balance is lost, there is great danger for all of life. The rhythm of life deserves to be honoured.
 
Peaceful times out on the Bay
Rising mist, dawn of day 
Tide is rising, moving slow   
Peaceful times, let’s keep it so
 
Out on the Bay
Day after day
Nature’s rhythm has its way
And that’s how it needs to stay
 
Restful times out on the Bay
Lapping water, lazy day
Tide is falling, moving slow
Restful times, let’s keep it so

Out on the Bay
Day after day
Nature’s rhythm has its way
And that’s how it needs to stay
Yes that’s how it needs to stay
 
Words and music by Laura Brearley
APRA/AMCOS Work Registration Identification Code GW58622175
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Time to See

Migratory birds enlarge our worlds. They connect us to places across the planet and to those who share our love for them. Their courage in making their long flights across the world is inspiring. The loss of many of their feeding, breeding and resting places along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway is heart-breaking. The numbers of the critically endangered Eastern Curlew have dropped by 80% in the last thirty years. The Eastern Curlew is just one breed of endangered shorebirds who return every year to the wetlands of Western Port Bay. Further industrialisation of the Western Port Bay wetlands endangers them all.
           
It’s time to see that a Ramsar site
Is not a place where industry should be
Time to hear the cries of birds
Calling us to act carefully
 
For Far Eastern Curlews
Red Knots and Fairy Tern
For Bar-Tailed Godwits
Will we listen and will we learn?
      
For waterbirds and waders
Their breeding ground’s at stake
For saltmarsh and seagrass
Will we wake for pity’s sake?
It’s time to see that a Ramsar site
Is not a place where industry should be
Time to hear the cries of birds
Calling us to act carefully

Words and music by Laura Brearley
* APRA/AMCOS Work Registration Identification Code    GW58622148