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

No Way

Some things in life are so precious, they are priceless. The AGL’s proposed gas facility in Western Port Bay highlights the question of what we value most. The proposal asks us to question our core motivations. It invites us to reflect on the possible implications of choosing financial gain over life and living systems. Economic considerations are not always paramount. The health of Western Port Bay’s eco-systems is what matters most here.
 
No way to a gas tank in our Bay
The cost of a mess is far too high to pay
We wanna healthy sea
In every way
We gotta keep things clean
That’s why we say
No way  no way  
No way to a gas tank in our Bay
 
Words and music by Laura Brearley.
APRA/AMCOS Work Registration Identification Code GW58622164
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Flowing On
 
Everything is interconnected. The past flows into the future, carrying the memories and the stories of the living beings who have preceded us. The future calls us to be responsible in our present-day choices. Al living beings and eco-systems in the years to come depend on us to be thoughtful and wise in our decision-making. They are asking us to make choices that support life now and into the future.
 
What we do will flow on through
What we do keeps flowing on through
Living water here right now
Remembers what it’s been through
And what we do will flow on through
 
When we care for wetlands lovingly
There’s a song of thanks from the open sea                                 
Thanks from the fishes
Thanks from the birds   
Thanks from the whole of Mother Earth
           
What we do will flow on through
What we do keeps flowing on through
Living water here today
Carries the future too, and
What we do will flow on through         
 
What we do will flow on
What we do will flow on
What we do will flow on through
 
Words and music by Laura Brearley.
APRA/AMCOS Work Registration Identification Code GW58622160

Blessings

We are in relationship with Country. Generous teaching from First Nations people around the world have shown us that. They still wait for us to listen and learn and so does the Earth. The AGL proposal for Western Port Bay may seem like a local issue but it involves us all and the implications of the decisions made here will touch all of life. May we let wisdom guide us in every step along the way. May we recognise the richness of the blessings that flow from the Earth. And may our decisions reflect and reveal the flow of life that sustains us all.
 
May rain fall where it’s needed on the land
May ancient wisdom help us understand
As water flowing clear and free
May we treat the Living World lovingly          
 
Blessings on Western Port Bay
May we let the future guide our way
Blessings on justice being done
May blessings rain on everyone
 
May birds fill our hearts with song
May our love of Earth be deep and strong
As birds returning from the sea
May we find our way home easily
 
Blessings on Western Port Bay
May we let the future guide our way
Blessings on justice being done
May blessings rain on everyone
 
Words and music by Laura Brearley
APRA/AMCOS Work Registration Identification Code GW58622199
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Taking a Stand
 
As we witness the damage being done to the Earth, we are all diminished. We experience the sense of loss and it is profound. As part of the Earth’s living systems, we recognise that    the damagie is not separate from us. We are part of the damage done. We perpetrate it and we suffer from it. Deep grief comes from waking up to our interconnection with all of life. We are all being called to feel the grief, to wake up and live with more care. 
 
We’re walking on the Earth
Walking lightly on the land
But what we feel is heavy so
We’re taking a stand
 
For all that is fragile
For all that’s being hurt
For all that needs saving
For love of the Earth
     
We’re listening to the Earth
To songs of sea and land
But what we hear is crying so
We’re taking a stand
 
For all that is fragile
For all that’s being hurt
For all that needs saving
For love of the Earth
For love of the Earth     
For love of the Earth
 
Words and music by Laura Brearley
APRA/AMCOS Work Registration Identification Code GW58622167

When Laura Brearley went for a walk to see the shearwaters return at dusk, she had no idea it would change her life and lead to Phillip Island’s first Shearwater Festival.

By Laura Brearley

IT WAS a cold night three years ago at Cape Woolamai that I first came across the shearwaters. I had heard that the shearwaters were back from Alaska and that they came in to shore at dusk. The locals had many stories about the birds and for the most part, it seemed, held a deep affection for them. 

I was working as an associate professor in the faculty of education at Monash Gippsland, where my husband also worked.  We led absurdly busy lives. We were living on a bush property in the Strzelecki Ranges near the university. I was still recovering from the intensity of the Black Saturday bushfires and had a deep longing, a need actually, to be near the ocean. ​