Incoming ... Pacific Black Duck! Photos: David Hartney
By Catherine Watson
WHEN David and Jeannie Hartney moved to The Cape, they downsized their home but expanded their connection to the natural world.
David had long been interested in nature, a passion that blossomed during the couple’s years on a 20-acre eucalyptus woodland property in central Victoria. “That was when I finally had time to see things,” he recalls. “I started taking a few photos of orchids and birds.”
They discovered The Cape in 2019 after hearing developer Brendan Condon talk about the estate’s environmental vision. Intrigued, they visited, and decided to move. A few months after their arrival, David published the first edition of Cape Chatter, a modest newsletter to document local flora and fauna. Issue No. 135 was published recently.
WHEN David and Jeannie Hartney moved to The Cape, they downsized their home but expanded their connection to the natural world.
David had long been interested in nature, a passion that blossomed during the couple’s years on a 20-acre eucalyptus woodland property in central Victoria. “That was when I finally had time to see things,” he recalls. “I started taking a few photos of orchids and birds.”
They discovered The Cape in 2019 after hearing developer Brendan Condon talk about the estate’s environmental vision. Intrigued, they visited, and decided to move. A few months after their arrival, David published the first edition of Cape Chatter, a modest newsletter to document local flora and fauna. Issue No. 135 was published recently.
David wears his learning lightly, capturing the daily dramas of birds, beasts and humans in breathtaking photos and vivid - often gently humorous - prose:
A ‘plump’ of Chestnut Teal flying over the east-west chain of ponds in a ‘peaceful sortie’. This species has returned in numbers to The Cape since the recent rain. As they arrived, the flock of Australian Wood Duck that was grazing the open spaces over the dry months has up and gone. That’s a male Chestnut Teal top right in breeding plumage and females in his slipstream. You will notice the ducks more active from now as they prepare for the breeding season—many chasing each other in flight.
What sets Cape Chatter apart is its extraordinary detail. Confined to a tight geographic focus, about 80 hectares in and around The Cape, including the adjacent Yallock-Bulluk Coastal Reserve, it offers an intimate window into an evolving ecosystem.
Every photo, every sighting, contributes to a growing record of how life, both human and wild, is adjusting to a new kind of neighbourhood in which the home gardens, streets and swales are designed as habitat as well as infrastructure.
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“I began Chatter primarily to photo-document the reconstruction of the natural habitat at The Cape, which is very extensive for a housing development,” David says. “But I was also keen to observe how the inter-relationship between people, homes, and the natural world evolves. Hopefully in a positive way.”
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So far, the results are encouraging. Careful plant selection and clever water retention on the estate have brought birds, insects, and mammals back to what was previously a fairly degraded area. And residents have become participants. David now has a “small army” of observers who share sightings, tip him off to unusual bird calls, and deepen their own connection to the landscape.
Providing water and natural structures in a home garden landscape can bring all sorts of surprising visitors into close proximity to connect with, observe and enjoy from the comfort of your home garden.
His online database includes years of seasonal sightings: when a rare bird first appeared, when another vanished. “It’s a slow-building but incredibly rich record,” he says. He hopes it will one day serve as a case study in how sustainable development can work – hopefully for wildlife as well as humans.
Putting the newsletter together is no small task. Downloading, sorting, writing all takes time. But, says David, the heart of it is still being out in nature. “That’s my mindfulness time. That’s when I switch off and connect with the natural world.”
He also co-ordinates the local hooded plover team between Undertow Bay and Harmers Haven, which brings him to the pointy end of the intersection between wildlife and humans. It doesn’t always go well.
“I think the world has gone backwards since Covid,” he says. “People seem more entitled. They don’t want to obey regulations or authority.”
Still, the work continues. Cape Chatter may be aimed at local residents, but its message resonates more broadly: if we pay attention, we might just learn how to live better with the natural world around us.
The local Kangaroo mob are relishing the new lease of life in the grasses with the recent rains. They have literally sprung back to life! There are quite a few joeys around that have found some new found freedom from mum’s pouch. You can see them running around like energetic horse foals and returning to mum for more sustenance every now and then. I had a wonderful time recently watching this particular joey on the Weathertop ridge bounding about exploring the world and taking it all in.