Unfolding The Park

Presented by AILA Cultivate

I recently joined a series of speakers to take people on a guided walk through the Queen Victoria Gardens and the Kings Domain. We each chose a plant species, built intervention or area of the garden to act as a vector from which we could trace back or speculate-forward.

I wove together the Silurian sediments and their formation into a poem that traced the connections between our bodies, deep time and the process of settling.

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Unfolding

What is it to unfold this body

on this Earth,

this 400 million-year-old

bedrock cushioned by 

soils and grass

Together we settle

like deep water sediments

At first

we 

mirror

shorelines

waves and currents

pulled this way and that

suspended amongst

the grit and gravel 

washed from distant mountains

from histories that shaped us, crafted us. 

we fell from waterfalls

rolled in cataracts and tumbled in rivers 

together, swept from Gondwanan shorelines

We are now, 

drifting

suspended

supported 

embraced in shallow blue waters

benthic creatures crawl beneath us, 

trilobites with hard shells and flat bodies, 

snail-like gastropods, corals and speckled starfish. 

We drift further, lighter

shell grit, mica, and quartz roll and wash beneath us 

we settle more,

tension

drops like sand

through water

Sediments

settling to this

Silurian sea floor

We travel

on currents

following upwellings,

eddies and conveyor belts 

falling as turbidities,

vast underwater landslides

caught in oceanic gyres

channels of water 

churned by

equatorial winds.

It is a 

deeper ocean now

the water is clearer

We are fine particles of clay 

drifting down through

sunlit water columns

graptolites, communities

of micro animals

float by us 

in the deep

their bodies  

wavy fern-like threads 

all settling down

together

layer upon layer upon

layer. Sand, mud, silt.

We are all this

sediments settled

on a distant sea floor

We are earth now

a cycle

finding our way back, across millions of years

to Mountains, 

to folding, rolling, faulting, rising earth

to road cuttings

and soft grass

To this moment now

bodies settled like deep water sediments

lying here, resting on 

oceanic bedrock that was once mountains

that is now, making its way back to the sea

along a river, in currents and eddies. 

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This event was made possible through generous support from the City of Melbourne.

Lead Photo: Neil Parley

Sunday 5th of March

11am - 12pm

Speakers

Philomena Manifold

Emile Zile

Luca Lana

Renee Miller-Yeaman

Alistair Kirkpatrick

Australian Communicators Confrence

I recently had the opportunity to attend the ASC2023 conference thanks to AuScope. The theme was was Hindsight, Insight and Foresight. As a science communicator and writer, I found the conference to be an excellent opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and gain valuable insights into the field.

One of the highlights of the conference for me was the keynote address by Dr Cathy Foley, who spoke about the importance of communicating science effectively to the public. She emphasised that scientists need to engage with the public in a way that is accessible and relatable, and that we need to continue to build trust and understanding between the scientific community and the general public.

Here is a great sum up the conference by Phenomics Australia.

Walking Brännö

The rocks here are rounded, weathered and abundant. Their great bodies rise and fall between the ocean and land. They are a group of rocks that have been heated and compressed, altered so that they are now metamorphic rocks. Their most recent reworking was during the Sveconorwegian orogenesis about 1.59–1.52 billion years ago. Orogenesis is a term that speaks of mountain building, of the great subterranean forces at work as Earth’s tectonic plates converge. 

Brännö is an island in the Gothenburg archipelago. There is a small ferry that will take you from Saltholmen to Brännö.

 

Lithology sourced from SGU:

Metagraywacke: greywacke (sandstone) metamorphosed.

Quartzite: quartz rich sandstone metamorphosed.

Paragneiss: sedimentary rock metamorphosed showing gneissic mineralogy and texture.

Metabasalt: metamorphosed basalt.

(1.6-1.5 billion years)

The sounds of this island have stayed with me. The falling, running water, dripping from leaves and burbling along rivulets. Pathways overflowing with water. The full moon high tide was rising as we walked.

These rocks have a complicated history. Some were sandstones, a sedimentary rock that forms as grains wash, tumble and settle while others were originally basalt, a rock formed from volcanoes. Both have been heated and altered, in some cases the heat has been so intense that the original rock has melted completely forming granite like textures.  

Now, walking across these, exposed, rounded, bodies of rock, you will find evidence of this re-working. Across one rock face are the ripples of heat and pressure, minerals gathered and puckered into ribbons of tight folds. In a few places, mylonite fabrics run in delicate linearity marking moments of dynamic recrystallisation. 

As I walked over these rocks, Orthoclase (K-feldspar) stood out in its peachy pink lightness. Its smooth faces speak to its etymology, “Greek orthos - ‘right’ in allusion to the mineral's right angle of good cleavage”. The whole landscape was harmonised with this warm colour. As the sun set, this was enhanced so that the whole island was thrumming in a soft apricot luminosity. I noticed that I was, despite the fierce westerly wind, feeling rested and at ease here. The colours, textures and forms of this outcropping rock and its grasses reflected time spent in the elements, shaped and formed together.  

For a deeper exploration of the geology take a look at this great post by Wes Gibbons on the nearby island of Vrångö.

Parian marble

Walking towards the sunset, around the bay of Parikia, I came across this outcrop of weathered marble.

Jutting out into the Agean, topped by a traditional Cycladic windmill, it caught the light in a way that seemed lit from within. This luminosity is a feature of Parian marble, a quality that made it highly sort after through out antiquity. Parian marble has been used to create the Medici Venus, the Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace.

Here the marble is weathered; fractures and pitting have sculpted it into a landscape of varied textures. This weathering is determined by the properties of calcite, the grain size and mineral form. 

The island of Paros is dominated by metamorphic rocks (marble, gneiss, and schists). It is part of the Cycladic island complex. 

 

Logaras Beach, Paros

 

Athens

 

Mythos

Flying into Athens, Greece.

Notes from Steven Fry’s Mythos

CERES Meditation Garden Launch

A midwinter celebration of the Meditation Garden.

Mapping memory: Lorne Point theolithic

Spirit of Place 2022 - Lorne Sculpture Biennale 2022

ABC Afternoons

ABC Radio – Broadcast Tue 20 Apr 2021 at 12:30pm

Arrival of Third Print Run

Celebrating the third print run of Written in Stone – 2000 books!

The Organ Pipes

The Organ Pipes National Park is in Wurundjeri country just outside of Melbourne. The path from the carpark winds down to the river banks. Along these banks you will find beautiful dark, linear cast cliffs. This columnar jointing forms as a result of lava cooling slowly. The cracks form on the surface of the lava in a similar way to mud cracks forming on a drying river bank. The cooling cracks then propagate downwards through the lava and if the conditions are optimal (slow cooling) these cracks can retain their unique geometric form.

This hexagonal pattern is found throughout nature and represents the most efficient structure in terms of surface area e.g honeycomb structures made by bees.

 

Great Escape Books

Author talk at Great Escape Books to support the great work of the Friends of Eagle Rock Marine Sanctuary.

Australian Therapeutic Landscapes Conferences

A presentation that reflected on the contribution of partnerships and their dynamics throughout the design process. Challenges included; How do you cultivate a sense of ownership and investment in a community space?

How does a designer create a garden that meets the varied and commenting needs of its users?

How can a sense of refuge be cultivated while also accommodating 40+ school children and large industrial trucks?

Drawing on Jeffries (2015) ‘Keep It Simple, Make It Valuable, Build It Piece by Piece’ I was able to bring all these aspects together. The result is a crafted space, suffused with meaning in layout and use of materials.

Reading the rocks of the Great Ocean Road | Smarter Impact #019

Blarney Books and Art

Sofia Mundi Field Trip

Wayward Books– Kensington Arts Festival 2018

Wild Otways Exhibition

An exhibition to protection of the fragile biodiversity of the Otway Ranges through art. Central to this exhibit was showing the connection between the Otways region and its people.

The exhibition was held at the Arts INC Gallery and in Hello Coffee Roastery in Apollo Bay between 28th of September and 26th of October. After the exhibit in Apollo Bay the works were moved to the Nature Gallery of the Conservation Ecology Centre at Cape Otway.

All profits from the exhibit go to conservation in the Otways.

Law and Ethics Mapping

Mapping project for Melbourne University Law.

Brief: Create a map that uses the natural environment to communicate the different stages of litigation.

Each node is interactive and brings up an A4 detailed page which can be printed by students. These can be linked together to form a large format map of the subject.