Merri Island Planting and Clean-up

(Near Zoe Circuit, Northcote, Melway 30 C8. Funded by Melbourne Water River Health Incentives Program.)

Ray (secretary of Friends of Merri Creek) told us on the day that Merri Island was the first site the Friends worked on in 1989. The island was constructed (I think for storm water management) and trees were planted. 20 years on the trees are now quite large and established. Staff of the MCMC have been working hard to clear rubbish and weeds such as Wandering Jew.
I'm not sure which 'Wandering Jew' was infesting the island, there are a few plants with this name including Commelina cyanea (also known as Scurvy weed - native to the East Coast of Australia, NSW to QLD). There was also another vine infesting the island growing up into the canopy. MCMC staff cleared these weeds, and laid weed mats and even dug the holes into which we had the glorious task of planting a whole range of grasses, shrubs and small herbs.

 Wattles are blooming in force at the moment. The yellow blossoms creating a sense of air and light all along the creek.

I had never ventured to this side of the creek before, I am always on the western bank where the cycle path lies. Despite the filthy brown water the creek is peaceful along this stretch, and the morning remained sunny for the planting.
There do seem to be more volunteers at plantings which occur closer to the inner city. One woman asked me where I was from, when I answered that I lived in Preston she responded with, 'We are starting to get more people from out there'. She was trying to be welcoming, however her tone may not be as welcoming as she might wish it to be. Class, opportunity and access to education.... these might all be factors that delimit who has or finds the time and inclination to get down to the creek on the weekends.

Bike Ride to the Hume Highway

Last week the girls had a curriculum day (ie. pupil free day at school), it was a bright sunny day so we decided to head north on our bikes. We rode about 12 or 13 km along the creek until we got to the Hume Highway, or at least where the ring road intersects with the Hume. The bike path travels along the ring road, the noise of the traffic was horrible, something not noticed from within a car. Next time we will ride further and try and get to Cooper St Grasslands.

To the left of this picture is Jukes Rd Grassland behind the fence. It is a strange juxtaposition next to the mown lawn to its right. A boggy area of the mown section was noisy with frogs on the way out, quiet on the way home. (Aphra and Romy are the two little figures in the distance, I was very glad the home run was 'downhill'.)
Grasslands (I am told) are harder to mobilise public awareness and action around, because they are not trees, they don't look dramatic and so on. Invisible.
Looking forward to the Imaging Nature conference in Tasmania.

Rubber and Elastic bands

 Over the last month or so I have been picking up elastic hair-ties, rubber bands and other round stringy things as I move through the Merri Creek Catchment.  This is a response to the Platypus talk at Ceres where we learnt that the single most damaging rubbish in the creeks (in terms of fauna) were elastic hair-ties. Here are a few of them. One suspects the posties could take a little more care as they deliver their mail...

I've also been on a few more rubbish collection days with my daughter Romy. She likes climbing up the trees to collect the plastic bags caught in the branches. The last one we did was poorly attended, and the rubbish overwhelming. I felt depressed thinking about platypus (of which there seems to be at least one!) and other creatures eeking out an existence in the dirty creek, not knowing that the rubbish is not really 'meant' to be there.

It led me to begin some drawings using the rubber bands as a physical constraint to the pencil and my arm. The first drawing below is built up via one nail in the centre of the page. The band then controls how far the pencil can stretch from the nail.

Next were two nails. The pencil is constrained by two points within the band.

Then, again two nails, but this time the band had one twist in it (a figure eight around the nails), so that the pencil couldn't go around and around. At a certain point it was forced back the way it came.

 I am considering if this is worth trying with drypoint tool on etching plate (but plan to keep drawing first). The passage from the mark of one band to many would become a series of prints. In the back of my mind I am thinking about textile patterns, what would it be to wear the marks of the constraining bands?

Three drawings together.


Below are a couple of pics from a group show at RMIT Project Space. The first is taken by my other daughter (Aphra), and the second with my phone through the window at night. Snapshots...

Gorse Gloves
Linen, dyed with gorse and screenprinted
hand stiched and starched
 At the other end of the table are another pair which connect to this end via the fingers.

Platypus ANT analysis

Here are the platypus experts from Cesar (http://cesar.org.au/). They are experts, as far as experts on platypus go. But these private beautiful creatures have, to date, not given much away. However, the finding and rescuing of an otherwise healthy male, in the most polluted creek in Melbourne create a flurry of activity. Within a week, Cesar (who monitor platypus activity in catchments all over Melbourne) were there.
Here is a link to the story of the rescue, from the horses mouth!
http://themerrigardener.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/not-so-merri-creek.html

I'd quite like to do an Actor-Network-Theory reading of this 'event'. The rubbish which entangled the platypus is, of course, a key actor. The Friends of Merri Creek had over 20 phone calls following the local paper article from people expressing their wish to join the next rubbish collection day. My daughters and I were at the rubbish collection, and of the 20 people who had expressed interest, none showed up (this time)!

The nets in place, one going upstream, another going down. The guys check the nets all night, release the odd duck, but rarely catch a platypus!

Rubbish Collection photos to follow....

Cooper St Grassland - Gorse collection

Between my last visit to Cooper St Grassland (with Brian Bainbridge for the MCMC's quarterly Bird Survey- 26/2/2012) and this one about two weeks later, a controlled burn had taken place. The landscape had transformed from thigh high grasses to blackened stubble. On this occasion I had come to collect gorse - an invasive weed that is actually highly flammable thus a potential hazard when executing controlled burns. I saw a bird of prey attempting to hover in the wind, but eventually giving up and settling on the down pipe of a nearby factory.

I've done a few tests with gorse dyeing. The Scots use(d) gorse flowers and bark to make a yellow dye for their tartans. The gorse growing along the Merri is barely in flower at this time of year, so, coupled with the fact that I like to 'extract' the essence of the whole plant regardless of hue, I cooked up the whole plant, bark, leaves and prickly leaves.
Brian Bainbridge's press release of 2007 highlights the relationship between weeds, native fauna, and regvegetation. The balance between planting indigenous shrubs and allowing them to become established, before removing weedy shrubs, so that the birds and other animals will have somewhere 'better' to go when the weeds are eventually removed is a delicate operation requiring expert knowledge (as well as community muscle and enthusiasm of course!).
 http://www.mcmc.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=81:a-thorny-issue&catid=19:press-releases&Itemid=119

Rigging gloves, secateurs, gorse and a big bag through which the gorse can still prickle one's leg.

Gorse, prior to cook-up.

And after it has had hours of simmering and a night and day soaking (the colour is not very strong even with this additional soaking).

The original tests with the gorse were on silk, calico and hemp. So, true to form, the fabric I wanted to use was an old piece of linen.... which in the end took the colour less than the silk and hemp.

I'm not sure what this fabric would have been, it has a drawn thread detail along one edge, it is a sack or case of sorts.

Screenprinting two designs onto the dyed fabric. One design is drawn from a William Morris Gorse design, the other from a needle run lace design of kangaroo apple (Solanum laciniatum). (c. 1910 - lace made by Ada Grey Wilson, designed by Patty Mault. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection.
While my interpretation of the gorse (weed) / kangaroo apple (indigenous) plants is literal, I wanted to consider textile designs and how I could incorporate them into the interconnected gloves that this fabric would eventually become. The fingers of the gloves join to another pair, both connecting the wearer to another, or their other hand, rendering the hands tied, joined, bound in the never-ending task of regeneration. The gorse connected to the indigenous eco-system probably forever, changing its relations to itself and human action within these sites.

Design printed, not yet steamed.

I'm still sewing the gloves.... images will follow in the next post. Due to the nature of the fingers they gloves are hand sewn. They cannot be turned inside out, nor would a sewing machine needle be able to avoid passing through too many layers of fabric...... so the task, like weeding and planting has set its own pace.

These gloves will be shown in the UMWELTEN show at RMIT Project Space in May. I plan to include a 'booklet' - probably with images and no text, as a means to make visible my process, and to perhaps include images of the creek that are relevant.
My other idea was for the booklet to show the gloves being worn. But not sure about that. I also originally thought the gloves could be worn in the gallery by visitors, but the hand sewing probably makes that a bit tricky - and they won't fit many of the visitors. But this is an idea I would like to pursue.... and the ill-fitting could come into play then.

Oh, and finally a snap shot of a pair of test gloves: