Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Category: Nature & Rewilding

Of Lakes

I've been watching Lakshmi R Kanchi (aka Soul Reserve) posting about the Cockburn wetlands and all the amazing events she created when she was their poet in residence. I wanted so badly to visit this beautiful place and this morning my dream came true!

Her husband Ro picked me up from my digs and along with the Washington State poet Laureate, Arianne True and her fiancee Liz, we headed out of town. On our way out, we drove past the Derbal Yarrigan / Swan river which is huge! After the Birrarung Mar in Naarm, I was so surprised to see this mighty river. It looks more like Sydney harbour than a river! We headed south along the coast, stopping at Cottesloe along the way to meet the Indian Ocean. Ro was a great guide telling us so many stories about the places we were driving through.

The wetlands centre in Cockburn is on land that was going to be cut through by a major highway but local residents and scientists banded together to save the bushland. They established the wetlands centre to educate locals, especially children about the beauty and value of the swampy area containing two unique lakes and eco systems. This idea worked because when the government again tried to develop the area, the kickback from voters was immense, stopping the roads and saving the lakes.

On our arrival at the wetlands in Cockburn we were met by Lakshmi, Jaya Penelope and the WA Poets Micro Poet in Residence, Gillian . The centre is a beautiful building that until recently was shared by many local groups, including their oldest scout group in WA. They have just finished the display in the entrance which is filled with imagery and captions in Noongar. Ro introduced us to many of the people working in the wetlands centre, including some of those who fought to save it.

We then walked through the bush to the lake. As we walked along the path about twenty metres (I think, but I'm hopeless at estimating distances!), a kwenda/bandicoot, scurried across the path behind us. It's not often that you see mammals out and about in the middle of the day (except for homo. sapiens that is). As we walked, accompanied by bird song my eyes were everywhere, drinking it all in. Seeing the details, noticing the little things and the big. Trying to see what is different and what is the same. The soil was sandy and the trees were familiar but different.

I was hoping to see some new birds but there were a lot of familiar faces. Kookaburras, fairy wrens, magpies, galahs, ravens and on the lake Eurasian coots, black swans and purple swamp hens. Walking back along the boardwalk from the lake I spotted some smaller birds in the bushes. And then later, some of the endangered black cockatoos flew over the Wetlands centre. After our walk we were treated to a traditional Aussie BBQ cooked by the volunteers. And we met some alpine dingoes.

It was so good to be out of the city. To be in the bush. To be walking the naked land.

Lakshmi's poetry residency has ended and as a farewell gift she left a poetry trail around the wetlands. these boxes contain treasures, writing prompts, waterproof pencils and notebooks so you can add your poetry to the collection. A wonderful idea and a great legacy for a remarkable year of poetry from a brilliant poet.

September 14, 2023
Platypus Walk

Platypus are renowned for being shy creatures that are hard to spot in the wild. The only time I've seen one was a couple of years ago here in Tassie in my friend's dam in the Golden Valley.

The girls of course have never seen them so this afternoon we braved the rain and the cold and headed down the street to the Empire Hotel where we met the publican, Mark, who took us on a platypus walk.

It was great to hear his stories about the town and the local area. And of course all about that magnificent creature, the platypus. It is one of only two monotremes in the word (the other being the echidna). They have receptors in their bills that can sense minute electrical currents as they nose about on the river bed with their eyes closed for food. Their bills are rubbery and strong and apparently not like a ducks except in appearance. The males have poisonous spurs on their legs and they store their fat in their tails!

This stretch of the Meander River is known for having up to seven platypus at a time cruising along the water. We managed to get a glimpse of one disappearing into its burrow on the bank next to the main bridge into town. A flat and a splash and it was gone!

May 26, 2022
Unexpected Sights

One of the things I love about traveling is the unexpected things that pop up on your journey. You're looking for a place to stay and you stumble across a great little cafe with the best burnt toffee almond slice you've ever tasted. Or you're trying to find the turn off to the beach and you end up at a waterfall you didn't even know existed.

This afternoon saw us in the Freycinet National Park heading for the lookout to Wineglass Bay. It's part of the Great Eastern Drive on the East coast stretching fro Orford in the south up past Binnalong Bay in the north. It's billed as one of Australia's great drives. I have to say, the Tasmanian tourist board have a positive genius for naming places. There's the cabin of lagoons, Bay of Fires, Honeymoon Bay just to name few. Much more enticing sounding than pools water, red rocks and a sandy beach.

Our walk up the hillside to the lookout for wineglass bay passed through the most incredible scenery. In an island of gorgeous landscapes and vegetation, it was another stunning setting for a walk with magnificent red rocks, rising jagged from the mountain's edge. Trees, mushrooms, flowers and birds all clinging to the side. Evidence of mammals although none actually seen.

The view from the lookout was gorgeous but my money was on the walk the top. Sometimes it's about the journey, not the destination.

May 21, 2022
Cruising Along

After spending yesterday chilling out, we were ready to get super early this morning to catch our boat from the wharf in Strahan for our cruise on board the Spirit of the Wild up the Gordon river with the Gordon River Cruises. Our captain was Doug who sung us sea shanties last night when went to see the play, The Ship That Never Was. It's still early days in our trip but I think it's the highlight so far. Along with the drive through the Tarkine to get to the ferry at Corinna.

We had a whole section of the boat to ourselves at the back of the lower deck. And thanks to my new sea sickness bands, I didn't feel seasick once! Our fellow travellers were a friendly bunch and the guides on board the board were helpful and enthusiastic. We had a commentary about things we passed as well as footage of actors playing the parts of key European historical figures such as Captain James Kelly and Lady Jane Franklin. As well as a First Nations person talking about the area.

Our first 'stop' was to travel from Strahan out through the infamous gates of hell into the Great Southern Ocean where the roaring 40s prevail. We stood at the prow of the ship, holding on to the rails as we rode up and down the waves. It was like being on a rollercoaster – heaps of fun! Not so much fun for the sailors or convicts in the 1800s when it was called the gates of hell. So named because the channel entrance to Macquarie Harbour is incredibly narrow and shallow. Boats had to hug the shore to make it in and out. Or crashed on the rocks.

In the late 1800s, William Damper came up with the idea to build a wall to dredge the sand in the harbour and make the channel deeper. He built a working model of the harbour before work began. It took convict labour three years and tonnes of stone to build the wall. As we sailed along the coast we could see the stops of the rock wall which extends from well inside the harbour, out past the heads. Cormorants were using the top of the wall outside the heads as perch when we went through.

From Entrance Island at the heads, we travelled the 35km length of Macquarie harbour to the mouth of the Gordon river. Macquarie Harbour is Australia's second largest harbour, the largest being Port Phillip Bay in Victoria. We went past the fish farms in the middle of the harbour where we learnt that salmon are farmed in nets that are 20-30 metres deep and house some 40,000 fish. Apparently the ratio of 12 kilos of fish to a cubic metre is some of the best in the world. The salmon are brought here on fish transporters when they are 150-300g in size, then vacuumed up and transported away for processing once fully grown. They are fed pellets that contain number 27 to make their flesh pink. In the wild of the Atlantic Ocean, they eat crustaceans that turn their flesh pink.

The Gordon river was incredible. Gliding upstream in the boat was like entering a zen zone of wilderness. It was quiet and the river was calm and still, reflecting all the vegetation on the banks of thriver as well as the clouds and the sky.

The best bit of the cruise was walking along the elevated boardwalk at Heritage Landing. A tree spotting trail had been created with gorgeous metal symbols placed next to different native Tasmanian trees.

Once you spotted the tree and its symbol, a nearby sign gave you information about the tree and its uses. After wandering through the Tarkine and wondering what we were looking at, it was wonderful to be in a place where you could easily identify and learn about the vegetation around you.

People from the ship were also there to answer questions and help you find the trees. Trees featured were: blackwood, celery top pine, horizontal, huon pine, leatherwood, myrtle beech, native plum, sassafras, scented paperbark, Tasmanian laurel and whitey wood.

Back on board it was time for a buffet lunch before a guided walk on Langerrarerouna, known to invaders as Sarah Island and home to a penal colony in the early 1800s. The colony was so bad it was known as hell on earth by the convicts and death was seen as a means of escape.

Our tour guide was Kiah, the main actor in the play we saw last night and she brought the same fantastic blend of humour and history to our tour around the island. We saw the remains of the penal colony and visited the sites of the ship building areas. There was a fantastic oven that had been built from bricks made across the water on the mainland. The roof of the oven is created from vertical bricks laid in a spiral pattern without any mortar. A fire is lit to one side of the opening and the oven can bake 400 loaves of bread with one load of wood and no smoke.

Before invasion, Langerrarerouna was visited seasonally by the Toogee and Mimegin people to gather swan eggs and meet with people in other tribes. Sadly, in the winter of 1833, sixty-one First Nations People were rounded up from the surrounding area and housed in the lower level of the Penitentiary before being shipped off to islands in Bass Strait. The story of the Tasmanian indigenous genocide is a myth we were fed at school. Along with all the other myths used to justify dispossession and colonisation.

While there, the convicts on the upper level tormented them by pouring water through the floorboards and urinating on them. Sixteen of the First Nations Peoples died of white man's disease while imprisoned. History is not pretty and the convict ruins on the island hide the brutal treatment of First Nations people at the hands of the invaders.

I have conflicted feelings about this area and the pristine wilderness that hides such an ugly past.

May 19, 2022
Tidal River

The ocean. The horizon. Mount Oberon. The river. Wildlife. Friends.

Five days camping and sleeping under the stars.

Bliss.

February 18, 2022
Bushranger’s Bay

It's great having friends who know places to go to around Melbourne. And it's even better to spend a day with those friends visiting one of those places. Especially when that friend is knowledgeable about plants and which ones are good to eat like the native raspberry that was growing alongside the path or the saltbush berries nestled in the leaves.

Travelling with friends has you doing unexpected things and this list was no different. We climbed the massive rock that was next to the beach and stood on the top of it perilously close to the edge in the strong winds blowing in off the water.

Just in case that wasn't enough to get the blood pumping I then got dumped in the waves and churned like milk into a pat of butter. I loathe being dumped and getting salt water up my nose and down the back of my throat. Nothing like a good dunking to know that you're alive (and thank goodness I still was!).

We'd never been to Bushranger's Bay before and enjoyed the walk to the beach and back along the sandy track. We even saw a wallaby in the bushes next to the path as we walked down to the beach. And then on the way back there was an echidna!

With the pandemic and restricted overseas travel we have been doing a lot more travel close to home and I am falling in love with our own unique Australian animals. It's all too easy to think that all the spectacular and amazing things are overseas and that I have to spend a fortune and hop on a place to see them when the reality is, this country (and any country for that matter) is incredible. All you need to do is have an open mind and a willingness to explore.

January 31, 2022
A Walk in the Woods

Staying at Wye River was incredible. When we came back from our day trip down the coast, we saw a kangaroo standing at the back of our cabin. The next day a three year old girl was walking on the grass outside the cabin, following a koala who was looking for a tree. The koala ended up climbing the tree opposite our cabin and letting out some grunts to claim its territory. Or maybe it was letting its friends know where it was. We also had some king parrots come on to our verandah to say hello as well as cockatoos who loved to perch on the roof and click clack their claws.

On our last full day we went for a walk along the mountain bike path and the lovely G was nature man, spotting all sorts of creatures. His best animal spotting for the day was an echidna snuffling ants just off the track!

If I ever had to recommend somewhere for overseas visitors to visit to see native wildlife, I would tell them – go to Wye River! It's incredible.

December 17, 2021
Art in the Bush

I just spent the most amazing five days camping in the bush around Riddells Creek at the wonderul Wild By Nature Village camp run by Firekeepers. The last camp was in January 2020 and it's been a long fifteeen months, waiting to get back out in nature with all the wonderful people who come to jpoin in all the adventures.

This camp we had two amazing artists in residence. Trace Balla is the author of many books including our family's favourites Rivertime and Rockhopping. Claire Moslely is a creator of nature prints, tea towels and journals featuring Australian flora and fauna. My walls are already decorated with Claire's art and my bookshelves hold many of Trace's books so it was wonderful to get to make art with both of them!

They even created an art exhibition featuring the art created by villagers of all ages. There was even an opening ceremony to which you could wear your fanciest bush clothes. At the ceremony there was a gigantic canvas, clay paints and an invitation to co-create an ephemeral art work which would then be washed away by the rain.

It was so much fun, I can't wait til the next camp in Spring!

April 12, 2021
Time For Some Perspective

It’s easy to get caught up in the things that don’t matter. I’ve been submitting my poetry to literary journals for publications and piling up rejection letters. It’s disheartening to say the least.

Writing is a strange dance of hope and doubt. Every poem I write is filled with hope. I craft each one with love. Agonise over the line breaks and the exact meaning of the words. Strive to find synonyms to express what I am trying to communicate. Each time I send a new poem to a journal (or dust off an old one) I am quietly hopeful that this time, it will be good enough to be published.

When each rejection letter arrives I have to remind myself that it is the poem being rejected and not me. Which is hard when I have poured so much of myself into my poetry and it keeps getting rejected.

When the most recent rejection letter arrived I was filled with doubt. I doubted I could ever write a poem as good as the ones I read in the journals. As good as the ones written by my literary heroes. I doubted I had the ability to craft a poem that could leap and twirl across the page. I doubted I would ever be able to write the kind of poems I want to write. There’s a shift that happens in my favourite poems and I don’t know how to execute it. It’s like a magic trick I can’t figure out, all I hear is the magician’s patter and I’m blind to the sleight of hand.

All of this was swirling around in my head. And then I jumped on my bike and rode here with my daughters. And suddenly, being accepted into a literary journal didn’t matter so much anymore. Not when there is this.

August 5, 2020
Nature Connection Cards

I started these cards on Sunday to encourage us to venture out into nature each day. They are designed to be gentle invitations or a way to set an intention. It's all too easy to get stuck in the house and forget all the plants, trees, birds and insects out there.

It's been wonderful have a pencil in my hand and sketch little pictures. Inspired by my 13 year old daughter, I tried to draw the pictures from memory. She draws the most incredible portraits without copying anything. However when it came to the fox, kangaroo and owl I had to resort to copying images I found online. My original fox looked like a daschund zebra (wish I had taken a photo of it!) and the kangaroo looked more like a rabbit wth a pouch!

I based the cards on the core nature connection routines described by Jon Young of the 8 Shields Institute. Jon visited Australia last year to run two workshops and I attended the Music, Nature and Storytelling event held in Hawks Nest, New Soul Wales. Something as simple as a daily sit spot is a powerful way to connect to nature and the land around us.

Like most of my projects, I started with heaps of enthusiasm and energy and got lots done in the first couple of days. Then my energy waned and the cards dragged on. I know we need to take time to rest and refresh but wouldn't it be great if we could keep the same joy for the whole of a project?

April 3, 2020