Lounge Ruminator

Tag: Environment

Nyrang

2022-03-21

This post was originally written in February 2022 for Hemispheric News; subscribe at the Patreon site One Prime Plus to receive this monthly newsletter and other benefits that are linked to the Hemispheric Views podcast.

Those who follow me on Micro.blog may recognise the photo above, which I posted there recently, stating that the combination of canopy and sky reminded me of Jurassic Park. It was in fact taken in Nyrang Park (pronounced nai-rang), which is a beautiful natural reserve near our home in Wollongong.

Nestled behind suburban backyards, many people who drive by don’t even notice that it’s there, even with numerous eucalypts that tower over the houses that front the road. It’s easy to zoom past the entrance.

After the positive reaction that my Jurassic photo received on Micro.blog, I scrolled back through the Places function in my iCloud Photo Library, looking specifically at all the photos that I had taken in the park. What occurred to me, as I perused my collection, was this: Nyrang Park has become my sanctuary. It was Natasha who first showed me the park years ago, before we moved in together, as it is near her family’s home. At that point, I had no idea just how significant a role this park would play in my daily life.

Fast-forwarding to more recent times, when the COVID-19 pandemic started and we were all sent to work at home, I knew that I would need to continue my lunchtime walking habit to preserve my physical and mental health. It’s easy to remain inside all day if you’re busy—particularly if you’re in your home with your own stuff and creature comforts. Nyrang Park became my regular walking place, through which I still frequent today, as I meander through the paths under the trees, spotting and listening to galahs, magpies, cockatoos and kookaburras, or even listening to a podcast as I observe the canopy and flowing creek. Passing through, I regularly stop to take in a scene, sometimes snapping it with my iPhone or even making the effort to take my Canon DSLR along sometimes. Whether it’s an early morning walk, a lunchtime stroll or a way to clear my head after work, the walk is always beautiful; occasionally I’ll visit the park multiple times in the day, just to enjoy the differences in light and colour. Here are further photo examples.

On the point of listening to podcasts when I visit Nyrang Park, I’ve thought a lot about the role of technology as we walk through natural spaces. In this case, I’m wearing technology in the form of my AirPods Pro and controlling the podcast playback through Overcast on my Apple Watch. Depending on my mood, I may choose to augment the experience of my walk with audio through transparency mode, still hearing the running water and singing (or screeching) birds as I listen to my podcasts, or I may forgo audio entirely, seeking to escape technology and any potential distraction or notifications.

On the rarest of occasions, however, I’ve managed to fuse the experience of nature and technology into something meaningful and memorable. One time late in 2020, on a Friday afternoon when Natasha was out with her colleagues, I visited the park to wind down and put the working week behind myself. As I followed the central path and crossed over the creek into Nyrang Park’s clearing, I was struck by how vivid the sky was, with light, fluffy clouds sweeping gently overhead. I felt the need to stay for a while and enjoy the clarity and peacefulness of the moment. It was at that moment that I remembered that I had added a new album to my library: Ólafur Arnald’s Some Kind of Peace. Given his style of music and the album’s title, I thought that it would fit the scene.

I proceeded to lie down right in the middle of the clearing, put in my earphones and start the album. From beginning to end, I remained on the ground, looking directly up at the sky as the clouds shifted gradually (seemingly to the music). It was the perfect combination of natural movement and personal technology, completely blocking out the existence of everyone and everything else on the planet for 40 minutes. This was enhanced by both noise cancellation and the fact that I couldn’t see anything other than the tops of eucalypts in my periperal vision. Time slowed down and I thought about the mass of the atmosphere between myself and the vast openness of space, the feeling of the grass beneath and around my body and how the colour of the sky shifted as the Sun began to set.

While that afternoon is stuck firmly in my mind, I have many other positive memories in the park since the birth of my son, Mac. During my parental leave, for example, Natasha and I would walk him in his pram or in a carrier through the park every day, exposing him to the sounds of the birds and the feeling of the natural light. (You can’t just keep a baby inside all the time!) It was a great way to stretch our legs and mitigate potential lockdown cabin fever. One day, we even discovered that a tomato vine had started growing next to the path at the park’s entrance, so upon each visit, we would pick some cherry tomatoes and I would enjoy their explosive juiciness as I strolled with my new family.

Now that he’s slightly older, Mac sits up in his stroller and Natasha points out the water dragons that dot the park, seeking sunshine, and he waves at them. My mum and sister even join us for walks there and Natasha’s parents enjoy time with Mac in a park that’s just around the corner—one that they’d never visited before. When life becomes busy, sometimes a new person or events kickstarts the the discovery of something new. I hope that in years to come, Mac will start to form his own positive memories of and associations with the place, whether with us or on his own.
64. Lounge Bite: Small-file Aesthetics

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Rumination 73: Trees and Identity

2021-04-11

Like just about any other human being, I have a strong attachment to my home and the landscape that surrounds me. I feel incredibly grateful to live in the city of Wollongong—part of the Illawarra region—and enjoy its distinctive, narrow coastline, backed by an escarpment that gives otherwise ignorant Westerners like me a sense of direction and orientation.

Although I like to think that most people respect their surroundings, there are some people who are simply out to ruin things for everyone else.

In 2020, a beautiful cluster of Coastal Tea Trees (Leptospermum laevigatum) at Brighton Lawn Park was savagely attacked by a still-unknown group of idiots. In response, the Wollongong City Council erected this sign next to the trees, which was roped off for a time prior to my image below. You can see one of the hacked trees and also Belmore Basin in the background.

I wish to highlight this wonderful public message by the council, ruminating not only our natural environment’s role in preserving biodiversity, but how we as humans connect to it and have a form a sense of collective identity. Here is the text from the council’s sign, which tells the story and significance of the area:

These much-loved Coastal Tea Trees were devastatingly vandalised under the cover of darkness on 14 October 2020.

So many in our community were distressed by this act. These trees had their bark worn smooth by generations of children climbing their branches. They’d offered welcome shade, photographic inspiration and sheltered wildlife.

We hope they will survive. Our arborists will closely monitor them over the next 18 months.

The vandalism of trees is a serious concern and if you know anything about this vandalism, or vandalism occurring elsewhere, please call NSW Police or Council.

Trees like this are essential — especially as temperatures rise. They give us oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide which makes them one of the easiest and most effective ways of tackling climate change. Standing in their shade can reduce daytime temperatures by 4–20°C.

We’re working to change the fact that the City of Wollongong currently has one of the lowest rates of natural shade cover of any major city in Australia. Through our Urban Greening Program we’ve a target to increase our canopy cover to 35 per cent.

To find out more, including how you can be involved, wollongong.nsw.gov.au/urgan-greening

Wollongong City Council published another piece about the incident on its community news site.

I had intended to write this piece some time ago, however simply forgot it amongst all the other tasks that fill my brain. I was reminded of it as we enjoyed a recent walk by the harbour; I thought about how tragic it could be that my future child may not be able to enjoy these magnificent trees, if the arborists’ efforts were to fail. The fact that someone did this is both disgusting and perplexing.

You may recall that late last year I wrote another blog post about noticing trees, only a short time before this vandalism took place. When it comes to the council’s claim that Wollongong has one of the lowest rates of natural cover of any major Australian city, I was shocked. When you look around Wollongong, you see trees everywhere: in the suburbs, along the coast and blanketing the entire escarpment. You often feel like you’re in the shade as well. The key term here, however, is the City of Wollongong—not greater Wollongong. Our city is indeed covered in trees, but the city centre is not.

I believe that even those who love and pay attention to the natural environment do start to become complacent about it, when in urban centres or central business districts. Visualising my city now, the majority of shade that is created in our city centre is from the ever-increasing number of high-rise apartment buildings, rather than trees. Why don’t trees line all of our footpaths and pedestrian zones, beyond the mall, which is our one real pedestrian zone? Why should trees be relegated to parks and the city’s outskirts? Our air would be cleaner, there would be more options for shade and people who live in the city centre could enjoy a more beautiful streetscape.

Our planet is quickly being covered by concrete, so how can we make people understand how trees can improve their physical and mental health, while fostering a sense of identity and place? Messages such as the council’s are a welcome (although overdue) start to addressing this problem.

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