Greener and Greener
This morning I went to pay my respects to old Blotchy for the first time this year. Old blotchy is a monumental spotted gum among many! He’s maybe 500 years old and 14 people arms outstretched in circumference. We both live on the lands of the Walbunja people of the Yuin Nation in Eurobodalla shire on the far South Coast of New South Wales. Unlike old Blotchy I haven’t always lived here, my roots are relatively shallow not quite 5 years deep. Blotchy reminded me of the absolute importance of physical Environment and specifically forests.
My road to being a Greens Councillor has been long and twisted and includes decades of work in the community services sector in Melbourne’s north and western suburbs. I’d been Green adjacent for years but never joined any political party. By 2020 I had been moving in and out of paid work in a lengthy ‘transition to retirement’. At the same time I ramped up my activism joined extinction rebellion and took an even greater interest in climate change and how to prevent, adapt, and avoid being totally paralysed by increasingly catastrophic climate change events. This combination of factors led to some interesting short-term roles, for example seed gathering in a mountain ash forest.
The 2020s began hideously for me and many others. Mega fires burned for weeks across the southern and most populated parts of Australia. My retirement house situated in remnant bush within a coastal village miraculously survived while six others in my street burnt down. Everyone in the village fled to the beach taking their dogs, cats, chickens and horses with them. I was not there and only learnt my house had survived several days later.
So I moved from Melbourne to the Coast mid-pandemic. I needed to find “my people” within a conservative community so I joined the Greens party and local climate activist groups including Knitting Nannas. I’ve searched the forest for greater gliders and spotted quolls with the wonderful greens community. I’ve watched the spotted gums shed their burnt and blistered skins and emerge shining and white. I find great joy in walking through the rejuvenating bush with my kelpie goddess Gaia, and in swimming in the ocean nearly every day.
In 2023 I volunteered with hundreds of locals to support the Indigenous Voice to Parliament Referendum and still feel tremendous sadness and anger at its resounding defeat! A tiny silver lining was knowing that while my new electorate of Gilmore voted no, my old electorate of Cooper voted yes as did my local booth, Malua Bay.
Fast forward to 2024! I’m the secretary of the local Greens branch and the Local Government Elections are looming. Like her predecessors, our wonderful Greens Councillor was becoming quieter and quieter about the possibility of a second term and eventually declared she could not stand another term as a lone voice. We looked for months among our members and supporters for someone willing to be elected. Found someone and then they changed their mind. Eventually I said OK I will stand. Many generous people supported my campaign and three superstars formed our team. I waited for two weeks and 38 rotations, whatever that means, to be elected! Its been a busy and fascinating year and a bit leading me to pontificate at Christmas Gatherings about affordable housing strategies and roundabouts!