Developing partnerships through cross-cultural understanding and environmental awareness -Art, Music, Dance, Culture,Nature
Go to https://m.facebook.com/ShearwaterFestival?id=297367913703023&_rdrfor more information
Shearwater soundfest next weekend!
Developing partnerships through cross-cultural understanding and environmental awareness -
Frog Census Launch
"River bed assemblage"
Collective Artwork
By Frog Census Launch 2013 Attendees
Thanks everyone for your contribution.
This collective artwork is inspired by the image of a river bed looked upon from a birds eye view. When water is calm and silt and sediment settles to the bottom with leaf litter in a pebble-lined creek or shallow wetland, this kind of space is ideal frog spawning habitat and as a tadpole nursary.
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| A growling grass frog: very present in this year's frog census. GGFs live in all sorts of places around Melbourne from wetlands with phragmites-lined edges to the inside of old discarded car tyres and cereal boxes, I learned. |
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| Collective river bed assemblage in progress. |
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| in the beginning. |
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| collage of fabrics used to make 'river bed assemblage' - a showcase of the tones of Port Phillip Western Port. Compiled Sarah Crinall. |
"A catchment scene"
A Collective Artwork
by attendees at the Melbourne Water Frog Census Launch 2013
tbc....
Frogs have been found in the earth, water, and in the air as they fall from trees to ground. Frogs and humans live in conjunction with each other. Growling grass frogs, for instance, though a sensitive vulnerable species, are found living at times in rubbish tips. Regardless, they are sensitive to the expanding urban boundary. Creating backyards that are 'frog friendly' will help support frogs to live happily amongst us, and us, amongst them.
See frogs.melbournewater.com.au to find out how to make a home for frogs in your home.
People contributing to "A catchment scene" had encountered frogs in tents, holes in their gardens, cereal boxes, wetlands, creeks, bike paths, bathroom and car windows, and more.
Where did you last see a frog?
Send your frog stories, photos and artworks to creatingwesternport@gmail.com
If you'd like to follow or subscribe to this blog fill in the short form on the right panel or email me, Sarah at creatingwesternport@gmail.com.
Phillip Island Artists' Society's recent exhibition - snippets
Phillip Island Artists' Society's
Snippets of the recent exhibition
Melbourne Cup weekend 2013
Tarago Valley
a little something from me
A painting of Tarago Valley, from Jindivick during the NSW fires
Sarah C
October 2013
Just a Few Eggs
Mike Cleeland
A poem
Shearwaters Return Exhibition
October 2013
Just a Few Eggs
The wild spring gales every year
bring mutton birds back home
to lay their eggs in burrows
in the coastal sandy loam
And locals take the greatest care
to nurture every one
(except eggs laid on top, they'd only
dry out in the sun)
In early years the danger was
of poachers coming down
They'd dig up all the burrows
and erode the breeding ground
So the locals would report illegal
actions that they saw
(and take a few eggs home with them;
a well deserved reward)
And so upon Cape Woolamai
in 1933
the Cleeland boys set out to find
an egg or two or three
The birds were laying thick and fast
and eggs were everywhere
It seemed like such a waste to leave
them all just lying there
They'd gathered up a hatful each
but didn't have a tin
so they nursed them in their singlets
and tucked their shirts well in
then turned their horses off the Cape
and down onto the beach
trying to manage eggs and reins,
with one hand holding each
Along the way a few eggs cracked
and yolk would dribble down
so the rider reached inside
and scooped it out onto the ground
As the reader can imagine
these were pretty messy jobs
as the horses footprints mingled
with a trail of yellow blobs
As they rode around a sandhill
with about a dozen each
a rider came towards them
on his bike around the beach
It was "Cliffy" the Inspector
looking out for poaching crew
and the boys approached him warily
and wondered if he knew
They must have looked suspicious
but he didn't stop to see
why they both leaned slightly forward
and had only one hand free
He nodded as he passed them
and proceeded on his way
and the Cleelands nodded back to him
then raced to get away
Eventually they made it home
and hid the eggs inside
then disappeared around the farm
to find a place to hide
forgetting all about the broken
shells they'd left behind
the trail of damning evidence
that Cliff was bound to find
Then a message reached the homestead
that described their little lark
of the meeting on the beach and how
the boys had left their mark
warning "If you must get eggs from Woolamai
then get them in the dark!"
- Mike Cleeland
Oiseau The Mutton Bird
Prue Clements
A childrens book
Shearwaters Return Exhibition
October 2013
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| p. clements. watercolour on paper. 1985 |
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| p.clements. watercolour on paper. 1985 |
Contact me about purchasing copies of this book which will be available soon.
Sarah (creatingwesternport@gmail.com)
Shearwaters in flight
Sian Adnam
Shearwaters in flight
Shearwaters Return Exhibition
October 2013
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| S. Adnam. wire wood clay. |
It must be them!
Mikala Peters
Photographing the shearwaters returning
Photographing the shearwaters returning
Shearwaters Return Exhibition
October 2013
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| Photographs taken by M. Peters. 2012. |
"One year ago exactly to the day,
I witnessed the homecoming of
hundreds of shearwaters back to
Cape Woolamai for the first time.
I wrote in my diary how we spotted a couple of small dark birds swoop closer and closer,
"it must be them!" we cried out.
Following that day we watched the homecoming from the dunes many times, feeling their anticipation for darkness, spotting the first one to cross from sea to land, listening to the faint whoosh of their gliding flight, then the crash-land into the bushes. Our minds filled with awe for their long journey, their mysterious life, so near yet so foreign, they remain elusive in the fading light.
and the blurry results actually represent them perfectly,
we just get glimpses,
our imaginations left to fill in the details.
A year on, and I am excited to welcome them home again, a complete year, eggs have been laid, midnight squabbles had, chicks hatched, food gorged, journeys began and journeys ended, did last year's chicks make it back?
Thank you shearwaters, for sharing Cape Woolamai with us."
- Mikala Peters, October 1st 2013
bodyplaceblogposts on shearwaters
Sarah Crinall
bodyplaceblogposts
bodyplaceblogposts
Shearwaters Return Exhibition
October 2013
"its mid winter
and the wind howls outside.
my dressing gown
is like a down feather layer
and the sun warms me
sun trapped between my feathers and my body.
I am a shearwater.
Roosting in my rookery.
Shearwaters arrive in september
hearts enlarged
stomachs reduced
fat stores depleted
ready
to
roost
in their
rookery.
Some have energy
and others
lay here and there
dotted amongst garden beds
roads
along streets
and paths.
Trying
but not always succeeding to
make it between homes."
- sarah, 7th May, 2013
In our day to day
A local melodrama
Is
Playing out.
the shearwater
Is stranded
between
the story of us and the story of
Surf beach
And we
Are becoming inter
actable
parts of this place
through
Edie's
knitted shearwater.
- Sarah, 6th May 2013.
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