The story - my last two years.
In May, 2023, I moved back to Melbourne with a work transfer, after a few years in my hometown in a regional area, planning to spend time driving back and forth to continue to provide care to my mother. Sadly, she passed away later that year from her lung disease. That's another story, but it made me remember that life is precious, and too short, and it was also the reason I first started walking around my new area of Heidelberg Heights, and down to Rosanna and Heidelberg. Between that, and signing up to a lot of runs, including the Melbourne Marathon which I completed (in the last 100 runners!), I spent a LOT of time working through
Soon after I came back to the city, I found myself driving regularly driving next to what I now know is the North East Link Project. Every time I found myself on the road, in heavy traffic, driving beside giant, noisy machinery and seeing the faces of frustrated drivers in the cars beside me, I felt uneasy, and this feeling increased in me every time I tried to drive there.
Learning more about the impact of the North East Link Project.
A year in, I had to find a new home to rent, and in the search, I was surprised to see many lovely homes, quite cheap in rent. But on inspection, they were all close to this North East Link. So I decided to do some research to see what was actually happening there. Which led me to reading a social impact report, which outlined the predicted social impacts. it was a few years old, and the project was well advanced (and choosing a home as far from the project as possible!)
One sentence stood out in that report: The proposed removal of sixteen thousand trees.
This has been on my mind ever since. I've never considered myself a greenie. I'm not a vegetarian anymore, but I do believe in social justice and I'm old enough to have seen a plenty of things on my journey that tell me that people tend to close their eyes to quieter voices. And as for trees - how can they get their message across? They have very few people who are aware of them enough to tell their story.
When I reflected on the sentence (literally, a sentence of death for 16,000+ trees!) I couldn't even picture that many trees. I didn't have a visual concept in my mind for what the loss of that many trees even looks like then - and I still don't now.
The spark.
When I thought about this some more, the truth began to dawn on me, that the only way I can truly even begin to understand the impact of what we are doing to our trees, and have been doing since 1788, when Australia was first invaded, is to personally meet at least that many trees. Yes, that's right, I want to meet that many trees in person, breathe in their scent, touch them and thank them for their existence. I want to learn more about them, and I want to try and hear what they have to say - before it's too late.
Of course, I can't meet the trees who have been sacrificed in this project (though I will do my best to learn more about them and share as many of their stories as I can). But I can meet sixteen thousand live trees, and let them tell their stories, in the hope that they come to mean more than just a sentence or two in a social impact summary report (which is probably more than many people would have even noticed).
This is not a protest against North East Link. I understand that there are many plans to add new trees and create new open spaces for the community and I applaud all the work going into that. But I also know that planting new trees doesn't erase the violence of killing the old ones, or take away the seemingly never ending perceived need of continual 'growth' (of urban spread, not our forests). Also, the more I learn about the importance of old growth forests, and maintaining older trees, the more passionate I am becoming about why we need to speak for them.
My personal commitment.
I am willing to dedicate a full year to this project, (at least), which is what I predict it will take to meet, hug, listen to, photograph and journal about that many Australian trees. This blog is where I will be sharing occasional updates of my progress, poetry, prose, photos and impressions. You'll learn about me too (not that that's important, but maybe it will help you relate to the trees more!) Most of my energy will be spent meeting and listening to the trees, and writing a book to document the journey, but I'm happy to also share on here sometimes as I am hoping the more people who hear the voices of the trees, the more they will be understood. I'll also share events I plan to hold, where you can get involved in your own way, such as poetry workshops, walks, and who knows what else? I'm excited. I hope you might be too.
In the meantime, perhaps you would like to think about what trees have been significant in your life. Breathe the air they give you. And thank them. If you'd like to share a story about your these trees, please share in a comment below, or send me an email. If you'd like to follow along to learn with me as I step out into the great outdoors, to hug trees - please keep an eye on the page!
And now, let the research begin!
🌳❤️
Sue 🙂
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