These are the first grass trees I have seen on this walk.
The forest is twisted and tangled
Stunted Iron Barks
Silence
The sky is greying
The wind rustles the canopy overhead.
There was a cracker of a thunderstorm last night,
Little evidence of the heavy rain this morning apart from dampened ground.
On the way here, a mob of kangaroos surveyed me with curiosity from the safety of a paddock.
22nd April 2012.
The Austral Grass Tree (Xanthorrhoea australis) was useful to aboriginal people.
The resin from the leaves was used to cement stone axe heads and and spear tips to wooden handles.
The young leaves and roots were eaten whilst the nectar from the flowers was a sweet treat.
22nd April 2012
Spiritual Song of the Australian Aborigine
I am a child of the Dreamtime People
Part of this Land, like the gnarled gum tree
I am the river, softly singing
Chanting our songs on the way to the sea
My spirit is the dust-devils
Mirages, that dance on the plain
I’m the snow, the wind and the falling rain
I’m part of the rocks and the red desert earth
Red as the blood that flows in my veins
I am an eagle, crow and snake that glides
Through the rain forest that clings to the mountain side
I awakened here when the earth was new
There was emu, wombat and kangaroo
No other man of a different hue
I am this land
And this land is me
I am Australia.
Hyllus Noel Maris
(1934 – 1986)
Hyllus Noel Maris was of Yorta Yorta and Wurundjeri descent.
Her poem, ‘Spiritual Song of the Australian Aborigine’, appears in abridged form on a sign at a look out at the end of the Koorie Heritage Walk. The lookout gives views across Bass Strait and along the coast to the entrance to Port Phillip Bay.
Representatives of the local Wathaurong community contributed to the development of the walk.
Point Addis lies between Torquay and Anglesea on Victoria’s Surf Coast.
