My ¾ time huddle

Welcome to Tony Smith’s
¾ time huddle
27 February 2022
Living Museum
Pipemakers Park
live and via Zoom
We start by recapping five crazy years
then get motivated for the final quarter

Neil Hunichen giving final briefing to first public group taken to see the
confluence of Deep and Jacksons Creek forming the Maribyrnong River.70

Monitoring ecological succession at the View Point (actual name) Wye River
Fire bomb site (long ago off-the-rocks dive spot) continues 2-3 times a year.

Penny Whetton on centre stage at March for Science, Janet Rice supporting.

With backing to challenge Kealba/Barro quarry item in Brimbank’s omnibus
anomaly rezoning C188, first day look/pic became our presentation cover.

Having long resolved Sydney had already had enough of my life, was gifted
weekend which let me accept hospitality of Rozelle Against WestCONnex.

Transurban’s rent-seeking extravaganza was always predicated on severely
disrupting estuarine reaches of both Moonee Ponds and Stony Creeks.
At Railway Canal this pair crossed to check out the visitors back when video
of swans gardening was a thing, not the last place these iconic birds sneak in.

#WestChoke IAC parties’ at new and old Geelong Rd bridges over Kororoit

Moonee Ponds Creek Collaboration
site visit to Woodlands Historic Park

Montague Island had long been this unreachable place of fictional imaginings
until a senior two nights in Narooma en route one in Eden proved otherwise.

Djirri Djirri Dancers educating Friends of Merri Creek’s annual Murnong
Harvest Festival in basalt quarry next to the creek at De Chene Reserve.
Municipal connections have long facilitated a flow of knowledge between
environmental Friends from Merri to Moonee Ponds, Maribyrnong and on.

Three hot end of spring nights in Adelaide via the Overland overlap with
Marcus et al’s visit for State of Australian Cities, me primarily revisiting.

Guidance from three Maribyrnong Valley facilitators for Melbourne Water’s
Healthy Waterways Strategy refresh program’s Catchment Collaborations.

My mother and her then friend long ago exploring local history mentioned
the strangeness of the century old planning scheme failure Solomon Heights.
A generation on, its neglect has allowed protected grasslands to regenerate.

At Cumbo, Josh Meadows sees his media work for EJA re Rivers of the West

Lead in video to Roger Waters’s Us and Them concert at Rod Laver Arena

71
Rally against proposed sale of “surplus” land at end of Outlook Drive,
Glenroy, attracts attention and eventual council acquisition as reserve.

Shire rushing to spent Wye fire recovery money without understanding
Otways geology infuriated Scully Mill accomodation host Peter Jacobs.

Joseph Griffiths and I believed we had timed our intrusion on the early days
of the Upper Stony Creek Project to record the start of concrete removal.

Musical interpretation at Qdos Lorne attracted relevant local birdlife.
See performer
details at end

It took social media to get me to pay deserved attention to the rich array of
constructed wetlands across the west, this pair becoming a constant here.

One of the chain of lakes had been reported as attracting large numbers of
Pelicans which was soon confirmed and later found to be within my 5km.

While Pelicans on the previous slide couldn’t get a perch on the small island
that appears to be the central attraction, the extensive reserve hosts more.

Until that day, I’d only been drawn to the adjacent Iramoo grasslands reserve
and needed to remember what I was there to record, and to get back more.

On my very first day writing for
Computerworld Australia as an
ambitious 35 y.o, Bill McPherson
was the older guide I needed.
While I did get to visit Bill at
home in Seabrook a few later
times, this at Brunswick Private
justified a rare picture portrait.
Fortunately he lived long enough
that funeral people had learnt
how to make effective use of the
new tech, so he could Zoom out
with a ceremony that did justice.
Video conferencing had become
normal for multi site businesses,
but it took an overdue pandemic
to get welcome and unwelcome
possibilities into the wider public
mindset, opening the world of
abstracted information work to a
range of ways for doing business
and education very differently.

At end of Friends of Maribyrnong Valley planting day headed for Lily Street
views of vacated Defence site nestled in big bend on river and city skyline.
This became cover pic for Supervenience Project preliminary exploration:
“how emergent minds and money seize power over matter” August 2018.

Best available pumping equipment was hardly relevant to Stony Creek fire
water flood at Cruickshank Park late on second day of putting fire out.

With Rivers/Waterways of the West targeting Werribee and Maribyrnong
catchments it’s time to catch up with the Werribee Riverkeeper’s program.

Lorne preparing for therapeutic laugh at the town’s obsession with Sulphies.

Uncle Dave Wandin preparing smoking ceremony at Five Mile Creek stone
circle five days before his opening keynote at Grassy Plains Network event.

The hard heads who’ve kept NTGVVP alive welcomed indigenous leadership.

Stony Creek either side of the rail
corridor serves as the boundary
between the cities of Brimbank
and Maribyrnong, the heritage
bridge obscured by newer lines.
V/Line services run on far tracks,
a track fault making this a fluke.
“Black arch” is at the centre of
sites of environmental interest:
Matthews Hill grassland looked
after by Brimbank enviro team;
Braybrook grassland recently
protected by VicTrack; Orion
Townhouse Estate adding storm
water via a retention pond which
should have been full wetlands.
Meanwhile Rail Futures Institute
has become an effective voice in
transport planning, helping to
make case for better integrating
the projects slated for Sunshine.

The five members of lapsed Coordination Committee joined by Melbourne
Water and nine other parties to sign up for Chain of Ponds collaboration.

Having long advocated a rail corridor from Newport via Fishermans Bend,
joined seasoned campaigners to unofficially open a Fitzroy MM2 station.

That out-of-the-blue pic that I’m often drawn back to of always interesting
wave refraction from the rock shelf at the eastern end of Cumbo beach.

Bodie and Ella’s Little Talks enhanced by an unexpected editing trick.
Video placeholder
Link details at end

72
Early in my 73rd year a hiking group advertised a trip to Mud Island for
more than hiking, after years in which I couldn’t find a way to get there.

Inspired by “Reimagining Your Creek” traffic at Sunshine Hospital discover
walkable gap beneath freight railway to explore cutoff reach on other side.

Marcus’s PhD for his Urban Environmental History of Melb’s Watercourses.

The Orbweavers, Marita and Stuart, at Living Pavillion on Bouverie Creek.

Video placeholder
Link details at end
Local community campaign to Save Footscray Park from secretive plans
hatched by the council and a sporting franchise interested fledgling XR.
Mark who keeps playing and singing while the crowd turns is still active.

Essendon Greens candidate James Williams warming up crowd before five
woman panel took on highly appropriate topic de jour in the winter of 2019.
Events to come made Decolonising Environmentalism more vital to those
who care, along with growing understanding that Nature is a change process.

Retake lived history pic while in Sale for Brent Groves’s funeral.

Anti-Toxic Waste Alliance rally at Coolaroo “glass mountain” increases
pressure on EPA while providing chance for Konagaderra pics en route.

Key #Westchoke adversaries again lead EES IAC circus for #NELAugh.

Photographed signs at Melbourne SS4C. Seeing accumulative administrations
as the antithesis of Freedom for Others, it is clear who leads the Free world.

Sand Talk’s endless quotable stories make it literally biblical.

Route for Saturday urban planning tour around Broadmeadows went past
public hall set for Anti-Toxic Waste Alliance’s Member Forum that Monday.

Megan showing Robyn Rick’s Eastern Barred Bandicoot, now to be replicated
at Woodlands, at end of planting. Pic became our ED submission centrefold.

After same driver for Grampians leg into night in Warrnambool and on via
Port Campbell giving me four hours before bus got back from Apollo Bay.

Interesting variety near bus stop at end of four hours exploring Princetown,
Gellibrand River estuary and wetlands at western edge of Gadubanud land.

15 months on from Stony Creek toxic waste fire artist friends’ explorations
encouraged walking in from Paramount Road along creek to cautiously view.

Mud Island Straw-necked breeding colony pic our ED counterpoint cover.

First leg of trail from Jamieson camp ground towards Wye suddenly opens up
spectacular view line from old dive exit to landmarks either side of Cumbo.

Visiting Rachel and exploring Kaanglang
led to 1952 landslide’s Lake Elizabeth.

Charles Massy’s Return of the Reed Warbler makes case for regenerative
agriculture, catalysing much video in which RWs are heard but not seen.
Then one decided to get it all out in a little tree by the swimming hole.
Video placeholder
Link details at end

Sand Talk tells of encoding knowledge
on your hand, provoking experiment
while filling last gap in Jamieson Trail
beach leg at old dive exit spot with
view back to landmarks near Cumbo.
Walking new trail in 3 circuits got me
ready for a personal record breaking
walk up Cumberland Track to check on
legacies of Wye fire and ’70s logging.
All this was also prompted by need to
respond during preceding winter to
welcome plan to link Surf Coast Walk
at Fairhaven to Great Ocean Walk at
Skenes Creek which should fix
Cumbo’s legacy trail disconnects.
While Wye to Kennett has been formed
in the interim, and budget locked in,
some trickier planning either side of
Cumbo is an ongoing commitment.

Late decision to join group’s third Mud Island “hike” in under 12 months and
happy to tackle circumnavigation, crossing lagoon inlet and seeing big birds.

73
With travel restrictions looming there were a couple of places to check
starting with Dunes Drain passing under southwest corner of Brimbank.

Same day doubled as last chance to visit a beach before lockdown so opted
for Seaholme where the tidal flats attract birds that need to be looked up.

With construction along the “quarry belt” in progress and in prospect access
from Kealba along the river side of the Barro quarry became exercise target.

The day after we committed to making
a submission to the Legislative Council
Environment and Planning Committee
inquiry into Ecosystems Decline (ED)
in Victoria easing out of lockdown had
put walking between Tottenham and
West Footscray within exercise range.
Heading east from Paramount Road
on Stony Creek to view the Cala Street
footbridge, a pre-committed outcome
of Maribyrnong Council’s impressive
Stony Creek Future Directions Plan,
continued on to confront this tragic
planning legacy near Roberts Street.
Crystal Legacy’s Progressive Planners
had become my first choice contact
point with activist planners who felt
need to keep their political sentiments
and causes out of their (prospective)
clients and/or employers purview.

Even with access blocked, the bluestone culvert confining Five Mile Creek
since c.1930 still dives darkly under Pascoe Vale Road as it did in childhood.

Commitment to ED submission and easing out of lockdown got me back to
Solomon Heights and neglect between Quarter Mile and EJ Whiten bridges.
Ongoing northern encroachment of River Valley Estate into “Quarry Belt”.

Long patronage of laundromat
on the corner exposed me to the
sad history of attempts to cash in
on 64 Monash Street, a supposed
development site with easement
indicating Stony Creek course in
sclerotic confinement beneath.
The first hopeful dug holes at
diagonally opposite corners
exposing the twin pipes, allowed
invasive weeds to colonise and
eventually left the site wide open
before passing it to a new agent
to look for a replacement sucker.
Also informed by Steve Wilson’s
history tour of lower Stony, I’ve
done presentations covering the
whole catchment focusing on the
diversions to reduce flooding of
central Sunshine, exposing a few
similar complications such as the
interpretive facade just behind.

Continuing to monitor Melbourne Water’s work turning upper Stony Creek
retarding basin into a wetland revealed the form laid out and planting begun.

Sclerotic St Albans East Drain below Grantham Parade led to yellow admiral
on high tension reserve close to hall that hosted Biodiversity 2037 session.

Need to break walks along Maribyrnong between the bridges revealed well-
constructed long-overgrown track angled up slope close to zone boundary.

Wildflower Garden is one of numerous
places Brimbank’s environmental team
maintain pockets of Native Temperate
Grasslands of the Victorian Volcanic
Plain (NTGVVP), in this case at back of
Denton Avenue adjacent closed tip site
which became Sunshine Energy Park.
This exploration had been prompted
by social media post claiming mystery,
the pics indexed as “Knee Xray” with
the medical precinct around Sunshine
(Joan Kirner) hospital its start point.
From there it followed openly sclerotic
Jones Creek to where concrete replaces
an earth channel at Pimelea Grassland
and past two major wetlands on the
open section from where it emerges
from underground sclerosis, its flow so
contained to and beyond block two
doors from my inherited domicile.

Coming out of 2nd wave, Logan Reserve had no sign of local history action
but found Rick Van Keulen setting up for Matilda’s 18th, switching to plan B.

Slowed down passing Altona Sports Club to savour their cover act playing
four very familiar Australian songs: “Two Dragons, To Her Door, Khe Sanh.”

Footpath sufficiently higher than road that water didn’t get into my boots at
transition from Williamstown Racecourse to Kororoit Creek Estuary leg.

Look back into sunset revealed familiar You Yangs skyline above the plains
before final leg to Williamstown Beach, train running despite misinformation.

It doesn’t require too much rain for Cumberland River to flood the
causeway entrance to the Holiday Park, “nice weather for ducks”.
Thirteen Black Duck-lings take it in their stride, 22 December 2020.
Video placeholder
Link details at end

David finally visiting to see in the new year which dawned with weather for
showing off Jebbs Pool, long familiar track I haven’t managed to get back to.

Lowest tide of cycle late in day encouraged once but no longer comfortable
walk to deep gutter that was long a snorkelling fall back in such conditions.

Not informed of 192 mm recorded at Mt Sabine, January 3 flood appeared to
have peaked before dark with surviving and grown dozen happy as ducklings.

Flood peaked overnight requiring evacuation of riverside sites and leaving
a trail of natural debris that floated as its high water mark in the morning.

Dark hours of peak flood from before
midnight ripped up the access road to
riverside sites which was impressively
restored in time for the next intake,
but killed 2021 Cumbo Cabaret plans.
Amongst many lessons, community
self-organising was far more effective
than any authorities who were briefly
willing to learn, but very little stuck.
Sadly, the lively dozen ducklings who
had kept the camp entertained through
half our holidays were not seen after
the second peak despite liking the first.
Despite minimal internet coverage and
noisy idealistic criticisms of Facebook,
hyperlocal emergencies are where it is
at its best, but that depends on critical
mass to ensure generous volunteer
efforts can catalyse sufficient reach.

Charter flight for five Cumbo regulars from Marengo needed loop close to
Lorne to climb from Cumberland valley to return above main Otway ridge.

Tenth day post flood peak revealed relative uniformity of rolling rocks that
fell out where flood met wider water, a lesson on how such interfaces work.

Newly marked route to Mt Defiance back ridge confirmed desirable views
compromised by unchecked growth relevant to extant and planned trails.

Regular visitor community has long prioritised a safe road crossing to the
beach, the flood cleanup providing opportunity to expose a likely route.

74
Dropped in on trip that was a chance to give Tyson copy of submission,
keen to ensure Boathouse didn’t burn down overnight as it had before.

Loose half hour at once visited lake opposite venue to hear Victor Steffensen
at only ED public hearings produced naturalised starling sans murmuration.

New owners of Sunshine silos invited City of Brimbank’s Heritage Advisory
Committee to have a look at the logistics of finding future role for the site.

Very fortunate to be able to accept a few unsolicited offers of help after my
misadventures, this not having enough light to walk down from Mt Macedon.

The previous time I’d found the gate open, the state of my back had not
encouraged exploring down steps where Stony is diverted into Kororoit.

From monitoring their not yet fledged clutch of eight, super dad checks on
super mum with their new clutch of seven hatching in their wetland nest.

Growth is fundamental to Life, the propensity to exponential in favourable
conditions becoming ecologically constrained. This after 50 growing weeks.

Months earlier, Anna had noted that the geese appeared to have fostered
one of a clutch of cygnets, the progress of which continued to inspire.

Lockdown easing brought visit to Lyn Watson’s Dingo Discovery Centre
within range of newly replaced wheels, having connected re ED inquiry.

The volunteer and administrative cost of heritage protection finally added
gold rush prefabricated police hut to Keilor’s Harricks cottage precinct.

Rally to draw attention to release of Council committee’s ED inquiry report.

Could not resist invitation from
artists mentioned earlier to “a
small, informal gathering to dip
our toes into discussions on how
we see, use, think about, and
relate to the waterways of this
city”, being met by Black Swan
family and Orbweaver Marita,
emphasising role of residencies.
The Arts broadly are our best
hope of moving human thinking
and an object lesson in diversity.
At the other end of the Arts scale
I’m rarely interested in movies,
but this was within a fortnight of
seeing Dune on its first day here
then shocked that there was very
limited choice of where to see it
again when back from Cumbo,
fortuitously including the Astor
which led me en route to the new
Elsternwick Park wetlands.

A year and a day on another flood peaking in the middle of the day had us
again evacuating the river sites, but only postponing the annual Cabaret.

After one pre- and two post-flood reschedulings, going on was a triumph.

Return visit for pic of Supt La Trobe’s
light at the Cape at London’s behest
which justified Gadubanud dispersal.
Bonus sighting of precarious Hoodies.

Life
and its
Substrates
Voracious
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Intermission
After a quick chance to refresh we look at the ever pressing question of what we
should do with the unknowable but constrained time and energy we have left.

Placeholder reflection on where that last five started.

Realistic motivation for what is to come carries a risk of Triggering a response
often unfairly identified as another kind of black dog we need to consider first.

We know young people
who struggle with saturation
coverage of doom and gloom
about climate and more,
and we know older people
who struggle with their old
assumptions and indulgences
being called into question.
My coping acknowledges
others enduring far worse
and enjoys the rewards to
those who become active.

75
Kicking against the wind
again in the final quarter.
What to try to focus on? and
what else to try to keep alive?
before some mercy rule intercedes.
While everything is ever more connected
I’ve long kept Life under three headings:
Community • Praxis • Theoria

Prologue
On being in a Superposition of
Advantage and Disadvantage:
Brutish Colonial suppression
of Indigenous Knowledges
has been the most
destructive intentional act.
I am a product of that,
as are almost all
of my collaborators.

Community 1:
Strengthen focus on Hydrology and Ecology
because the scale of their disruption is underplayed,
recognising Climate as a trailing indicator.
Community 2:
Stay with the territories that form the core of our
Ecosystems Decline submission:
§6 Critically endangered volcanic plains grasslands
around the Waterways of the West
§7 In and out of the water along the Great Ocean Road,
its new Authority and Trails
§8 Recovering and raising Nepean Bay Bar,
and its impact on southern Port Phillip

Two years on return visit to Rachel, this time walking around Lake Elizabeth,
revealing wetland meadow where Barwon East Branch dumps its sediment.

Melbourne Airport Rail could catalyse restoring the intended downstream
extent of Brimbank Park with remnants of critically endangered volcanic
plains grasslands at Solomon Heights and 71 Penna Avenue being added,
bringing Brimbank Park up to scratch as a key to Waterways of the West.

Organ Pipes National Park has its 50th
anniversary to celebrate this year.
Adjacent to Sydenham Park, together
they form gateway to upper catchment.

La Nina floods of and between last two new years placed focus on the lack of
meteorological data at a sufficiently fine scale to be useful as streams tumble
out of assorted catchment topographies, mobilising rounded rocks and fallen
trees to amplify their destructive powers confronting colonial infrastructure.

Melanie Collett to #WestChoke EES IAC

Figure 13 from G R Holdgate et al 2011.

Tony Smith
Melbourne Emergence Meetup
14 December 2017
Nepean Bay Bar Update

Praxis 1:
Technological enabling of transparency,
open collaboration, devolution and diversity;
deprecation of adversarial abstractions
and aggregative administrations.
Praxis 2:
Since presenting Conversation Piece
at the start of the third quarter of a lifetime
empowered by literacy and numeracy,
by the the time of pulling together a section list for
Supervenience, Verbal Blindness and The Two-edged Sword
were clear counterpoints,
escalating to a need to begin with Too Funny for Words.

Interweb to Facebook is a rare envisaged
component of my Supervenience project
which has not yet been a focus of at least
one dedicated presentation, despite its
centrality to a dominant lifelong story arc.
More bemusing is the antics of so many
pundits rushing to the Death of Platform
crusades of the day, while so few dare to
contemplate the death of protection rackets
masquerading as authoritarian institutions.
So I try to keep alive a hopeful dream that
humans might yet be sufficiently seduced by
a sense of wonder and care with respect to
the world that nourishes us that we develop
the patience needed to heal and imagine.
The late lamented Douglas Adams had some
insightfully amusing takes on extremely
improbable events, a strong analogue of my
first ¾s, so I try to focus on viable futures
that may not lose track of all our heritage.

Updated section list for Supervenience, first presented on
9 August 2018, always included both Verbal Blindness and
The Two-edged Sword, and began with Too Funny for Words.

Our genetically enshrined propensity to use forms of words as our
primary knowledge index is having catastrophic consequences.

Theoria 1:
2020+ pandemic of publications on, and research into,
possibilities inherent in chemical and electromagnetic
interaction needs propagation to politicians and others.
Theoria 2:
Seeing a first sign of the universality of synergy
between spreading chaos and emergent orderly growth
on 1 November 2008, and bingeing on metaphorical
Black Swans at least weekly through four years of
cellular automata seeding programs/growth monitoring,
it will need a computer generation update
to even start on a proper sharing.

Nail exposes civilisations halving productivity
of Life and its substrates as key driver of loss
of radiative capacity leading to global heating.
Pollack gets a lot right about the complexity
of H₂O without needing to invoke 4th phase.

Across my first ¾s I’ve tended to stay with
things for not much longer than I was learning
from them, then let those learnings infiltrate
how I viewed the next opportunities.
This applies particularly to my hard won
understanding of the chaotic consequences of
orderly growth, a price natural systems have
long been paying for the march of civilisation,
and we civilised are now facing from the
passing of legalised accumulation.
Go fourth and divide!

Performer Details
Where Song Began music by Simone Slattery and Anthony Albrecht
who have very recently been responsible for Songs of Disappearance
https://bowerbird.productions/works/
Video Links
Clip #1 used 45 seconds from 1:13 of Bodie and Ella’s Little Talks
https://vimeo.com/683211938
Clip #2 XR Westside supporting Save Footscray Park campaign
Clip #3 Reed Warbler’s Christmas Day 2019 Speech
Clip #4 Challenge to count 14 ducklings in 20 seconds

My ¾ time huddle

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