The document provides background on the geography of Australia and the indigenous peoples who first inhabited the continent. It notes that Australia is geologically stable, with mountain ranges along the east coast marking the opening of the Tasman Sea. The Shield volcano Mount Nandewar significantly influenced landforms over millions of years as the continent drifted. Indigenous Australians arrived some 40,000-60,000 years ago from Asia, spreading east and south and establishing early trade routes. Their lifestyle centered on living in harmony with the fragile natural environment.

1. SHADOWS OF NANDEWAR
New South Wales; an introspective journey
Australia is both old and stable in geological terms. Up thrust east coastal regions mark the opening of the
Tasman Sea between Australian and New Zealand. We find the mountainous New England Oregon located at
about 152o east and 22o to 32o south. The shield volcano Nandewar influenced the land forms significantly
over millions of years as the continent drifted above, and is now located generally below Tasmania.
Primary trade routes radiated from areas
of easy contact with modern day Timor
and New Guinea.
www.donsmaps.com http://www.geo.arizona.edu/geo5xx/geo527/NewEnglandOrogen/neoindex.html
© Colin M Perrott 2008

2. Australia is the driest continent on Earth. The indigenous peoples came here some forty to sixty millennia ago
from Asia, reaching the present shore proximate the Timor and Arafura Seas, spreading East and South from
there. Their tracks became trade routes and are marked trails of artifacts distributed essentially according to
the regions of easiest travel. Those lasting communications preserved fascinating links of language, myth and
astronomy with India, North Asia onto the Pacific Rim and even Ancient Greece 1 . But over time the land has
grown hotter and desiccated. Ancient inland seas have evaporated and human development became adaptive
to the fragile natural environment. There never were the resources to support exploitive lust; humans did not
dominate their world; lifestyle and spirituality centered on community in the context of Nature.
Elsewhere, time offered immensely greater opportunity as forbidding covers of ice receded. Humans had the
luxury to engage self-centered pursuits and devise political and theist models that served their sense of
dominance. They became innate exploiters of all within reach, especially of the Earth itself. One might argue
that time emaciated human compassion and sensitivity; bloated its pretensions and entrenched division. So
there could be no greater collision than occurred when this virulent form of humanity encountered its opposite
– peoples whose continuance relied on social and ecological harmony. The history of ‘White Australia’ is just
one record of such calamity, but that makes it no more excusable. Yes, I am sorry for what occurred. I grew
up beside its machinery and the cultural intrusions that grasped onto the essence of family existence. But also,
I stand aghast in the sight of its repetition today in a much more dangerous guise. Has our virulence become
directed against our very own humanity and the simple realities of mortal survival? What shadow are we
casting upon the Earth for coming generations to inherit? We must tend that legacy.
Colin Perrott
26th July 2008
1
The story of Jacob’s ladder as an example parallels the story of Inua and his ladder of fish bones that extended into the Milky Way. However, Inua was not from the Arctic
as you might anticipate. He was from Arnhem Land in the southern tropics.
© Colin M Perrott 2008

3. SHADOWS OF NANDEWAR
Bingara
© Colin M Perrott 2008

4. SHADOWS OF NANDEWAR
(To awareness)
More than an invasion; a cultural flood The huge red gum astride the river’s edge
consumed our world and sapped its blood. divides the flood pouring from upper ledge.
A tentacle of empire came upon our shore, Yet the force that tree seeks to defeat
flourishing Divine Right rebuffed before. weakens the hold there beneath its feet.
It mounted the slopes and topped the range. So the tree, its roots and the soil between,
It traced the streams out onto the plains, yield to the power in the persistent stream;
across our country – our living resource. scattered on the Earth – where life began.
Strange men with faces all deathly white Delight in a vision where people really share,
crushed long tradition without any respite. when happiness and compassion ride on the air.
Force prevailed and so death was wrought, Banish the myth and treacherous belief
conflicting with every real virtue taught. that has bound lives in a shroud of grief.
They claimed dominion over the whole land, Reflect; deny greed from taking its course.
imposing their right with a jealous hand; Refresh the Earth – our living resource.
taking our country – our living resource.
But who composes the music that birds sing; CMP 3rd July 2008
orders the seasons and refreshes the Spring?
Our minds explore beauty and boundless space,
touching foundations that need no human face:
A source able to raise stars into the sky,
to banish others so they no longer fly,
and to shape the Earth – where life began.
© Colin M Perrott 2008

5. CRYSTAL CAGES
Sawn Rocks
Photo by Jeremy Perrott
© Colin M Perrott 2008

6. Crystal Cages
(To caring)
The cage is its owner’s pride but there is no space inside.
Walls stand very near, corners sharp and panels sheer.
Every angle is fitted tight; creating a secluded place
to hide our human fear.
A perfect shield against mistake encasing every move we make:
Control descends as a heavy crown preventing us from looking down
or caring to glance aside as we proceed to the front;
denying our sense of fear.
A vaulted roof made from glass and a floor destined to last:
Divisions rise through the air, barriers scatter here and there.
Each is shuttered with no door: Cells striking a muted tune
to hold our silent fear.
Past lessons are there to learn, lest anguish will forever burn.
As if nothing warm rests behind, only those battles in our mind,
we march an unbending path consumed by what we know –
and the rigid mask in which we hide.
CMP 7th July 2007
© Colin M Perrott 2008

7. KUPEREE
Mt. Grenfell
© Colin M Perrott 2008

8. Kuperee
(To contemplation)
Life begins in trust and innocence, a moment naked before the chase.
Purpose molded and wrought by heat in direction shaped with relentless haste.
Striving for a place we won’t belong: where fire is smothered by darkness
without any tracks leading back, and none ahead to strike upon.
Stay awhile and absorb the distance: Touch wisdom at this desert’s edge
renewed by wash of legend while time floats idly on some distant horizon.
Observe how frail and intricate forms, though brushed upon shifting sands,
forge into solid enduring hearth with strength to bear our dearest plans.
The rock may stand aloof and proud, independent and tauntingly free;
an image no more than a mighty pretense that will erode impassively.
Variety nurtures and strengthens the Earth, giving no permanent domain.
Each dawn blushes and waits for us to value the source whence we came.
So play amid the shimmering visions that glide on the heat across the plain.
Thrill to the vibrant rhythms of nature tallied in the beat of drumming rain.
Let the powers arouse every sense. Hold the passion for living:
the deep agony in human despair and the ecstasies equally intense.
CMP 21st June 2007
© Colin M Perrott 2008

9. ALONE
Boonoo Boonoo Gorge
© Colin M Perrott 2008

10. ALONE
(To identity)
How would you feel deep inside if your children were stolen?
Oh you’d cry and continue to wail after your eyes were swollen,
and still you’d scream out aloud until the very skies were shaken,
but in the end you would be alone, so empty and forsaken.
Another, having assumed control would own your deepest love.
So the Earth would die a little every time their stars shone above.
Feel the itch that grows from knowing you are somehow different;
keeping you quite alone; when a river of care is not sufficient.
Hunger for deep tradition and yearn to hold its flooding insight.
Hear the clamor of a soul that begs to uncover its birthright;
to search the ages now past and sift what remains in their wake;
to open the door on culture and truth no-one can ever remake.
Prepare to journey together, sharing a canvas all fresh and clean:
Enlighten the crevasse between what was, and might have been.
Take a chance on compassion to break the rude cycle of control
denying the hopes and culture that keep each individual whole.
Know truth from values held within and not as others may decree.
Cherish tradition and humility to ensure that all minds are free.
CMP 22nd July 2008
© Colin M Perrott 2008

11. THE EDGE
Mt. Kaputar
© Colin M Perrott 2008

12. The Edge
(To daring)
We drift at ease while our raft caresses a mountain stream
and fleeting clouds on a zephyr breeze fuel an inner dream.
But the waters are shifting in a steady rush – a current under,
courting the ledges that hold the power to foam and thunder.
Suddenly the dream is a frantic stare into plumes of violence!
But a safe pool comes by chance – a fresh place of silence:
Until another stealthy edge beckons to forge a new disaster
playing, teasing with controlling strength, pulling ever harder.
Trembling legs and startled face surrender in a dawning smile.
Strength is gathered here, thinking anew – resting for a while;
to savor the rush and lift of a ride that many would not survive;
to feel the spray pummel our face as over that edge we dive.
Our minds will command the torrent – up and away beyond reach
cruising on the mighty surge; growing from what it has to teach.
Works of relentless time are exposed by the speeding flood.
An ancient world transforms from bare rock to soil and mud.
Great spires and fine decoration are carved by steady resolve.
Spring flowers blossom; to spread as forgotten barriers dissolve.
They paint the crumbling past in daubs of fresh and varied hue.
A world of steady change is designed to ensure life will renew.
Though clouds speed high and far, they always lag behind;
unable to reach the amazing places home to a daring mind.
CMP 15th April 2008
© Colin M Perrott 2008

13. One Journey
We are from the one Earth and we make the one Journey.
The future we share is molded in the attitudes we hold today.
We are bound as one; our destinies inseparable.
We smile from the same joy and weep with the same tears.
We love with the same passion and shiver from the same fears.
Our minds explore the same wonders from deep inside.
Together, we can harness the power to create wisely;
To forge a time where hope and sorrow find sensitivity;
and understanding is much more than a word.
CM P 17th Nov. 2007
Lake Innes
© Colin M Perrott 2008

14. One Journey
We are from the one Earth and we make the one Journey.
The future we share is molded in the attitudes we hold today.
We are bound as one; our destinies inseparable.
We smile from the same joy and weep with the same tears.
We love with the same passion and shiver from the same fears.
Our minds explore the same wonders from deep inside.
Together, we can harness the power to create wisely;
To forge a time where hope and sorrow find sensitivity;
and understanding is much more than a word.
CMP 17th Nov. 2007
© Colin M Perrott 2008