Unsurpassed Fertility and Beauty

Explorer, Major Thomas Mitchell waxed poetic as he crossed the western plains and Gariwerd hove into view in the winter of 1836.

“Every day we passed over land which, for natural fertility and beauty, could scarcely be surpassed; over streams of unfailing abundance, and the plains covered with the richest pasturage. Stately trees and majestic mountains adorned the ever varying scenery in this region, the most southern of all Australia and the best”.

Near the Hopkins River to the south-east of Gariwerd, the expedition found a Djab wurrung woman’s basket – possibly abandoned as she fled in fright from the alien invaders. The contents of the reed-woven basket provide a glimpse at the diversity of diet enjoyed by western Victorian Aboriginal people before European Settlement.

The bag contained “three snakes, three rats, about two pounds of a small fish, like white bait; crayfish; and a quantity of small root of the cichoraceous plant tao, usually found growing on the plains with bright yellow flower (the native yam daisy). There were also in the bag various bodkins (bone points for sewing) and colouring stones (for painting and decoration, and two mogos or stone hatchets.

source: The People of the Gariwerd – Gibb Wettenhall

Here in Wartook, in the winter of 2008, the unsurpassed fertility and beauty is as evident as it was when Major Mitchell passed by. Alas the indigenous people and their green ways, are all gone now. But I can live  similarly.

Today I went out with my bowl and, rather than colouring stones, my digital camera. I collected a rich harvest from the garden where Ash lies sleeping, warm within the bowels of the earth. I have made a chicken casserole for dinner (no beheaded chickens from here) and I will serve it with fresh silver beet, fresh from the garden. The eggs were warm to touch when I gathered them from my ‘girls’. It is not quite a bush larder but the things I have gathered, the fresh lemons and oranges, eggs and beet will nourish and sustain me.