Roots Down

The big fig trees which line Oxford Street by the Memorial Park in Bulimba have these funky sleeves to protect them. Prop roots spring from the branches like scaffolding and grow downwards to support the huge weight of the tree and as a consequence they can grow over a vast area. Here's a closer view:

It reminds me of a poem by Brisbane's newly elected Greens councillor who recited it as part of an unprecedented maiden speech in council last month. A poem in council!? The rest of the councillors probably thought he was mad; a bit out-there for Brisbane! But you don't get more Brisbane than this:

Roots down
roots down
roots down
roots down
my heart's buried deep under Brisbane town
creekbeds, hilltops, riding around
cracking macadamias and putting roots down
I am of this city
its history is my history
my scraped knee and my favourite tree
and swimming lessons in the pool at Craigslea Primary
and Oxley's expedition back in 1823
and our Year 4 excursion to Saint Helena Island
and those weather-worn tennis balls that we were always finding
and the floods of 1974
and the invasion of 1788
and the park on the north side where I rode without training wheels for the first time
and the frog pond of drowning Christmas beetles
and Joh Bjelke-Pietersen
and hunting Easter eggs in the backyard
and hunting kangaroos by Breakfast Creek
and the roller coaster at the top of the Myer Centre that looked like a dragon and screamed at the madness beneath
Roots down
roots down
this town
roots down
My roots are tendrils, tentacles
reaching down below
splitting concrete and bitumen digging in
The soil is soft after summer storms
and the roots grow quickly, thickly
but Brisbane's burbs're built on clay
so once they're down they're down to stay
Roots down roots down brushtail growl hear that sound
But now and then in this circus I encounter a clown
who thinks that because he's got his roots in the ground
he somehow gains the right to define this town
and decide who else gets to put roots down
See the surface seems sufficiently serene
but if you peel back the bandaid you'll see the gangrene
And now I see you've forgotten
I see your roots are rotten
but this garden has no gardener
that's how we got to where we've gotten
The question on my mind is where we going?
This city is growing
sauropod construction cranes on every horizon
jackhammer clattering drowns out the cicadas
the relentless march of apartment towers makes suburbanites nervous
so they build higher fences
and mow their lawns weekly
Roots down, stolen ground
dead trees, river brown
I know something's awry in this city
but I can't quite put my finger on it
It's like we've outgrown the garden bed
roots in a twist
slumbering suburbs
silence those who resist
Vision blurring
but now I hear them stirring
climb Mt Cootha at midnight
see them lighting candles and switching off TVs
Flying foxes in the trees
stench of rotten mangoes
gives way to a cool south-easterly
Pumpkin vines wither and die but the passionfruit keeps growing
skyscrapers sprouting up from the bedrock
Wivenhoe overflowing
activists invade city hall and the clocktower falls silent in anticipation
Change is coming to Brisbane town
we feel it in the soil
while we cracking macadamias and putting roots down

(by Jonathan Sri)

Tower of Power

This is the new government building that is starting to loom over William Street and the river. It takes up an entire city block and can be seen from all over Brisbane. It's due to be completed in the middle of 2017. That tower block next to it is the Parliamentary Annexe building and used to be the tallest thing along that stretch of skyline. Not any more!

Real Australians Say Welcome

I thought in the light of the closure of the refugee detention centre on Manus Island and yesterday's horror story from Nauru, it might be worth letting you know that not all of us agree with our immigration minister Mr Dutton. 

Stand-off at Musgrave Park

I couldn't really see much as the police had cordoned off the area with fences and blocked off the footpaths but the Sovereign Embassy in Musgrave Park this morning was not the happy peaceful place it was a couple of weeks ago when I visited. Scroll down to my May 1 post for shots of what it looks like.

Over the weekend, the residents were asked by the Mayor to vacate the site. The council has offered them another piece of land but the residents say that this is in fact their land with their sacred fire and they have no intention of leaving.

Today, over 200 police have surrounded the camp site in the north-western corner of the park. This is to make way for Panyiri this weekend which is the annual Greek festival held on the site (and the rest of Musgrave Park). Organisers of the festival have reportedly said they have no problem with the campers being there but Brisbane City Council haven't been swayed.

Brisbane's Sovereign Embassy

Brisbane's Soveriegn Embassy is an indigenous protest site set up in Musgrave Park in South Brisbane and has been open for just over a month. Read about the politics here.

Some of the coals from Canberra's sacred fire in the original Tent Embassy were carried to Brisbane to start a fire here. The residents of the camp have kept the fire burning despite prolonged rain over the past few days. 

Sovereignty of sacred land (like Musgrave Park where the camp is), an end to the disproportionally high number of black deaths in custody and a change to the intervention laws currently in place in the Northern Territory are all mentioned on the various signs around the site.

The signs are hard-hitting but the mood around seems pretty light. I've heard there is a playgroup being held there and of course there is some great art going on...

Signs around the place strictly forbid drugs and alcohol but it looks like the cups of tea are going down a treat.

Queensland Blues

Queensland voted yesterday with an astonishing swing to the right. The conservative Liberal National Party took 76 seats so far (predicted 78) leaving the ousted Labor Party with just 7! With only 4 seats going to independents, things are going to be very blue around here for a while...

Snag A Vote!

It's State Election time today in Queensland and the competition is fierce between polling stations as far as who is offering the best food. A friend of mine said that he was going to travel around South Brisbane today doing a survey to see which polling station offered the best food! My daughter's school houses our local polling station and capitalised on the opportunity for a fundraiser so we set up some BBQs and a home made cake stall. We even put some of the kids to work, selling breakfast rolls to the queue of voters while they were standing in line... It's great having a captive audience!

On the BBQ menu today...

Sausage in bread: $2
Bacon and egg roll: $5
Rocket, haloumi and roasted tomato roll: $5

Detained bloggers on display in Inala

Reading about Vietnam's victims of  internet censorship.

Can't Eat Coal, Can't Drink Gas

It's estimated that 1100 or 1200 people attended the Food Security Forum yesterday in Brisbane. It was a strange mix of people to say the least. There were Greenies and ultra-conservatives, farmers and conservationists, country folk and city folk.... all on the same side. (As one politician put it, if Bob Katter, Bob Brown and Bob Irwin are all singing from the same prayer book there must be something wrong!) There was a big meeting at the Convention Centre and then we marched to the city for a rally.

Unfortunately, Coal Seam Gas isn't an issue in the upcoming Queensland State election because neither of the two main parties in the race can see anything wrong with it.

A Rush and A Push and The Land is Ours

This is a picture of one of my favourite parts of Australia, in the Scenic Rim on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. This area of stunning natural beauty and prime farming land is under threat, along with vast areas of both Queesland and New South Wales..

It's all because of Coal Seam Gas. It is one of the most frightening things that is happening in Australia today. This is because the extraction of coal seam gas involves injecting chemicals into the ground that can possibly contaminate our water supply forever -  not only for farmland but our drinking water as well. The Scenic Rim isn't the only area affected. There are plans for up to 40 000 wells in Queensland across the state.

"Lock The Gate" is an alliance which allows farmers to band together and say "no" to mining companies who offer giant amounts of money to individual farmers for their land. As a consequence of the mess and noise that they make, the surrounding farmland becomes virtually worthless. Most landowners in the area where I took this photo have one on their gate.

Today I'm heading down to the Food Security Forum to learn more and show my concern. Tomorrow I'll post a picture from the event.

If you want to know more, the ABC have a good website here.

Postal Vote

Queensland is having a state election on March 24th to determine who will be our premier. I missed out on voting in the general election of 2010 as I had only become a citizen a month beforehand and the authorities didn't have time to get me onto the electoral roll. This time I'm leaving nothing to chance and have applied for a postal vote as I'll be working on election day.

In Australia it is compulsory to vote;  if you don't, you'll get a $20 fine. If you don't pay the fine, you could be prosecuted. As a result, Australia has a very high voter turnout! And don't worry if you think every candidate is a dud: you can choose to spoil your ballot paper in protest. Personally, after being here for nearly 7 years, I'm excited to finally have my say.

Trying to keep the Scenic Rim scenic

Coal seam gas is being promoted as clean energy but a group of protesters near Beaudesert - about an hour's drive south of Brisbane - think otherwise; they -  farmers, greenies, and other concerned folk - are currently blockading a coal seam gas exploration rig; they are very worried that the process of gas removal will affect their underground water supply as has been the case in other places.  At this stage they are asking for an independent baseline water testing study so that the company will be forced to take responsibility for any future problems.

The protesters believe that the only way to prevent the country's water being thus affected is via political intervention - and elections are nigh!!!

Thanks to Nell for her help with this post.
Photo: Innes Larkin

Anniversary BBQ

 

As this weekend passed, so did the anniversary of our flood. There were street parties around flood affected areas and I managed to catch the tail end of one on Saturday night, straight off the plane - to hell with the jet lag! Then yesterday a couple of familiar faces turned up and laid on a celebratory BBQ in the local park... so we came down for a little look.
Does anyone else smell an election?

The Movement Spreads

It's been a big deal in Rural Queensland for quite some time but the anti-coal seam gas movement's trademark "Lock The Gate" signs are now cropping up in Brisbane. The crux of the matter is that the government are set to make billions of dollars extracting gas from underground... a nice little earner, that's for sure... and they've even promised a huge chunk of the profits to schools. BUT the extracting method ("fracking") is potentially lethal to the land above it including prime agricultural land and areas of outstanding natural beauty.

Read more here.

By the way - cheers, Phil/Nell for this photo.

I Spy Another VIET

To see it properly you need to be about 2 metres higher than where I was standing when I took this shot... but you can more or less see it: the letters "VIET" stylized in four images.

Yesterday I said I'd seen the Viet graffiti tag around West End but I realised when I went looking that this was the only one and it's not really a tag (the other one was a big spray-painted "Vietnam"). I'm wondering if that "2010 Still Vietnow" is relevant? Vietnow is a rap song by Rage Against The Machine that's about 15 years old with an anti right-wing sentiment. Maybe it ties in with the Occupy movement? Vietnow is also a Vietnam Vets' group. Surely they'd be getting a bit long in the tooth for all this sort of thing? Maybe not... who knows?

If I see any more interesting Viets around the place, I'll stick them up here for you to check out.

1,2,3 What Are We Fighting For?

It's probably a bit old now but while I was on my little blogging holiday in October, Brisbane had it's very own 'Occupy' folk. They camped out in Post Office Square (pictured) for about 4 weeks until they were moved on by the council (there were a few scuffles which was quite exciting). Then they went to Queen's Park for a night or two and now it looks like the full time camp-out has stopped in favour of "flash mob occupations". I think this is because numbers are down and the few committed Occupiers in the area have to make ends meet so they have to go to work. My own opinion is that they needed to have more leadership and a set of attainable goals. But I am all for it... at least they care about what is going on in the world.

One of their recent events (according to their Facebook page) was a Flash Mob Occupation BBQ down at Orleigh Park by the river. Which would have been nice. Hey! Just because they want an end to Corporate Greed doesn't mean they have to live in a gutter and eat scraps, ok?

More wine anyone?

Rip and Roll

 This is the poster that has been in the news here recently.

It's a campaign by the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities to promote safe sex among gay men (you can just make out the red-wrapped condom that the guy is holding on the bottom left). After plenty of coverage all over Brisbane, the Advertising Standards Bureau received so many complaints that Adshel had to pull the plug on the whole campaign. Then there was the counter attack: people were up in arms. There was a rally outside Adshel. After an investigation, it was found that the complaints all came from members of the Australian Christian Lobby. Infact it had been an orchestrated campaign deliberately giving the impression that they were from the wider population and weren't linked in any way. So the ban was overturned and now all the posters are back and you can see them all over the place.

Which is good cos I reckon it's a great shot.

And the ACL gets a big eye roll from me.

Brolly Rally

Protest yesterday in King George Square against budget cuts to medical research. The rain didn't dampen spirits.

Sea Of Hands Poster

Look, I'm not one to blow my own trumpet... OK maybe I am.

 Back in October '09 I did a post about a "Sea of Hands" which was being exhibited as part of the West End Live festival. The organiser, ANTaR (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation), contacted me recently to see if it would be OK to use the photo as part of a poster... and here it is! I'm very proud.

Read more about the Sea of Hands here.

 Find out what's happening with ANTaR nationally here.

 Have fun designing your own hand here.

Thanks

After some heavy rain last night to wash away the dust and mud, our neighbourhood looks like a different place to last week.

We'll always remember those who came and helped, devoting their days off, money and energy into getting us back on track. Even Kev came back to see how we'd recovered and he lay on a breakfast BBQ in our once green and pleasant local park. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and the British Foreign minister William Hague turned up too.  Our local councillor Helen Abrahams, who has been working like a trojan in our area, didn't really get much of a look-in. And of course, there were plenty of representatitves from the media.

We're not back home yet but we are looking good. Talk amongst our refugee household has turned towards electricians, plumbers, plasterers and painters.

And the good will continues - a friend's son has offered to paint our walls for free!