Connection to land and the bicycle

Today, the way we move through spaces has changed drastically with most of our travel being now reduced to a long procession of cars following each other in straight lines through an often hostile landscape. New technology with self navigation tools can steer driverless cars. We might not notice the markers we used to rely on for directions. We are almost completely desentisied to the environment around us. Travelling in ‘mobile lounge rooms’ with temperature control, heated seats, cup holders and screens to blank out the outside world.

Architects used to design our urban landscape for human connection. We would journey along site lines, nodes, turning points, places to dwell, connect, rest, between landmarks. The bluestone bridge over the creek, the long winding path up hill to the church on top, the clocktower in the centre of town. When we travel along in cars don’t need to remember where the low points are in the landscapes, the hills, the position of the sun. Certainly we are not aware of the smell of wet eucalyptus after rain, the dip in temperature and moisture that hangs in the air over Five Mile Creek or the swirling heady currents of hot air radiating from Hanging Rock.

Imagine the indigenous peoples relationship to this land. Woodend is where three of the 5 Kulin southern nations would meet;

• Dja Dja Wurung (jaara people- ‘habitat of the Emu’

  Lodden - Avoca River, Bendigo, Daylesford, Maryborough, Castlemaine

  Box iron bark, sandstone, slate, sedimentary rock

• Tuangurong (Daung Wurrung)

  King - Howqua, Coliban, Goulburn, Campaspe, Mt Beauty, Mt Buffalo, Mt Buller, Mt Stirling, Woodend. Snowgums, fern gullies, granite boulders

• Woi Wurrung (Wurunjeri - ‘manna gum witchery grub people’)

  Yarra River (Birrarrung), Werribee river, Mt Baw Baw, Mordiallac Creek, Pound Bend, Dights Falls, Sunbury, Mt Macedon. She-oak, messmate, blackwood, river plains

A sacred place. What draws us here, to put down roots, to connect. The intense seasons, the rivers, mountains, rocky outcrops, an intense rich fertile landscape. Aboriginal songlines traversed this land, navigating the landscape. Journeys might match seasonal changes, flowering events or animal migrations. Features in the landscape and the stars above were their markers. The connection to land was interwoven with all aspects of life. Life, full of animals and trees, each individual patch of earth unique with its diverse ecosystem, geology changes, endemic population, colouring, sound, sound, texture… Our desensitisation to the natural environment has allowed us to detach from the natural world, biodiversity is swapped out for a concrete, death.

To reconnect to land, while making a concession to our modern worlds need for speed, nothing feels better than riding a bicycle. Fully engaged, fully present in the landscape. As we journey over this land we can learn aboriginal place names, where available they give identity and descriptions of land. Reestablishing some of the map lines and creating wildlife corridors along them. A trail out to Hanging Rock (needs to be renamed) following the Five Mile Creek from the sheltered wooded valley town that is Woodend. Can you imagine the connection to place - a deeply sensory experience we so desperately need.

While we are locked down in Victoria it seems the ideal time to reconnect with our incredible local environment.