from Providence Ponds
Louise Crisp
Plantationocene
No continuous plantation unit should exceed 1400ha (LCC 1983:35)
Weeks are lost and (I) become disoriented in the endless geometry of pine forests
Tracking the tributaries of Providence in the upper & middle catchment: California,
Honeysuckle, Paisley, Middle and Sandy Creeks appear & disappear as (I) encounter
Continuous plantations incarcerated ponds enduring underground resurface this wet
Winter a yellow scum of pine pollen floats on any pond exposed to the sky between
The green hoardings of plantations plantations plantations plantations plantations pine
Kanangra Rd
The wind is the only thing alive in the triangular black shadows of the pine forest
No wonder –
the plantations evicted more than 300 species of fauna & 700 species of flora
the fallen winter pine needles lie thickly fathomed red along the rows
the early morning freezing cold is held against the earth for hours
longer than it ever was in the open warming bush of hereabouts
at the edge of the road a Prickly Geebung turns back Persoonia juniperina
its exquisite yellow petals each flower a miniscule
resounding
of the lost
Sand Slug
Well we know that white-Australia is a sad failure, Jim Everett 2014:40
The land lain bare
Band the laird
-s’ sheep
Expanded cleared land & over
Ran the catchment
Ran the land
Down
Erosion saddened deep
Incised the ponds & lower
Down
Infilled with sand:
The slug moves down
Sandy Ck & Providence
Now at Fiddlers
Junction
References
Plantationocene
Land Conservation Council (LCC) (1983) Proposed Recommendations – Gippsland Lakes Hinterland Area, Land Conservation Council, Melbourne, Victoria
Harraway, D. (2015) ‘Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Planationocene, Chthulucene: making Kin’, Environmental Humanities, Vol 6, 2015 pp 159-65
Kanangra Rd
Bramwell, M. & Rossack, B. (2006) Biodiversity Action Planning – Bairnsdale Foothills Landscape Zone, East Gippsland Bioregion, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria, pp 41, 43
Sand Slug
Everett, J. (2014) “Savage Nation” in Southerly Vol 74, no 2, ‘Australian Dreams 1’, pp 27-42
Louise Crisp’s publications include Ruby Camp: a Snowy River series(Spinifex Press), pearl & sea fed (Hazard Press NZ), and Uplands (Five Islands Press). Her long poem series Providence Ponds was written with the support of an Australia Council New Work grant.
