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 |   The simplicity of my day to day. |
I was born in a green and pleasant land. A land of fertile soil and plentiful rain but now live in a harsh environment, with poor soils, unpredictable rainfall and high temperatures. It was much the same in the nineteenth century when the first European settlers arrived on the shores of Australia. They were met with unfamiliar conditions and natives who had never seen white men before. The natives had lived and thrived for thousands of years on this land. Their country. A country managed by the people who lived by the seasons. In Western Australia the Nyoongar people observe six separate seasons. • Birak • First summer December-January • Season of the young Dry and hot Burning time Bunuru Second summer February-March Season of adolescence Hottest part of the year. Djeran Autumn April-May Season of adulthood Cooler weather begins Makuru Winter June-July Season of fertility Coldest and wettest season of the year More frequent gales and storms. Djilba First spring August-September Season of conception Mixture of wet days with increasing number of clear, cold nights and pleasant warm days. Kambarang Second spring October-November Season of birth Longer dry periods The first settlers knew nothing of the climate, the seasons of this foreign land and yet they were farmers and sure of their farming knowledge. Convinced they would continue to grow crops successfully here as they had for years at home. If only they had taken the time and patience to make allies of the natives. Instead, they thought them ignorant and tried to destroy them. Massacred them, destroyed their camps, and feared them. The settlers were soon to learn their old methods of growing food here in Australia would fail. The first thing they did was to clear the trees, scraping the last bit of vegetation from the sandy soils. The outcome of all the clearing is that now Western Australia contains 70% of the land affected by salinity in Australia. More than 2 million hectares are currently affected, and around 4 million hectares of land are currently listed. More than 1 million hectares of agricultural land in the south-west of Western Australia (WA) is severely affected by salt. The lost agricultural productivity from salinity damage is estimated to be worth at least $519 million per year. Even though climate change has resulted in reduced annual rainfall, saline water tables have risen in many areas, meaning that dryland salinisation is a threat to an additional 2.8 to 4.5 million hectares of low-lying or valley floor soils. |
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