Tangle of Life
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Being weather wise in the subtropics is smart
Living in the subtropics – even for a short while as a visitor – means becoming weather wise. Of course there’s a fire ban. No open fires, especially on the beach. No tossing of cigarettes either.
12 days ago | Mary Gardner | 0 Articles & Columns, Tangle of Life -
They dance across the the concrete heart of town
These very old trees in the Railway Park, Byron Bay, are a mystery. With camera in hand, I walk around this living sculpture. These native beach hibiscus (Hibiscus tilaceus) are locked in on three sides by the buildings, cars of a busy street and a rough parking lot.
September 8, 2017 | Mary Gardner | 2 Articles & Columns, Tangle of Life -
Doomsday or recovery? Time to heed the whispers in the leaves
Neutinamu is Korean for elm tree. I saw this elder Zelkova in Seoul last month. It’s 1,300 years old, part of the Yonggungsa Temple founded in 650 AD. Around its base are roofing tiles with prayers and pleas written by devout Buddhists. Perhaps the chalk dust of these intentions mingle with the tree’s own perceptions. After all, trees sense through their leaves and roots.
August 25, 2017 | Mary Gardner | 0 Tangle of Life -
Loving Byron to death
Let’s upskill ourselves as citizens, developers and council before we disturb another metre of these beautiful landscapes and wet ecosystems.
July 14, 2017 | Mary Gardner | 0 Articles & Columns, Tangle of Life
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Being weather wise in the subtropics is smart
Living in the subtropics – even for a short while as a visitor – means becoming weather wise. Of course there’s a fire ban. No open fires, especially on the beach. No tossing of cigarettes either.
12 days ago | Mary Gardner | 0 -
They dance across the the concrete heart of town
These very old trees in the Railway Park, Byron Bay, are a mystery. With camera in hand, I walk around this living sculpture. These native beach hibiscus (Hibiscus tilaceus) are locked in on three sides by the buildings, cars of a busy street and a rough parking lot.
September 8, 2017 | Mary Gardner | 2 -
Doomsday or recovery? Time to heed the whispers in the leaves
Neutinamu is Korean for elm tree. I saw this elder Zelkova in Seoul last month. It’s 1,300 years old, part of the Yonggungsa Temple founded in 650 AD. Around its base are roofing tiles with prayers and pleas written by devout Buddhists. Perhaps the chalk dust of these intentions mingle with the tree’s own perceptions. After all, trees sense through their leaves and roots.
August 25, 2017 | Mary Gardner | 0 -
Loving Byron to death
Let’s upskill ourselves as citizens, developers and council before we disturb another metre of these beautiful landscapes and wet ecosystems.
July 14, 2017 | Mary Gardner | 0 -
From Byron to Paris, history comes alive
From Byron Bay to Notre Dame, Paris! At the entrance, police openly tout heavy machine guns, casually monitoring the swarm of idle visitors and devout churchgoers in the great stone plaza.
June 23, 2017 | Mary Gardner | 1 -
Business as usual is not the path to sustainability
Sustainability is a powerful way of thinking about the impact of our activities. In spite of attempts to trivialise the idea, it has deep roots which spread into many parts of our lives. We use it to rate tangled interactions... Read More →
June 2, 2017 | Mary Gardner | 0 -
Tangle of Life: The buzz on repelling mosquitoes
Emergency resilience. My phrase for our knowledge and practices from year to year in response to great ecological cycles. One of these is water, turning from scarcity to deluge and back.
May 2, 2017 | Mary Gardner | 1 -
Fossil-fuel-promoting ‘criminals’ are killing the Reef
In the calm of 29 March, the three of us met at the beach in Byron Bay. As we soaked in the sea at low tide, we talked about preparing our houses and farms for the rainfall expected from the tail end of Cyclone Debbie.
March 31, 2017 | Mary Gardner | 0 -
No place for hardy nymphs to sport themselves
The bright metallic blue-green dragonfly zigzags throughout the front garden. For the quarter hour I could track it, this insect never pauses.
March 9, 2017 | Mary Gardner | 0 -
Will we welcome our marine climate refugees?
Making sense of small talk is a never-ending task for this particular biologist. I deeply, truly want to hear what people think about the weather, water, fish and all that. Over the years, I’ve been splicing together these sound bites into a detailed collage.
February 6, 2017 | Mary Gardner | 0 -
The struggle over the commons continues
The power of a Great Story goes round and round, spiralling outward from its first telling. Such stories become influential but why? Consider one from 1968 called ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’.
January 6, 2017 | Mary Gardner | 7 -
Great stories are doing the rounds
The power of a great story goes round and round, spiralling outward from its first telling. Such stories become influential but why?
January 3, 2017 | Mary Gardner | 0 -
Let’s record the nature/human mash-up in Byron Bay
This location is one around Byron Bay, hidden but in plain view. The jumble of plants discourages that hurried walking that gets a person from here to there. But it does invite a person to explore.
December 1, 2016 | Mary Gardner | 2 -
Ecology, justice and an enslaved vanilla pollinator
The horticulturalist was astonished to hear that my vanilla orchid was flowering in Northern Rivers. Two years ago, propped up at the base of a tall Bangalow palm, this lone plant burst into maturity as a vine.
October 4, 2016 | Mary Gardner | 3 -
Sustainable means re-wilding our waterways and coastal seas
Rainbow bee-eaters, the size of a small child’s hand, tunnel deep into the face of the dunes making nests near the Tallows waterway. At the base of the dune is the new two strand fence, a token defence against people who would clamber up and down or bring along their forbidden dogs.
August 29, 2016 | Mary Gardner | 2 -
Marine life booms, with a helping hand
From how far can the cries of a seabird be heard? The gannets that dive here in the waters of Byron shire nest on rock ledges of the West Coast in the Waitakere Ranges. With their every cry come words from across the shared ocean.
July 12, 2016 | Mary Gardner | 1 -
Reminders of water’s power remain in the land
Real estate is often thought to be dry land. But long standing depictions of country in Australia focus on water. Aboriginal Australian artworks remind us of the locations and flow of water as a dynamic integrated presence above and below ground.
June 9, 2016 | Mary Gardner | 0 -
Apps that map our changing environment
On the April 19, the branching corals at Nguthungulli/Julian Rocks show up white. The warm water was too much for too long and they bleached. The same water encourages the leopard sharks to linger here later.
May 9, 2016 | Mary Gardner | 0 -
Building local ecological knowledge empowers communities
he blast of fireworks lit up the grand finale on the platform in the waters of Currumbin. I joined the happy applause at this world premiere of Shifting Sands. The performers were professional artists as well as community people from many groups.
April 3, 2016 | Mary Gardner | 0 -
Mary Gardner: A few of my favourite things
Mary Gardner One of my favourite things is meeting this frog. Her presence is a small sweet confirmation of the power without name. A tiny fertile egg had become a tadpole and then an adult. Food was there when needed.... Read More →
February 29, 2016 | Mary Gardner | 0 -
California dreaming: is there a right to be a beach?
California is still setting trends on its beaches and coasts. Okay, the Beach Boys are still playing in Monterey in early January but look behind the scenes.
January 6, 2016 | Mary Gardner | 4 -
Sentinels on a fragile seashore
The black and white birds with the long red beaks and legs are telling, but so very quietly. Taxonomists call them Haematopus longirostris. Bundjalung, the pipi-birds, leading people to beds of shellfish. Anglos, pied oystercatchers or, from the 19th century, ‘sea pies’.
November 4, 2015 | Mary Gardner | 0 -
Belongil could be among the world’s great wetlands
Crowds are still cheering how the sea floods 250 hectares at Steart on the mouth of the River Parrett, UK. This is the latest of five national ‘coastal realignment’ projects. Environmentalists worked with the local townspeople to undo a hundred years of hard seawalls with ‘soft engineering’.
September 28, 2015 | Mary Gardner | 1 -
Taking in the view from The Pass
From the viewing platform at The Pass, the onshore wind is fierce. I brace myself and scan the sea, as if this hour were my turn on the watch of a ship. Ahead I see the blows of five or six humpback whales. Next, their great splashes.
September 2, 2015 | Mary Gardner | 0 -
Struggling with the growth dream
This waterway on Tallow Beach is still open to the sea. Nearly in tears, I stare at the pelican strutting in the cross currents. The lump of knowledge chokes in my throat and I am lost for words. The camera with its telephoto lens holds the image better than memory.
August 12, 2015 | Mary Gardner | 4
Tangle of Life – by Mary Gardner
Mary Gardner is a writer, biologist and photographer, contributing articles about local ecology for The Echo since 2007. Since 2012, she is also a PhD student of Southern Cross University. Her research topic is the historical marine ecology of the subtropics, focusing on Byron Shire. Her special interest is the history of marine animals and people in this place over the past three hundred years. She’s always interested to hear from readers who wish to share their sea stories about the region, people and animals. For more of her work, visit her website Tangle of Life – www.tangleoflife.org.
