For some months now The Edge Collective has been turning its attention in the direction of a project based on the Black Range.

According to Report to the Land Conservation Council of Victoria, 1983, ‘ an elevated rim at about 600 metres near Terip Terip, together with the fault scarp to the west of Godfrey Creek, forms the Black Range. To the south it is dissected by the valley of the Goulburn River, before proceeding on to Alexandra. Its steep slopes are well wooded with old growth trees and diverse regenerated vegetation and it sustains a diverse population of animal and bird life. It is also home to several human inhabitants committed to fostering its ecology and its independence.

My husband Bernie and I live at Terip Terip, near where the Range joins the Strathbogies and for nearly twenty five years, it has been our haven. In the beginning we came here whenever we could escape the city, and for the last five years we have lived here all the time, and I am extremely lucky that as a place where the voices of the natural world hold sway over their human occupants, it is also a perfect site for the work of The Edge Collective

 

The working title of our project  . . .  quiet but persistent music comes from Jonathan Bate’s The Song of the Earth [see blog no 10]. Our Palimpsests of Gooram Gooram Gong have not been abandoned; the move to another site is a transition and an expansion of our investigation into the essence of ‘place’. As with Palimpsests . . . , quiet persistent music will be a celebration of all unsung places where the voices of the natural world hold sway over their human occupants.

Since coming here in September 1984, I have got to know many things about the Range and finding that there is more and more to discover. The more detail I understand, the more I marvel at its never ending mystery.

There have already been several discussions and at least one celebration.

In late May Susan and Bernadette Franklin came out to talk over some ideas . Bernadette is a Taungurong elder well versed in local history, who has taught us a lot about the Strathbogies.  When she is not busy with other projects joins our conversations.

Susan brought her dye pot because we planned to do some dyeing with natural dyes, and to walk through the Range. Using Dyemaking with Australian Flora as my guide,

I had been collecting leaves during the week for our experiment, and by the time they arrived had filled the house with the bracing aroma of eucalyptus. Bernadette, having once been an expert at untangling her father’s fishing line sorted out my tangles of cotton. I didn’t use any mordants so the colours I got are not as they were described in the book but I now have a collection of embroidery cottons in a range of subtle shades of tan, silver, orange brown, greeny brown. I am going to use the cottons to embroider another map, and next time I do some dyeing, I will follow Susan’s practice of keeping notes so I can keep track of the results. So far I have used Wild Cherry, Sarsparilla, Toadstools, wattle blossom, young eucalypt leaves and yellow box.

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That day Susan took some photographs of trees which she has turned into some wonderful collages with dizzying perspectives that remind me of William Robinson's work.

Image SFM Trees

On June 21 we set up chairs, tables and lights out in the paddock and lit a bonfire to celebrate the winter solstice. It was bitterly cold, and wherever we went the smoke followed us – all part of getting to experience the Range, which is high enough  to always be a few degrees colder than the surrounding plains.

Then an invitation came to exhibit in Wangaratta Gallery’s Dwell exhibition, which will travel around the North East in late September and October, so on Thursday, August 28, which turned out to be a perfect sunny day for photography we met at the quarry on the Yarck Cutting Road for our first ‘working session’ - to photograph Susan’s textiles and to ‘inspect’ the site. I was pleased to have my friend artist Judy Morecroft with us, because on previous visits she has already done several paintings inspired by the quarry.

To the west of the escarpment road, the exposed rock-face of the quarry,(left behind after stone was taken from the site to build the road that winds up the escarpment from Yarck) looms above us, almost blocking out the sky. The eastern side of the road to gives way to a slope that is so steep it feels as if one could step right off the road and tumble into the valley below.  Once the valley would have been a sea floor, on this day it was filled with a deep blue watery haze. It is tempting for a moment to dream one’s way right off the Range and fly away, as I have seen an eagle do.

Turning back to the quarry, the deep cross section through the rock left behind after the rock was removed on the one hand represents a destructive intrusion on the landscape and on the other reveals the underpinnings of the Range and an opportunity for Peter to give us an account of its geological biography.

He picked up a small iron-grey rock with a series of fine curving grooves etched onto its surface:

‘Metamorphic – you can tell’ he said ‘ . . . see these crystalline structures evenly dispersed? That happened  as it was cooling.’

One small rock, small enough to fit into the palm of one’s hand held a piece of the earth’s deep history, an instance of detail informing our appreciation of the whole place

We picked up other rocks for the sheer beauty of their colours – everything from deep steely blue through to pale ochres and rich terra cottas, reminding ourselves of childhood trip to places where we used to collect rocks for their colours and shapes.

Peter declared that he no longer needed to collect rocks to understand them, but Susan, Judy and myself came away with a collection of small abstract designs.

Then we started the work of returning Susan’s textiles to the landscape, displaying them in what seems to be their ideal habitat - an instant outdoor gallery. Laid over rocks, pieces of shibori with wrinkled reptilian skins almost began to crawl over the rocks or catch in the bushes as they took to the air.

Yarck or Mount Rushmore?

Like others, I have often found figures in clouds, and on misty nights I have also seen wraithlike figures  moving amongst the trees. Looking up just before leaving the quarry, I saw or found a solemn stone  Indian chief looking out over the valley, and then looking around again I realised that there was a bear’s head above his left shoulder. There was also a crying figure, a shaman possibly and the Chief was surrounded by others of his tribe. Today when  I went back to check they were all still there, and no doubt they will have more to say to me next time I go to the quarry.

The Quarry, Black Range

Sari Wawn

Photos: Peter Ward