this train, the wind, ploughs on
through suburbs I barely glimpse
but there is
land and land and
I am landing
From ‘Land-ed’ by Gomeroi poet Alison Whittaker
If you’ve ever taken a road trip in Australia, heading out of one of the cities, along the highway, north maybe or south, or perhaps you take the inland road away from the coast, you’ll start to realize that this country spreads wider than imagination and deeper than memory. Australia is a vast, vast place. And it’s home to some of the longest-lived ecosystems—such as rainforests 40 million years old—as well as to the oldest continuous culture in the world.
The scale of this continent is mind-blowing. The coastline is 25,760km long. The road that skirts its perimeter, connecting all the major cities including Hobart, is 14,500km long: the longest national highway in the world. The Great Barrier Reef is the planet’s largest living structure—covering 348,700km2—and close to 600,000 years old. Around two-thirds of the world’s 330 marsupial species (our beloved Koala is one of them) originate in Australia; the rest are found only in South America.
While all of this is amazing, we’re hardly scratching the surface of what's unique about Australia. There’s its people, a multicultural mixing pot of language, experience and wisdom from ancient lands and new worlds. Its spirit, songs and stories, handed down generation to generation for millennia by First Australians. Their resilience and endurance.
There are sorrows and injustices too, and in having these, Australia is far from unique. Sometimes it feels like the ‘lucky country,’ sometimes not, depending on who you are.
Yet it’s incredible nature has given us ways to heal and to shelter, ways to learn and nourish ourselves. We owe it to this amazing place and its creatures to share in loving and caring for them and ourselves as much as we can. Not holding ourselves apart, but realising we are all woven deeply into the ecosystems of salt and freshwater, desert and forest, gorges and mountains, backyard and park: everything that makes up this remarkable land. x Jess
