Branching images above imprinted,
forest canopy’s umbrella of Mountain Ash one hundred metres,
stream’s path bounded by tree ferns and myrtle beeches,
clinging to stone rock moist air fronds breathe,
lyrebirds’ songs of mimicry,
wombat’s leisurely dawdle,
a life system interwoven and interconnected ─
outside the rain showers,
inside a tranquil calm of gurgling waters.

LHB

*Identified as the Traditional Country of the Gunaikurnai, Tarra Bulga National Park, South Gippsland, provides of some of the best examples of original cool temperate rainforests of the Strzelecki Ranges. In terms of its comparatively recent history, in 1840 Polish ‘Count’ Strzelecki and his party cut through thick scrub to reach Western Port exhausted having been saved from starvation by guide and hunter Charlie Tarra.
On the 22nd of October, 2010, the Federal Court of Australia recognised the Gunaikurnai people’s native title over much of Gippsland, and on the same day they were the first to enter an agreement under the Traditional Owner Settlement Act 2010 with the State of Victoria.

Information drawn from:
http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/explore/parks/tarra-bulga-national-park
http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/landscape/discovery/display/30900-count-paul-edmund-de-strzelecki
http://www.justice.vic.gov.au/home/your+rights/native+title/gunaikurnai+native+title+agreement
© Copyright Elisabeth Hames-Brooks 2014