We are sharing this land
with the manna gums,
the wallabies and the platypus.
Sharing the land; caring for the land
An aerial view of Platypus Bend 
Charley’s Creek 
Manna Gums in the late-afternoon sun
What does it mean to care for an old country?
The Otways are in south-west Victoria. Its foothills, river valleys, and lowlands, rise to temperate rain-forests of tall eucalypts. In 2021, to our surprise, we bought a farm in the foothills near Gellibrand. ‘Platypus Bend’ is on the floodplains of Charley’s Creek, flanked by slopes of manna gums and messmate. Our plan is to ‘unfarm’ the property, to return most of the land to indigenous flora and fauna. Caring for the old country means learning its ways, providing the conditions for the old world to flourish, and protecting it from our own tendency to manage everything.
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