A Familiar Sight in Unfamiliar Territory

The grass gets thicker as they push towards the fence, the skyline fading into the clouds behind them. They step over a timber pallet, a cardboard box and a plastic cup before jumping the barbed wire. Searching for shade, they pause beneath the powerlines. With the towers to their backs, they feel tiny compared to the landscape before them.


In the distance is nothing but open plain, weathered and eroded over thousands of years from rain and the harsh sun. The new settlers lay claim to parcels where boundaries are contested with wire fences. Brick farmhouses, iron sheds and livestock slowly spread across the vast expanse for the next 160 years.


As they stare out the car window the view abruptly shifts from a picturesque landscape to stick frames and black tiled roofs. Mountains of excavated soil pile higher as the edge of the estate distorts the boundary of the urban sprawl.


A farmer looks on with apprehension as a pack of men with clipboards bend to assess the earth. A fleeting attempt to introduce a new reserve, they come with a 10 year promise, leaving only mudded tire tracks, empty pockets and vacant parcels.


The grass is shorter in some areas than others. A man on his mower surrounded by a ring of star pickets clears the area for the weekend market. A family on bikes ride in from the reserve, guided by a row of dormant street lights and water tanks. The sounds of squeaking shoes compete with the sheep talking in the adjacent paddock, whilst a flannel clad shearer chuckles to himself as he steps away from his quad bike to retrieve a ball for a group of eager children.

Moments of suburban life come in instances. A land for management becomes ubiquitous with activity. A familiar sight in unfamiliar territory.