Whispers of an ancient land

The sun has slipped behind the rounded mountain at the rear of the cabin where I’m staying. Its rock face is in the shade for most of the day. I can tell from the height of the trees and the snow that lies in patches near the summit. Outside, it is 3 degrees, and we haven’t reached sunset yet.

I’m staying in an eco-cabin in the snowy mountains, a short distance from Jindabyne. Mobs of lazily grazing kangaroos straighten backs and ears before returning to their feed. We pose no threat. There are neat piles of square scat near the front door. A wombat’s calling card. Further up the mountain, wallabies hop leisurely across our path. Their pointy dark faces hold our gaze for a moment and before returning to forage in the scrub.

An echidna crosses the road in front of me. Breaking hard, I stop two metres before a ball of waddling spikes. Without a car behind me, I can wait for it to get across the deadly bitumen. I hope it stays on this side of the road. I have seen too much roadkill on this trip already. A sign announces emu corner. I turn to see two emus in the grassy paddock next to cattle and a ‘roo. This place is teaming with wildlife.

Snow gums are everywhere. These hardy trees have survived in subzero temperatures as well as blazing summer days. Most have a definite lean to them from the prevailing winds. Their smooth bark is ghostly white, with grey green or yellow vertical patterns. it peels in strips like sunburnt skin. Their lanceolate leaves droop, weeping and brooding.

There is a melancholy beauty to these twisted and stunted trees. I notice many dead trees walking in the alpine forests. Snow gum dieback is spreading throughout the region. Longicorn beetles are the culprits causing this mass destruction as they eat right through the tree from the outer to inner bark, leaving behind a graveyard of trees. These beetles are native and have never caused such destruction in the past. Could it be that successive droughts and higher than normal temperatures are creating the conditions for these beetles to reach plague proportions?  

Granite boulder outcrops mark the landscape. These stunning, smoothly rounded boulders of various sizes are clustered in paddocks and throughout the wooded areas. They are crystalised masses of magma brought to the surface over 400 million years ago. I am looking at an ancient landscape and I’m unable to process what it all means.

The Ngarigo and Walgal people know and understand this country deeply. It has been their spiritual home for millennia. The landscape holds within it the culture and knowledge which is inseparable from its traditional custodians. As an outsider looking in, I can feel the spiritual force of this place and am humbled by all that I don’t understand on a rational level. But I can feel its spirit and its message running through the contours. I see, but I’m unable to decipher. I am beholden to this ancient land, its stories, knowledge, and mystery.