The title of this artwork is 'Mating Season'. The artist Oral Roberts describes it as being about the breeding of all kinds of things with birds and butterflies.
Along the Coastal Walk ...
Thanks to an 1857 painting of the view across to Lennox Headland, we can see how the original vegetation of this place was a mix of rainforest and native coastal grassland.
Since the 1980s, this powerful image has inspired and informed decades of local bush regeneration programs here. These focus on recovering some of the biological diversity that was lost along the coast to farming, mining and residential development.
Today Aboriginal communities are involved with revegetation projects all along the coast. When Country is sick and not being looked after, people are spiritually and physically sick too.
Bringing the bush back
Since 1980, Ballina Shire Council have been facilitating community revegetation projects of Littoral Rainforest and Themeda Grassland vegetation communities along the coast from Angels Beach to Lennox Head.
Both are Ecologically Endangered Communities listed under the Biodiversty Act. These vegetation communities would have extended in patches right along the coast and Ballina Shire Council and community are working hard to bring it back to its natural state before western weeds were introduced and farming destroyed original plant life.
The Lennox Community tree planting events attract up to 200 people planting up to 1000 plants each year.
These activities have been extremely valuable to connect our whole community for an important cause.
Members of Ballina’s Aboriginal community have been involved in these projects, Caring for Country and connecting with the landscape as we work, teaching and sharing wisdom, stories, memories and connections with the plants and the earth to help heal Country.
The importance of these regeneration activities is emphasised by members of the Aboriginal community-
“This culturally active landscape still teaches us a lot about the history and significance of this place” Marcus Ferguson 2021
“Ah yeah you know I wouldn’t like them to ruin the environment around here at Ballina, East Ballina where people go to visit and you know, it is there for people to enjoy and not to be destroyed by man … “ Aunty Julia 2021
There is now a rich diversity of plants along this coastline including the Themeda australis dominant grasslands. The coastal grassland community is described as a low closed tussock grassland dominated by Kangaroo grass (Themeda australis).
“Open grassy areas were maintained by our people through regular cool burning, on the coast and all over the shire ... they’d keep these grassy areas open cause they knew the wallaby and kangaroo would come out just before sunset and be easier to hunt.” Marcus Ferguson 2021
There is now a rich diversity of plants along this coastline including the Themeda australis dominant grasslands. The coastal grassland community is described as a low closed tussock grassland dominated by Kangaroo grass (Themeda australis).
Kangaroo grass is a native grass that occurs along exposed coastal headlands and is an important food source for wallabies. Aboriginal people hunted wallaby for food and resources. The largest intact areas of Themeda grassland are present along the coastal escarpment east of Skennars Head (Whites Head) and on the south side of Lennox Headland.
