Planting day

A FEW weeks ago, I wrote a letter despairing of the future of Redwood Park.

Even though that battle is far from won, this week I am writing to say how impressed I was with the community spirit and participation for a planting day advertised in The Chronicle.

The planting was organised by The Wilderness Society and Lockyer Valley Council, with support from The Darling Downs Environment Council and Withcott State School.

It was attended by over 40 people, and it was amazing to see kids get their hands in some mud and planting trees for future koala rehabilitation efforts.

As a young woman it is easy to feel despair over the future of our planet, and about the future of our own backyard. I have been a child of environment battles. In my lifetime policies have come and gone, battles have been won and lost.

It hasn’t been till recently that I truly understood what I was missing in a life lived apart from nature.

Standing there watching all those families planting 200 trees together was a symbol of hope. I think if we are to build a sustainable future for Australia, and for the Darling Downs, it is through events like this which forge important connections.

It wasn’t just a day for koalas. It was a day of connection. Connections between old and young, between new friends and strangers, between council and community, and between us and our home.

I often think about how we live between two distant pasts; between the material wealth of our history beneath our feet which is illuminated by the light of long dead stars.

To live between such things, in only our present, is a challenging and enchanting thing.

Even more so to think that the future, our concept of it, lives only in our collective mind.

It is that creativity to imagine the future which has driven me to join the Wilderness Society and to participate in these community actions.

On Saturday I learnt exactly how special that can be. So, I wanted to thank everyone who participated and The Chronicle for advertising the event. You brought hope to someone who has too often given into despair and provided food for future koalas over the next five, perhaps ten, years.

I still fear for Redwood and for the haphazard protections of The National Standards and Assurances Bill which is before the senate but with every tree and every laugh, we were creating, demanding, and imagining a better world.

Bronte Geitz, Toowoomba