Annique Goldenberg

I can hear water burbling, that’ll be coming from upstream. Under the bridge. I often stop up there. So I was on a walk with my friend, and we were towards the end of our walk coming back towards our place. And a man was gesticulating. He was quite distressed because he said his friend was caught under a bit of debris that had washed down. You know, water is very powerful it can wash things down. There was another man as well who was ringing an ambulance because we needed to get this man to hospital. The man who was worried about his friend was saying don’t worry, don’t worry buddy, keep breathing buddy, help is coming, help is coming. Leaning over the bridge looking down at the water, we could see the concrete and rock, they were just debris, not massive structures, small structures, too heavy to lift. But there was no man there and we realised that we were talking to a man who was fantasising.  “Just keep breathing buddy, help is on its way.” Talk about sharing in somebody else’s hallucination, we were right there with him. We were all trying to play our part in this great drama of life. Just upstream from here. So every time I walk down there now, I over look to see if Buddy’s there, if he’s still breathing.

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I am surrounded by creeks, and when the floods came, we were an island, but we weren’t flooded ourselves. So my relationship with the water that surrounds me has been one of wariness, you know, what can I trust in it?  I’ve also been absolutely fascinated by it, on one side it’s sort of marsh and mud and we get lovely birds, water birds coming through including the spoonbill and ducks and all sorts of birds.   This is something I could really develop a lot more, is an understanding of waterways and I’d like to draw a map. Because I have a very poor sense of place, which is not to say that I have no sense of place, but it seems to be made up of pixels of thought, images and experiences, feelings, and sounds. The other thing is these creeks have such beautiful names, this one is Chinbible Creek. This same Chinbible Creek rose sufficiently to put terror in the hearts of those people who live on either side. In the murky predawn light, all I could see was this luminous, snot like film where there had been garden and lawn before. And we realised this time the creek had broken its banks. And … it was terrifying really, and the rain kept going and kept going. I am mindful we may not be so lucky next time.

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I can trace my connection with the environment back to my childhood growing up in NZ, and having a lot of contact with water, sailing boats and just different things in that way. And … here we sit on a body of water that’s actually not pristine clear and, sparkling. It’s anything but actually, we look around and we see bits of decay, falling leaves and dead camphor trees and other things that are thriving, but I but I value them all because I think they’re all adding up to my enriching sense of exactly what I want to achieve. Getting to know what I’m living next to ... Every time I walk on my property, I end up going through a spider’s web. [Birdsong] Did you see it? Definitely a larger splash … there’s certainly life in this river. The experience of slowing down to do this is lovely, it’s very calming ... It’s mostly freshwater,  a waterway as well. And it’s what we call a bit of wetland. Is it brackish? Sort of briny. Clean. And it’s definitely grassy. Moving, muddy, a bit murky, a bit opaque. But also clear. It’s tidal for sure. My feelings?  Mmm very curious, very calm, very open, very hopeful, very comforted. Very patient. Very refreshed.

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I always talk to people if I go out. Down this river there’s a plank. If I want to take a shortcut into town I walk that plank. You have to hold your nerve, it’s so precarious. otherwise you end up in the brackish water. Unfortunately, that’s often where people have thrown bikes and things. It’s not like metres you’d fall, but it wouldn’t be comfortable. A lot of traffic goes back and forth on this plank as it’s a shortcut to the soccer fields. If I’m feeling not brave, I walk right round the whole distance, but it’s actually much nicer to crab walk across the plank. Although I wouldn’t do it when I went to a party, I took the long route back that night! I am delighted at the memories, how many associations I have with this little bit of water; buddy under the culvert, memories of the floods, and I feel I want to find out more about me and my neighbours’ water that we share, and how a friendship is building up over that.   Not just on this property but also with people over there. The connection thing, how, just having a couple of hours on the bank with you here ... it’s quite profound and transformative, and it’s that powerful I think, to spend some time in nature. That’s not a surprise to me, at all, I just wish more people would take themselves there, and then we probably wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in.