SPEAKER_04 0:00

I'd like to acknowledge the Bunerong Boonerong people as the traditional owners of the land where this recording was made. Over the past few months, I've been walking through reserves around Melbourne, NAM, and recording conversations along the way. I've met with traditional owners and First Nations peoples, conservationists, ecologists, and others who've chosen a place that matters to them. We walk and talk about nature, what lives there, what's changed, and what needs protected. You'll hear our footsteps, the wind in the trees, the birds overhead, and the city not too far away. This is Finding Melbourne's nature. This time we're at Westgate Park in Port Melbourne, beneath the Westgate Bridge. It's one of the city's more unusual landscapes. Wetlands, salt lakes that turn pink, and grasslands sitting alongside industry, shipping containers, and the constant movement of a freeway overhead. For a long time, this was a heavily modified collective site. A landscape shaped by landfills and industry right on the edge of the ground. What's here now is a result of decades of work. Volunteers turning up week after week, planting, restoring, and building this place from the ground up. At the center of that is Naomi Sunday, who in the late 1990s, as a young woman, led and established the Friends of Westgate Park and played a key role in transforming this landscape. The group is still active today, an incredible community, continuing that work and caring for this place. In this episode, we walk together and hear how that work began and what it took to build something lasting here. It's a story that actually starts with a walk, a seven-day walk along the Biron, taken by a young Naomi who found herself here at the river's edge just before dawn. Let's hear it from her.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Yeah, so I was a fine arts student studying photography. I was. I'd just read Robin Davidson's tracks. I know I was 20, there was lots of stuff going on in my life. I needed something to change, and I read that tracks and felt inspired. My mother used to drag me when I was a kid to um the gallery and just would sit in front of that Frederick McCubbin image. You know, the it's not called the Settlers, I can't remember what it's called now. Brain Vacated. Um that trip titch, though, that famous one.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

And I guess those things just kind of melded. And so I decided to do a walk along the Yarra River for seven days. And we're going to get there because I'm dragging you around the park, actually. Um but yeah, the spot I got, I took a taxi to the first spot, which was near the mouth of the Yarra River.

SPEAKER_04 3:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

And I I walked for seven days. I did stay sometimes at people's houses, but I did also stay on the river, which was interesting. Um, so I got dumped there, well, yeah, dropped off there. And you know, it was pre-dawn, and I hung out there for a while before I went on my walk. And I took photos. So I was like taking photos of myself, you know, like a a woman in the city, but with that kind of Frederick McCaban-esque settler kind of explorer vibe. Um and yeah, I guess I just it was a pretty amazing walk and seven days of just walking on my own. And when I finished, I came back to have a look at that and I just felt really inspired and kind of quite emotional that it was a really important site. Um, and it was just a derelict Wasteland. Wow, it's looking different here. I always feel a bit lost. Um yeah, so you know, I was, you know, learning about native plants and stuff. So I joined a couple of friends groups. Oh, where where's the friends group at Westgate Park? And you know, it was young and keen, so rang up Parks Vic and was like, where is the Friends group? We don't have one, so I just like well I want to do some planting. And then I just got stuck. Yeah. Then I just I'd started and I didn't stop.

SPEAKER_04 4:53

Some nice grasses around here.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Yeah, so it's good to see the grasses surviving because they're they were my thing.

SPEAKER_04 5:00

And so when you first started planting, how did you get how'd you get from there saying you want to start the friends group to being able to enact things?

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Um, well, there's a lot of grants at the time. Um, so Natural Heritage Trust was a thing.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Um, and Melbourne water grants. So we got some grants to uh get plants and Skink, which is now Billy Nursery, but Skink, um, I volunteered there and learned about plants and bought plants from them. Uh, and wrote in a whole bunch of people to plant plants. Yeah, right. That was just the first couple of years where it was just kind of me and a few people helping occasionally.

SPEAKER_04 5:44

Yeah. What what was your plant knowledge bef when you started the journey?

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Not very good. Yeah, okay. Not very good at all. Like I'd started to learn a bit. Uh, it probably took me about 30 times to remember Poe Lab was Poe Lab. It took me another 10 years to be able to pronounce the whole label area. Yeah, and I pretty much only chocolate lily. That was the first plant that I really remembered. Wow. Because you know, chocolate lily, you can eat it.

SPEAKER_04 6:12

It's a good one to start with.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Yeah, and I remember I went to Vink to a planting and I asked them, is this a power, a stiper, or a wallaby grass? And they said it was something else. And I was like, how are there so many grasses? But now, you know, I really quite like the grasses. Yeah, so after a couple of years, I was doing, I was working doing bushery gen with a mob.

SPEAKER_03 6:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

And here.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

And um, you know, as of here on weekend, every third Sunday, I think it was. And um a guy phoned up and said, I'd like to come to your planting. It was pissing with rain. And I had this thing where when I wasn't working, I'd just wear whatever. Yep. So I was like wearing velvet and this ridiculous, ridiculously thick cardigan.

SPEAKER_03 7:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

And it was pouring with rain. And we were walk um planting around salt marsh. And I was just like, no, we're just gonna keep going. And he thought I was mad. So this is George.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Um, and it was like, she needs help. She's mad, but she's fun. And she needs help. Then we um I got put on a work for the doll program. Uh, and the supervisor didn't rock up for three hours.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

And so I went back to the mob and said, That's crap. I've got a better plan. Yeah. Can I run one? So I was like 23 and running a work for the doll program.

SPEAKER_04 7:47

And they accepted it. You put this idea out there and they went, go for it.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yeah, I was pretty shoddy actually.

SPEAKER_04 7:53

Uh that's huge though. What innovation? What um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

It was interesting because there's a lot of, you know, it was me and a lot of guys over 40.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

Yep. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Um, which was very interesting.

SPEAKER_03 8:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

So, yeah, I mean, for those years, like George, and then after a couple of years, George's partner Tony started being more regular as well. Um, and there was the three of us. And we had every Monday, Tuesday, we had volunteers, and I worked for the Doll crew, and then Green Core Crews and Tony. Total mover and shaker, deal maker.

SPEAKER_05 8:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

He'd get corporate volunteers who would pay to come. Wow. Ridiculous days. There's a hundred Telstra volunteers coming. You're like, what are we gonna do? There was lots of uh, no, you do have to take the plant out of the pot before you plant it kind of experiences. But it was really like George and Tony were probably full-time volunteers for a long time. And I worked part-time here and was part-time a volunteer. And it was very mulched, which isn't necessarily great. But all the soil here is really fake. Like, but it was very well cared for.

SPEAKER_04 9:19

How did you go running those work for the doll teams with That was interesting?

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Um I think yeah, I as you can probably tell, a lot of it was just like, oh yeah, I can do that. And then I started doing it, went, oh well, that's what I'm doing now. I just didn't really. I didn't really kind of pause and go, am I qualified? Can I do this? There was none of that. Um there was lots and but I did ask a lot of questions of people. I mean, I had, you know, George, um, you know, he he knew a lot, he'd done this kind of work before. I was learning a lot through doing Bush Region work elsewhere. And yeah, there was a couple of friends groups that um their leaders were my mentors for a while on how to do things. Um, and of course, the women at Skink.

SPEAKER_03 10:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

They were incredible, a really incredible resource and taught me lots. And I'd go out seed collecting with them and you know, lots of different things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:29

An amazing group, hey. And how important were mentors to you at the time?

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Oh, vital. Like completely vital. I mean, you can't do any of this on your own, and I just kind of had a oh, I'm gonna do this, yeah. Uh kind of. Um but yeah, I mean, without them, obviously I wouldn't have been able to learn, I wouldn't have been able to have support with what I was doing because and yeah, and we wouldn't have had a team. Yeah. They're extremely important.

SPEAKER_04 11:05

It seems like you're pretty comfortable with leadership from an early age.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Yeah, I don't know why.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Seems like you're a natural.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

Yeah, I I don't know. My grassland. I'm so happy.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

You're happy?

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Uh this was an area that like so it was often, you know, planting with big crews. I mean, obviously the original grassland's kind of gone. But um Yeah, there's a lot of time of planting with big crews. But this was a site, and you're always with people, blah, blah, blah but this was a site that I would plant on my own. So I'd be like, I'm just gonna work on my little grassland for a few hours. Um, so it was a little sanctuary, and it's nice to have it still here, even though it's its original grasses are all gone.

SPEAKER_04 11:59

And to paint the picture, we're almost quite nearly directly under the Westgate Bridge. Almost, would you say? Yeah, pretty much. And there's this beautiful grassland. And there's Tetra Thika. Way! That's someone I wouldn't expect to see moments from the CBD.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

No, Orangenum.

SPEAKER_04 12:23

Yeah, yeah, I love these species.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Lionum and the pot of lipis. Neil Blake. Oh my god, he was an incredible mentor. Yeah, yeah. I I can't believe I forgot him. But he was actually the first person to kind of make a connection and get us some funding. I think the money was from Holden, I might be wrong. Um, because it was a while ago.

SPEAKER_03 12:45

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

And he worked on the plant list there, and there was Bigei. And George and I banned planting it anywhere else in the park because we needed to keep socks.

SPEAKER_04 13:03

As you're doing that walking, did you I guess it was exposing you to areas that were probably close to you that you'd never seen before. Yeah. Were you surprised by the wildness?

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Um you know, and I had some interactions with some animals along the way, birds and wombats and a kangaroo. Um there was this uh young teenager, yeah, Geo Fitzpatrick.

SPEAKER_04 13:34

Oh yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Um, who put a whole lot of nest boxes here yeah, late 2010s. Oh no, sorry, early 2010s.

SPEAKER_04 13:43

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Late 2000s.

SPEAKER_04 13:46

So what was the timeline for the start and end of your involvement in uh so I started not the end, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Um so 98, 99.

SPEAKER_04 13:58

98, 99, right. So in 98, 99, a 20-year-old you is working out this journey along the era.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Yeah. And so by the time I started a friend's group, I turned to 21. So that 19-year-old thing, I don't know where that's coming from.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

That is tremendous drive. So how big did the group grow while you were there?

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Um Yeah, okay. So there was George, Tony, and I. And there was a lot of regular volunteers. So we probably had, you know, a core group of there was the work for the doll, but we probably had about 15 to 20 people most Mondays and Tuesdays.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

Yeah, great.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Um, and the committee became uh quite a bit of a powerhouse.

SPEAKER_05 14:48

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Um Leckie Ord. Um, she was uh mayor of City of Melbourne. I think she might have been the first female mayor of City of Melbourne. So she became involved. Um and she was working with us. She wasn't like governance only, she was moving mulch, planting plants. She was on the ground, but she was also helping with governance. And then uh Janet Blytho, who again used to be the mayor of uh City of Port Phillip, and um Lynn Allison, who was leader of the Democrats.

SPEAKER_06 15:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

So you know, there's like all these politicians involved for a while, and then me, um, much younger than everyone. I was so for a long time I was half more than half as young as everyone who's involved. Yeah, so uh they managed to yeah, get lots of contacts with, you know, but I did learn so much from all of those people and was very supported by them as well.

SPEAKER_04 15:56

And I I imagine your knowledge must have just been an exponential growth pattern sort of thing during this period. You're just learning and learning?

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Yes. Uh yes. And there was lots of space in my brain then. So it was easier. Yeah, learning a lot.

SPEAKER_04 16:13

Was there much room for experimentation with what you were doing here? Oh my god, that was all it was.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

So, I mean, we I don't know. I mean, maybe some of the things we were doing weren't proper and right, but at the same time, this site was just like there is apparently two semi-trail loads of bow ties under one of the mounds at the front. We tried to move a mound and we found half a tram there. Oh my god. So it's just kind of like a dumping ground.

SPEAKER_06 16:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

So we George and I came up with this uh idea of having all these different ecosystems from within a 5 to 10k radius around this site. So this was the coastal banksia woodland. Wow. Um, and of course, because I wrote some of the plant lists, there was loads and loads of coastbanksia and the lepidosperma. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 17:07

I love lepidosperma. It doesn't look good here too. Like if it does feel like a coastal banksia woodland. And I should point out, as you're listening, you're probably hearing the sounds of not only the freeway and the birds, but also industry, which is just right next door, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 17:23

That's yeah, and that's something that's really magical about this place, I think. That it's just this little pocket that was so important to the history of colonized Melbourne, but also so important to the traditional owners. So yeah, I would have been we're walking to where I would have been dropped off.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

Really?

SPEAKER_01 17:45

And the fact that it is just so important, just but was so neglected was just such a blank canb.

SPEAKER_03 17:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Yeah, so just on that experimentation, I think um I just had there was there was kind of almost nothing we could do wrong because it was so, you know, the soil wasn't original, there wasn't many original plants. We could just do whatever. And it's gonna have to be better than what it was. Yeah. Yes, so this is where I would have been dropped off, just out there.

SPEAKER_04 18:17

So, like this is a time when you weren't on Google Maps, you must have worked this out on a Melways, or how did you figure out where to get dropped?

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Uh yeah, I had um pulled out, I'm I'm the child of two librarians, so I respect books, but I did have a Melways that I ripped out all the pages of the era. Oh, really? In my pocket as I walked. Really? That's what you're utilising. Amazing. Yeah, so I didn't have a mobile phone on me. Wow. Um, I told my mum I had one, but I didn't. Don't tell her. I mean, it's a long time ago. She probably knows now, but I didn't have it. But she'd given me one because she knew I was doing the walk, but I kind of lied a little bit about what the extent of what I was doing. My goodness, look at this beautiful beast of an Itbanksia.

SPEAKER_04 19:00

That's magic, isn't it? Look at that, that's huge.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Hello, friend.

SPEAKER_04 19:05

I can see a street name.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Yeah, so it's Sardine Street. I think this might be Salmon Street.

SPEAKER_04 19:14

Between Salmon and Sardine Street. You got dropped here.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:19

And what was what was in your pack with you?

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Um, okay, that's that's a memory. Um, I would have had just a sleeping bag at a tub. I didn't have a tent. I wanted to carry as little as possible. I was such a lazy camper. I was just like, I can't be arsed carrying things. So um a loaf of veggie bread from Bobka Bakery was all I ate really for a week.

SPEAKER_04 19:47

Oh, hang on, that just settled in. You that's all you ate for a week.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Well, no, because I got dropped off at people's houses sometimes.

SPEAKER_05 19:52

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Or I was at people's houses, I did eat at their places, but mostly I just had that. I was pretty poor and I'd spent all my money on film.

SPEAKER_04 20:02

So you've got you've got a sleeping bag, a tarp, a couple of pages of the Melway.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Uh, a camera, a tripod, and a whole lot of film.

SPEAKER_04 20:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

A water bottle, maybe a spare pair of socks and undies in case. I don't know, but not much else. And it's just in a backpack or yeah, so I had like one of those army, you know, like the can green canvas looks real rustic.

SPEAKER_04 20:29

Yeah, that would look cooler.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Yeah. Not particularly comfortable.

SPEAKER_04 20:33

No, I know. And was any of this coastal bankshire? Oh. Wow. So this whole coastal bankshire woodland, which looks fantastic, by the way. It's got clematis, it's got Coast Bankshire's she oaks, everything.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Lazio patala, look at that.

SPEAKER_04 20:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Aren't they stunning? Yes.

SPEAKER_04 20:52

So none of this was here. You're just walking through what, a paddock? Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Yeah. With weeds. Just grassy and herbaceous weeds. Wow. So yeah, none of the pomodaris, the leptospermums, the atroplex, none of it.

SPEAKER_04 21:12

So these sharks were planted by you and the group?

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, look, I mean it was all flat. I mean, there might have been one or two yukes, but I I'm pretty sure it was just all flat.

SPEAKER_04 21:23

And that's a moona in there too. Yeah, yeah. Jeez, they've done well. They look really they're a decent size.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Yeah, well, I mean, we were planting So some of this area would have been planted in the mid-2000s.

SPEAKER_03 21:36

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

So I I I think like yeah, I mean I think most of the planting that's happened in this park would have been from I don't know, maybe two thousand and two or something to two thousand and fifteen. So I think Yeah, there's still people there, but as Tony got ill Um, you know, he and George were here like five days a week, pretty much. But yeah, we used to plant 20,000 plants a year for quite a while. And they were all sourced from the local nursery or from skink. From skink. Oh, and we had a nursery, so we grew some ourselves as well. Um, I managed to grow astroloma humifusum from seed. I was very excited.

SPEAKER_04 22:22

That's cool. It was very cool. And what was your role in the nursery?

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Uh at Skink.

SPEAKER_04 22:29

Uh another one that you had here.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Oh, like we all just potted. I mean, I was always a seed collector. Um, so after after we'd finished working for the day in seed collection season, I'd have a we had bikes. So you'd ride the bike around with bat plastic paper bags and collect seed. So I mean we just there wasn't like a official role of any kind. Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty. We just kind of did what we did. Yeah. There wasn't, except for the Monday-Tuesday, this is our work plan. Any other day we were here was just kind of play.

SPEAKER_04 23:07

I had to ask Naomi, how did she have the will and determination to do all this?

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Um, I just had this real hard head of, you know, stuff. I don't think.

SPEAKER_04 23:20

But don't you think that hard head is why we're here? Probably.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Uh doesn't always make you friends.

SPEAKER_04 23:28

Yeah. I'm happy if it makes forests though.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

It was interesting the millennium drought. Yeah. Um, like George and Tony were draining, Outlet got permission to drain Elbert Park Lake and water stuff here.

SPEAKER_05 23:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

So they'd drive to El Park Lake with 1,000-litre tank on the back of their Range Rover.

SPEAKER_03 23:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

And come in and we'd water plants. But interestingly, all the plants that had a all the trees that had an encalina under them, they were the ones that survived the best. All right. It's like really good mulch. It is a big park. There's lots of little bits.

SPEAKER_04 24:09

Do you know the size?

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Uh for ages we were saying it was 40 hectares. I know I think it was 60 hectares with a go-kart truck, it was part of it.

SPEAKER_05 24:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Um, and I think it's 40, but I'm not 100% sure. I know that there was um some kind of clarification at some point, but for a long time we were saying 40 hectares.

SPEAKER_04 24:29

So it feels massive.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Yeah, it's it's it is around that anyway.

SPEAKER_04 24:34

How long did you stay with the group? Or are you still a member?

SPEAKER_01 24:38

Um, I'm not. Um I I started studying. Like, so I did a Masters of Environment for seven years part-time while I was at Bink.

SPEAKER_06 24:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

And it was just um it's just the the group was going great gums. So I just moved on.

SPEAKER_04 24:55

So did this park here influence your career choices after that?

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Oh my god, completely. Like I I wouldn't, I don't know if I'd be yeah, I don't know if I'd be working with plants if it wasn't for that walk.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

It completely changed my life. And I I'm obsessed. I I love plants. Yeah, so this is the billiabongs that uh Tony and Tony and others got funding for. Wow, it is really foresty, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 25:31

It's really foresty. I'm super impressed.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Yeah, so this these ponds all kind of go through to each other. Not that you can really see. There's probably clogged up a bit.

SPEAKER_04 25:41

But they serve vital habitat, like they.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Oh yeah. There was some acacia merzies that were dying, as they do, and there were two days of the yellow-tailed black cockatoos um ripping them to shreds, dangerous to walk under, throwing big branches around, and then they all came back because I'd obviously taken the grubs out, lived for a couple more years.

SPEAKER_04 26:04

Wow. Would you have any thoughts for people who might be thinking about getting into conservation or joining a friends group or starting a friends group?

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Don't think if you're starting a friends group, just do it. Uh, don't think about how much work it's gonna be. Um, no, no. Um, I don't know. I just think there's something. No, I think part of the reason I'm not here anymore is because this is not my locale. Yeah. Um, I've always lived in the north. Um but it's just it's just so important to feel that you belong to something and and it belongs to you and that you're part of a landscape. The changing of the seasons, the growth that occurs over time. It's pretty it's pretty transformative. Yeah. It's extremely transformative. So I'd say go for it. And look after your back. I'd say that too. Look after your back.

SPEAKER_04 27:13

This project's all about visiting these reserves around Melbourne and sort of getting a feel for how significant they are and how they were set up and people who've had a role in them.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

Do you have a thought about the significance of these little patches that we have left or that we've created?

SPEAKER_01 27:31

Oh it's phenomenally important. It's phenomenally important. Just if you don't have these places to reset, revibe, yeah. I think we really lose touch with what humanity is. If you know, get off the screens for a tick. I mean, I don't spend a lot of time on screens myself, but but you know, to to to connect with yeah, landscapes, so important. So important.

SPEAKER_04 28:02

This the walk you went on, where did it finish?

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Exited Warrandite State Park. Some parts of the walk took a really long time. I was stuck in a blackberry thicket in Ivanhoe for um about an hour.

SPEAKER_05 28:14

Really?

SPEAKER_01 28:16

With the landowner, and I actually didn't realise I kind of thought all land around the river was public. I was actually in their property. I didn't know that until later. Yeah. But they were just watching me. It's really steep slope. But but yeah, um, so some parts were very, very slow. And because the river's really windy, it takes a lot longer than A to B.

SPEAKER_04 28:41

Did you know where you were getting to at the end?

SPEAKER_01 28:45

Yeah, so I kind of figured maybe I'd done a trial. I don't remember, it was a long time ago, but I I might have done a trial. Yeah. Um, so I kind of had an idea of how much I could walk in a day. And yeah, I had and because I was taking photos, it was so slow.

SPEAKER_04 29:02

Your immediate thought was here? Coming back to this place?

SPEAKER_01 29:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:06

Wow. What do you think drew you to this part out of the whole stretch of the beerong that you came back to here?

SPEAKER_01 29:14

Oh, it was definitely it was definitely its significance culturally um to both um, you know, the the fact that it was the closest to the river mouth that you could get on this side. Um so its significance culturally to both First Nations people and for, you know, the history of the co colonial Melbourne. But um just also the fact that it was abandoned and in amongst the industry, there was something really kind of hypnotic about and quite no, just a bit dystopian, but quite attractive for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To have that contrast. Um because I am a city kid, I love nature, but I am a city kid and I love the city. So I quite liked that contrast. There's something Yeah, really quite funky about it.

SPEAKER_04 30:11

I reckon Melbourne's a better place because of your walk. Don't you reckon? Like, seriously, like if if there hadn't been the impetus to really improve this place, we wouldn't have um restoration works that have been this old and this developed and birds as as active.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

Like, but I would have given up if it wasn't for a hell of a lot of people coming to my help and and being part of it as well.

SPEAKER_04 30:37

That's it. I love Westgate Park, and I encourage you to get out there. Check out Westgate Biodiversity online, and you can join the Friends Group yourself. Also check out the City of Melbourne, who has some more information about Westgate Park. Please feel free to check out more episodes of Finding Melbourne's Nature on your favorite streaming platforms or on finding Melbourne's Nature.com. Thanks for joining us, and look forward to visiting the next reserve with you all.