An irreplaceable connection to place
Bruny Island
My place is a big bush block that my parents moved to when I was four months old. I was born in Vienna and then they came down to Bruny Island and built a house. It's in Adventure Bay looking north over over the water, and I'm just really firmly connected to it.
I've noticed it change heaps. When we came here, the bush around here was much thinner. It has just thickened a lot. You notice the way the seasons are different each year, obviously the warmer years and colder years and wet years. Just the bay itself, and the whole island - the way the bush has grown and some of it has gone now. There are more houses.
I really enjoy watching it all happen. Just slowly, observing the cycles. I really notice the bird life, because that really comes to your door. Then, there's a lot of marine life. It's a big part of every day, with lots of snorkelling, diving, a bit of fishing.
I love getting out there on the ocean, interacting with whales and dolphins and seals. Then, snorkelling, you're interacting with the tiniest little fish, just floating there and watching them go around the reef. It's just constant wildlife really, wherever you look.
You notice which birds are coming and going and which ones are active at different times of the year. It's the same on the water, the birds and the different fish coming in when it's a bit warmer and the seasonal shifts.
I had a whale visit me in the tinny. It just came up of its own accord and went around the boat a little bit, and then just floated there looking at me just a couple of meters away. I sat there for five minutes, just breathing and thinking, this is absolutely incredible.
It went around and then it disappeared and I looked over. I had one of those view finders that you use to set a cray pot. Then it just came straight up, out of the depth.
It came up, straight up and then to surface, it flattened out and then it was just floating. There was definitely a lot of adrenaline, because I felt pretty small next to that huge creature. It was a humpback whale, not a fully grown one but still huge.
Anything with the water really, I feel like the water's the part of the environment here that's really helped me expand my perception of the place.
As a kid you're pushing your own envelope a bit into bigger waves and out with the canoe, and then a little teeny bit further out and then a little further out. There's this growing of comfort within the environment and that has definitely had a big impact on me.
They are interactions with the whole of nature itself. Just walking through the bush, without a track or anything. It's not even big walks, just smaller walks or just a couple of hours. Walking and exploring with no real agenda and just observing the place and and listening to it.
Julius Schwing
Musician and Composer
My place is a big bush block that my parents moved to when I was four months old. I was born in Vienna and then they came down to Bruny Island and built a house. It's in Adventure Bay looking north over over the water, and I'm just really firmly connected to it.
I've noticed it change heaps. When we came here, the bush around here was much thinner. It has just thickened a lot. You notice the way the seasons are different each year, obviously the warmer years and colder years and wet years. Just the bay itself, and the whole island - the way the bush has grown and some of it has gone now. There are more houses.
I really enjoy watching it all happen. Just slowly, observing the cycles. I really notice the bird life, because that really comes to your door. Then, there's a lot of marine life. It's a big part of every day, with lots of snorkelling, diving, a bit of fishing.
I love getting out there on the ocean, interacting with whales and dolphins and seals. Then, snorkelling, you're interacting with the tiniest little fish, just floating there and watching them go around the reef. It's just constant wildlife really, wherever you look.
You notice which birds are coming and going and which ones are active at different times of the year. It's the same on the water, the birds and the different fish coming in when it's a bit warmer and the seasonal shifts.
I had a whale visit me in the tinny. It just came up of its own accord and went around the boat a little bit, and then just floated there looking at me just a couple of meters away. I sat there for five minutes, just breathing and thinking, this is absolutely incredible.
It went around and then it disappeared and I looked over. I had one of those view finders that you use to set a cray pot. Then it just came straight up, out of the depth.
It came up, straight up and then to surface, it flattened out and then it was just floating. There was definitely a lot of adrenaline, because I felt pretty small next to that huge creature. It was a humpback whale, not a fully grown one but still huge.
Anything with the water really, I feel like the water's the part of the environment here that's really helped me expand my perception of the place.
As a kid you're pushing your own envelope a bit into bigger waves and out with the canoe, and then a little teeny bit further out and then a little further out. There's this growing of comfort within the environment and that has definitely had a big impact on me.
They are interactions with the whole of nature itself. Just walking through the bush, without a track or anything. It's not even big walks, just smaller walks or just a couple of hours. Walking and exploring with no real agenda and just observing the place and and listening to it.
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